From its early days, the Samsung R&D Center Vietnam (SRV) has established strong partnerships with leading Vietnamese universities and institutes specializing in technology training, such as Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam National University, and the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT). These collaborations focus on recruitment and the development of high-quality human resources. Beyond this, SRV also collaborates with these institutions on high-impact projects aimed at supporting disadvantaged communities.

Technology solution supporting people with hearing impairment

Over a decade ago, Samsung Vietnam and PTIT formed a strategic partnership for research and training in information technology. Over the years, Samsung and PTIT have undertaken various collaborative projects, including mobile application development, information security, and improving PTIT's research and teaching facilities. These initiatives have been supported through Samsung Lab sponsorships, algorithm training programs, scholarships for outstanding students, and graduate recruitment.

This partnership extended to include social impact initiatives, starting with the project “Smart Application Tool for Translation and Education of Vietnamese Sign Language,” led by Dr. Vu Hoai Nam, a lecturer in the Artificial Intelligence faculty at PTIT.

Dr. Vu Hoai Nam – PTIT – Project leader, presenting the results at the final project review ceremony held at SRV.

This project leverages artificial intelligence and computer vision, focusing on action recognition, to develop a mobile application designed for learning and translating sign language. The application offers three key application functionalities including Lookup of sign language videos for specific words; Practice modules for learning new sign language words; and Translation of basic sign language gestures into Vietnamese text.

Lookup function allows users to input a word and retrieve the corresponding sign language video. It offers a comprehensive library of over 2,000 videos to support learning specific sign language gestures for various words.

Practice function utilizes a trained machine learning model to recognize sign language actions from user-uploaded videos. It evaluates the accuracy of the user's sign language gestures and provides feedback for learning and improvement.

Translation function allows users to upload a sign language video, which is then analyzed to generate a corresponding text translation. This enables seamless communication and converts sign language into written language.

This application aims to help Vietnam's hearing-impaired community communicate more easily and learn at specialized schools or teach sign language at home to family members.

Valuable support from SRV

For this project, SRV not only provided funding and research equipment but also deployed a team of highly skilled engineers to support PTIT in app development, ensuring compatibility with Samsung smartphones. SRV closely monitored the project’s progress through two milestone events: a mid-term review in July 2024 and a final review in December 2024. These reviews allowed SRV and PTIT engineers to evaluate the project's challenges, propose solutions, and ensure timely development.

As one of the early contributors to the project, Mr. Pham Ngoc Thai – Head of S/W System Group at SRV – closely followed key phases, from project setup and mid-term evaluations to the final review, ensuring progress, quality, and technical support for the project. He stated: "With SRV’s experience in Samsung application development, we advised PTIT on user interface design, performance optimization, and compatibility with Samsung devices. Additionally, with our artificial intelligence expertise, SRV suggested potential directions for commercializing the application on mobile platforms."

Mr. Pham Ngoc Thai always follows the important stages of the project.

Application and development potential

The application is currently being piloted at the Center for Inclusive Education Development for Disabled Children in Thai Nguyen Province, serving over 150 hearing-impaired students. Although tested on a limited number of tablets, teachers and students have reported positive results in learning and communication through sign language. This serves as a foundation for SRV and PTIT to continue researching and refining the application, helping to bring it to a wider audience.

The application is currently being piloted at the Center for Inclusive Education Development for Disabled Children in Thai Nguyen Province

Discussing the application’s scalability, Le Tien Oanh, Head of Device software solutions at SRV, one of the collaborators on the "Application supporting the hearing impaired" project, stated: "This project significantly benefits the hearing-impaired community. Currently, over 5% of the global population, about 430 million people, suffer from hearing loss, with around 2 million in Vietnam. The project has considerable potential for expansion. While it now uses cloud-based artificial intelligence, there's still room to research and develop on-device  artificial intelligence for mobile platforms."

Mr. Le Tien Oanh realizes that there is still potential to develop the project towards artificial intelligence on mobile devices

Established in 2022, SRV has positioned Vietnam as a strategic priority for Samsung's global research and development. Initially focusing on mobile phones, SRV has since expanded to include laptops and telecommunications network devices. Beyond their research and development expertise, SRV engineers consistently collaborate with universities to nurture talent and support technological projects in Vietnam, underscoring Samsung's commitment to leveraging technology and talent to build a better society.