# SignTrace: Describe a Sign, Find the Word

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.30295 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30295/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 6 of its 19 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Is ChatGPT Good at Search? Investigating Large Language Models as Re-Ranking Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09542/) (2023)
- [Query2doc: Query Expansion with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07678/) (2023)
- [An Analysis of Fusion Functions for Hybrid Retrieval](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.11934/) (2022)
- [Found in the Middle: Permutation Self-Consistency Improves Listwise Ranking in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.07712/) (2023)
- [Sign Language Video Retrieval with Free-Form Textual Queries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.02495/) (2022)
- [Sign and Search: Sign Search Functionality for Sign Language Lexica](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13637/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Identifying an unfamiliar sign is difficult when a learner remembers its movement but does not know its meaning or formal feature codes. SignTrace addresses this longstanding reverse-lookup problem through natural-language access to a Chinese sign-language dictionary. The system integrates LLM-based dictionary enrichment, action extraction, dictionary-style rewriting, seven-channel retrieval, and candidate reranking over 6,699 entries. It has been deployed for user trials and has received positive informal feedback. Evaluation on a dictionary-derived benchmark of 500 movement-description queries yields 94.0% Hit@1, 97.4% Hit@9, and a mean reciprocal rank of 0.9540. Reranking increases Hit@1 from 71.8% to 94.0%, while component analyses show the contribution of enriched entry descriptions. Median query-processing time is 13.37 seconds with six concurrent queries. By connecting everyday movement descriptions to documented signs and meanings, SignTrace provides a practical tool for identifying unfamiliar signs. Dictionary-derived wording and prior selection within the benchmark limit generalization to descriptions independently produced by users.