models/README.md

Model Weights

Place the trained model files here after running the Colab training notebook.

Required files

File	Source	Description
sign_transformer_best.pt	Google Drive → BridgeLink-ASL → models/	Trained Transformer weights + label map + config (~5 MB)
labels.json	Google Drive → BridgeLink-ASL → models/	Label index → gloss name mapping

How to get them

1. Open Google Drive → BridgeLink-ASL/models/
2. Download sign_transformer_best.pt and labels.json
3. Place both files in this models/ directory

The app loads sign_transformer_best.pt at startup. If the file is missing, the app will start but show a "Model: NOT LOADED" banner and predictions won't work.

Alternative: Hugging Face Hub

Instead of committing the .pt file to git, you can upload it to a HF model repo and set HF_MODEL_REPO=your-username/repo-name as an environment variable. The app will auto-download from the Hub at startup.