Sign Language Via Cell Phone

QuatumCrypto writes "A project is underway at the University of Washington to enable real-time sign language communication via cell phone. Because of the low-bandwidth wireless cell phone network, a new compression scheme is necessary to capture only the bare essential components of signing to minimize data transfer. Although text messaging is a viable alternative for everyone, signing — like speech — is a much faster and more convenient form of communication."

Video calls

[dotancohen]

I've already seen sign language being used over video calls. Then again, as one who volunteers with autistic children, I've seen a lot of super-use of technology and hands...

Re:TTY?

[KokorHekkus]

The deaf texts a lot as well - one swedish article had a couple of deaf teenagers commenting on 3G phones and they used to send 500-1000 SMS per month. But a quick email exchange isn't the same thing as a actual live conversation (at least not for most of us)... just consider how the time gaps with texting/email makes it harder to judge the other persons mental state.

Another interesting trial project going on now in Sweden is "Translator in a pocket". It allows a deaf person to call a sign language translator who translates using the phone. Very useful for anything where you need a direct conversation with a hearing person and you couldn't plan ahead to get a translator and don't want passing notes (or what they'd use). Btw, 3G phones are very popular here in Sweden with the deaf and especially with the teenagers. I've heard numbers that something like 80% of all deaf teenagers have videophones.

Re:TTY?

[SirASCII]

My wife is deaf and I am hearing. I can tell you that there is a huge difference between using a system of IM/SMS/TTY vs using sign language. It can be basically summed up as the same difference between singleplex and multiplexing. With video you have the ability of bidirectional communication and faster throughput of words. Which is the difference between a 5 minute conversation to a 30 second one. My wife can type about 70-80 wpm, yet she can sign many times faster... Recently we had a VRS (Video Relay System) unit installed at our house, now I don't see how we could function without it... It is like getting broadband.

Re:TTY?

[zakezuke]

When you send text messages back and forth, there's a delay with every delivery. For the equivalent of speech, this would be like calling the moon. Plus, you have to go into the inbox and open new messages all the time -- not very conversation-like or, for that matter, IM-like.

I agree with the delay... but with T-mobile is it rather IM like on my nokia 6800 and 6010. In fact there is IM support. Again, speaking only for T-mobile... there seems to be two systems for IM... one is via a relay. It's rather transparent but for example on my 6800 which was geared for AT&T you have to plop in the correct relay number, or if not using the IM login you can receive texts and respond to them.

On good days it seems as efficent as IM services, on others there is a massive delay. There is also GPRS based IM software which is well, as IM like as you can get, because it is.

The big issue with TTD/TTY IMHO is a lack of compatability with, well, standard modems which come shipped with every PC, at least the last time I looked at it. Also there is a big issue with cost [computty.com]. I don't have contact with any deaf people who I don't know the current state of the deaf community, but the last I heard IM services and e-mail were gaining popularity over terminals since... well... your average PC is cheaper. If what I suspect is true, deaf uses already use IM for their basic communication needs, and does a great job of bridging the gap between the hearing and deaf world.

Now if they were going to propose... let's say... ASL data entry... i'd be hip to that jive. I might even learn it my self just for laughs.

Re:They're focusing on video...

[accessbob]

I was at a presentation of their paper on this in Portland last year: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1169001&jmp= cit&coll=ACM&dl=ACM&CFID=14265233&CFTOKEN=82641255 #CIT [acm.org] From the abstract: "...techniques that exploit the visual nature of sign language. Inspired by eyetracking results that show high resolution foveal vision is maintained around the face, we studied region-of-interest encodings (where the face is encoded at higher quality) as well as reduced frame rates (where fewer, better quality, frames are displayed every second). At all bit rates studied here, participants preferred moderate quality increases in the face region, sacrificing quality in other regions. They also preferred slightly lower frame rates because they yield better quality frames for a fixed bit rate. These results show promise for realtime access to the current cell phone network through signlanguage-specific encoding techniques." Bob

Re:They're focusing on video...

[Anonymous Coward]

So, everybody else, note the capital D in the word deaf used by parent.

This is not about helping people communicate, this is about helping people separate themselves from the rest of the world.

Remember, the deaf are people who can't hear. The Deaf are bigoted morons who think hearing is bad. They're MUCH worse than the French.

They even do things like intentionally try to have deaf children, and when they do, they try to turn them into Deaf children.