<div>> Does this make sense ?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>It does indeed, I am familiar with SignWriting and would be more so if my time allowed right now :o)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>But going back to your original post, I don't doubt the capabilities of translation technology and it's application to SignWriting. Clearly, appropriately knowledgeable people would need to be involved (machine translation researchers, SignWriting researchers, computer scientists) It's a project well within reach of machine translation technology's capabilities and I'm sure, and hope, that with time and the appropriate resources of funding, people etc. it will be addressed.
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Sara<br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 17/09/2007, <b class="gmail_sendername">GerardM</b> <<a href="mailto:gerard.meijssen@gmail.com">gerard.meijssen@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Hoi,<br>The one thing that is probably of more interest to people interested in SignWriting is the ability of recognising the movements made in a film. When you are able to analyse a person singing and reduce it to expressions in SignWriting, you have overcome a giant step towards building a corpus for any sign language. Such functionality does not translate but it does register.
<br><br>IMHO there is more need for an ability to translate to a written/spoken language then there is to translate a written text to a signed form. Typically deaf people know how to read the prevailing written language. The signing consists of elements, these elements can be recognised and combined they make up a sign. With these signs in a digital corpus, you have basic functionality that leverages SignWriting...
<br><br>Does this make sense ?<br><br>Thanks,<br> Gerard
<div><span class="e" id="q_11514392c3ad111e_1"><br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 9/17/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Sara Morrissey</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:sara.morrissey2@mail.dcu.ie" target="_blank">sara.morrissey2@mail.dcu.ie
</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<div>Oh dear. Don't talk to me about corpora! I'm working in the arena of Data-Driven Machine Translation and working with people who have millions of sentences for their spoken language translation in comparison to my 600 for sign language work!! Finding parallel data within a closed domain is a difficult task. Nevertheless progress is being made and results are promising :)
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Thanks for your input :o)<br><span><span>Sara</span></span></div>
<div><span><br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 17/09/2007, <b class="gmail_sendername">Dan Parvaz</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:dparvaz@gmail.com" target="_blank">dparvaz@gmail.com</a>
> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">I'm sure the one thing standing between the Tunisian Deaf Community and achieving their potential is the lack of a signing avatar :-) Still, it is potentially cool research with good dividends, particularly if it means the development of a real Tunisian SL dictionary (as opposed to the previous effort, which was a glossary meant to contribute to the perennial Pan-Arab SL movement), grammar, etc.
<br><br>A major chunk of the problem here rests with the lack of substantial corpora of any kind, let alone parallel corpora.<br><span><br>-Dan.</span>
<div><span><br><br><br><br>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 9/17/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Sara Morrissey</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:sara.morrissey2@mail.dcu.ie" target="_blank">sara.morrissey2@mail.dcu.ie
</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<div>All work in this area is a long way from being a translation service, I can assure you of that following 3 years PhD research on the topic of Machine Translation of Sign Languages. Sadly most of the work that I've come across in this area is similar to the work described in the BBC article in that it is just a small project. I have seen very little consistant work in this area with most of it being satellite projects related to other work so it never gets very far. Also, sadly, many groups that work in this area have little to no knowledge of the languages they are dealing with and often little contact with Deaf communities or colleagues and are more interested in the computing aspects. I am aware of the forthcoming FP7 project which does seem to intend spending a few years of research in this area:
<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.ideal-ist.net/Countries/TN/PS-TN-1590" target="_blank">http://www.ideal-ist.net/Countries/TN/PS-TN-1590</a> Well, I hope so at least, I've applied for a postdoc position with them!!
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I'd be interested in hearing anyone's opinion on both this project and any other sign language machine translation projects they've come across. I intend to continue working in this area so all input is valuable :o)
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Namaste,</div>
<div>Sara</div>
<div> </div>
<div>************************************</div>
<div>Sara Morrissey,</div>
<div>PhD Researcher,</div>
<div>National Centre for Language Technology,</div>
<div>School of Computing,</div>
<div>Dublin City University,</div>
<div>Dublin 9,</div>
<div>Ireland.</div>
<div>***********************************</div>
<div><span>
<div><br><br> </div>
<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 15/09/2007, <b class="gmail_sendername">Dan Parvaz</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:dparvaz@gmail.com" target="_blank">dparvaz@gmail.com</a>
> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">Sigh. Everytime some student on their Amazing Journey Of Self-Discovery<tm> "reinvents" a piece of deaf-related technology (datagloves for reading fingerspelling, signing avatars, etc.), some ignorant journalist is ready to hail it as a breakthrough.
<br><br>This was put together in a few months by a student intern. As far as I can tell (those knowing BSL please look at the video and correct me if I'm wrong), this is yet another relatively straightforward marriage of speech recognition and 3D animation. There's no indication that space, classifiers, etc. which would be part of a natural SL are being used here. As it stands, it's less useful than commercially available speech-to-text systems (DragonDictate, Via Voice, etc.)
<br><br>Don't surplus your interpreters just yet :-)<br><br>Cheers,<br><span><br>-Dan<br><br><br></span>
<div>
<div><span><span class="gmail_quote">On 9/15/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">GerardM</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:gerard.meijssen@gmail.com" target="_blank"> gerard.meijssen@gmail.com
</a>> wrote:</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid">
<div><span>Hoi,<br>I read this article on the BBC website about a translation service created by IBM that uses an avatar to translate into British Sign language (bfi). Such technology could in principle also produce SignWriting
<br>Thanks, <br> Gerard<br><br><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6993326.stm" target="_blank">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6993326.stm</a><br>
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