Lx Field & Lab gear

[Richard J. Senghas]

Hey folks,

Seems it's about time for the semi-annual discussion about current equipment
for linguistic field and lab work. I've been noticing all kinds of new
portable digital gear, and seeing more software aimed at consumer use but
with capabilities previously limited to very professional kits.

So, any thoughts on what folks can buy for cheapo field gear (students
mostly in mind here, but also cash-strapped departments, too), and any good
applications or setups for transcriptions (including tiered transcriptions)?

For myself, I'm currently tinkering with SignStream 2.0, which now has audio
capacity. SignStream is an application limited to the Mac (alas) that does
do tiered transcriptions that tags to video. Originally developed for sign
language work, it can easily be used for spoken language, too. It's really
cheap, $10/copy or $25 for a department! With an iBook or PowerBook and a
digital video camera, pretty cool stuff can be done with videotaped
discourse. (And with iMovie & iPhoto, pretty impressive presentations
suitable for AAA sessions can be made quite quickly and inexpensively.)

Please post response to the list (rather than just to me).

Thanks,

-Richard
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Richard J Senghas, Assoc. Professor      | Sonoma State University
Chair, Dept of Anthropology/Linguistics  | 1801 East Cotati Avenue
Coordinator, Linguistics & TESL Programs | Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609
Richard.Senghas at sonoma.edu               | 707-664-3920 (fax)