Computers interpreting ASL

[Gerard Meijssen]

Hoi,
The problem of translating American sign language into English is in two.
What is described is the part of recognising the individual signs. Let us
assume that they have this right, then they are still left with the task of
translating into English. ASL is arguably as different from English as
Russian or Arabic is. This means that getting this right will not come easy
or cheaply.

When the technology adequately recognises the signs, it is possible to
transcribe it in SignLanguage. THIS is in and of itself a major
accomplishment because this allows the transcription to be analysed by more
traditional linguistic tools. In my opinion this is what excites me about
this research.
Thanks,
      Gerard

2009/1/13 Franz Dotter <Franz.Dotter at uni-klu.ac.at>

> Dear colleagues,
>
> I'm always embarrassed how technicians manage to publish results before
> anything has really be realised (only technically driven research is a big
> problem in the area of people with special needs). One thing I remember is
> that about one year or two ago a young technician got the Siemens price for
> sign language recognition. Looking on the facts, it turned out that his
> system was able to identify the single units of finger alphabet.
>
> What the Boston colleagues have until now: An idea about how to recognise
> sign language (no, perhaps not sign language, only single gestures?) and
> that it would be useful to put that idea into a bilingual "dictionary" (no,
> not a dictionary, a word list). I'm in favour of technique, but, please stay
> realistic.
>
> Best Regards
>
> Franz Dotter
>
>
> University of Klagenfurt
> Center for Sign Language and Deaf Communication
> Funded by: Provincial government of Carinthia, Bundessozialamt Kaernten,
> European Social Fund
> Head: Franz Dotter (hearing)
> Collaborators: Elisabeth Bergmeister (deaf), Silke Bornholdt (deaf),
> Christian Hausch (deaf), Marlene Hilzensauer (hearing), Klaudia Krammer
> (hearing), Christine Kulterer (hearing),  Anita Pirker (deaf), Andrea Skant
> (hearing), Natalie Unterberger (deaf).
> Homepage: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/zgh
> Deaf server (in German): http://deaf.uni-klu.ac.at
> Fax: ++43 (0)463 2700 2899
> Phone: ++43 (0)463 2700 /2821 (Franz Dotter), /2822 (Andrea Skant), /2823
> (Marlene Hilzensauer), /2824 (Klaudia Krammer), /2829 (Christine Kulterer)
> Email addresses: firstname.lastname at uni-klu.ac.at
>
>
> >>> "Gerard Meijssen" <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> 01/12/09 4:36  >>>
> Hoi,
> I found this article in Technology Review, a publication by MIT... I think
> you will find it of interest. Given how it works, it should be easy to
> connect it to an ASL SignWriting dictionary. This would mean that you can
> transcribe what is signed.
> Thanks.
>    Gerard
>
> http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/21944/?a=f
>
>
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