SignWriting and SigningAvatars

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
October 1, 2003

On September 29, 2003, John Edelson wrote:
I am returning to the question of building a link between SignWriting 
and Vcom3D's SigningAvatars.
It would be great to have our SigningAvatars be able to import and play 
SignWriting. (we can only do ASL so far - we have not yet done any 
other sign languages).
 
A few step is to look at compatibility questions:
 
Has anybody ever done a comparison of the components of SigningAvatar 
and SignWriting?  Specifically, the SigningAvatars have:
-  49 facial expressions (grouped as emotional, grammatical, modifying, 
and speech)
-  over 2000 gestures - We are looking at how to add  inflections
-  a cosigning ability for simultaneous gestures such as role shifting 
with the body position, tilting for emphasis, and using the left hand 
for hold, list, and index
- a gaze track which allows an infinite number of locations for the 
eyes to look and head to move
 
How does this compare with SignWriting?

If you want to take a look, demos are available upon request from the 
vcom3d website. www.vcom3d.com
Or, if anyone wishes to pursue this as a project, they could contact 
us. The first step would be a comparison of compatibility at this 
level. If the basics are compatible, the software interface would be 
the next step.
 
John Edelson   
johne at vcom3d.com           
www.vcom3d.com