[sw-l] Computer Applications for SignWriting

[Vinicius Souza]

Dear Val

News about software development from brazil by UNISINOS University.

As you know our first software was the Sign WebMessage.

Recently we finish the first part of  two more research here. It was about my master dissertation that i have just finished in february.

Here is the abstract of my dissertation titled SWService: a library to write Sign Languages based on Web Services

Great advances in science have been made in the last years promoting a social-cultural changing process, in which the access to the new technologies becomes too important for all. However, most of computational tools are not prepared to people who has special necessities. Some initiatives have been developed to spread out the sign languages as a way to make possible the deaf digital and social inclusion. But, the use of these languages in software is still complex and expensive. Thus, the aim of this work was to develop a library, SWService, which provides the wanted features to enable web-based software to use Sign Languages. This solution presents as main advantage the use of Web Services technology witch allows the SWService use without local development or installation necessity. Besides, a case study and an opinion research applied to Sign WebForum, a discussion forum which uses the SWService to permits the writing and reading of messages both in Portuguese and Libras, !
 were realized.

About the Sign WebForum (http://www.inf.unisinos.br/swf), software developed in the case study, the abstract is:

Sign Web Forum is a discussion forum that allows communication in Libras using the SignWriting system. The proposed environment uses both Portuguese and Signs Brazilian Language (Libras) writing. The goal is to minimize writing communication difficulties between deafs, and between deafs and listeners, without preventing users of interact due to lack of knowledge about one or another language.
A Sign Web Forum prototype was integrated with the Sign Web Message system, a web mail tool that also allows message exchange using the Libras language. Our aim is to combine these applications with the use of the technology Web Service in a way to create a distance interaction environment for deafs, in which all tools turn it possible to write using the Libras language.
In the development phase, the applied technologies were the PHP language, a PostgreSQL database and an Apache Web Server running on the Red Hat Linux operation system. This phase was subsidized with a set of studies about signs language, software for deafs, asynchronous tools for Web communication, as well as a case study applied to the Sign WebMessage system.

All the best,
Vinícius Souza

>>> sutton at signwriting.org 05/02/05 11:25 pm >>>
SignWriting List
May 2, 2005

Dear SW List:
I am writing a grant for new software development and I need to
summarize all of our past and current software programs. I know there
are some I have forgotten...Can you think of some other programs? Like
recently, from Brazil, I know there is new software? Please write to
tell us, so I can list it here...and if you find mistakes below, I
would love to know...many thanks!  Val ;-)

----------------------------

Computer Applications for SignWriting

	SignWriter for Apple //e and //c (1986-1988):  The original
SignWriting computer program was written for the Apple //e and //c
computers by Richard Gleaves, one of the developers of Apple Pascal,
Modula 2 computer language.
       SignWriter DOS for MS-DOS (1988-today):  SignWriter for the Apple
//c was ported over to MS-DOS in 1988. SignWriter DOS is still used
today around the world on older computers running Windows 98 or ME. It
does not run on Windows NT, 2000 or XP. To solve this problem, newer
versions of SignWriter are under development. SignWriter is the first
Sign-Language-Processing program in history, providing the ability to
create long typed documents in the movements of signs. It also provides
extensive Word-to-Sign dictionary features.
       SignWriter Java (1999-Today):  SignWriter DOS could not be ported
over to the new Java computer language back in 1996, so it was
re-written from the ground up in Java, but due to financial reasons,
SignWriter Java could never be completed. Even so, it can be downloaded
for free on the Internet anyway, and many people use it, because it can
be used on modern operating systems, such as Mac OS X and all Windows
operating systems. It will be replaced by SignWriter Tiger (see below),
which is also a form of Java, in 2005.
        SignWriter Tiger (2005 beta):  The SignWriter Java program is
being re-built again, this time by German-Swiss Deaf programmer Daniel
Noelpp. It is scheduled for beta testing in May 2005. Daniel is
programming in the newest version of Java, named Tiger. Hence,
SignWriter Tiger will fix and improve the old 1999 program, plus add
new features.
         SignWriter Python (2005 beta): SignWriter is also being
re-written in the new Python computer language, by German programmer
Lars Majewski, at the request of SignWriting teacher Stefan Woehrmann.
Already, the old SignWriter DOS files can be viewed in any operating
system, using the new SignWriter Python Document and Dictionary Viewer.
         SW-Edit (2000-Today):  Created in Brazil by Rafael Piccin
Torchelsen & Professor Antonio Carlos da Rocha Costa for the SIGN-Net
Project in 2000, the SW-Edit program is an editing tool for
SignWriting. Drag and drop the symbols into an editing box. This
creates signs in SWML.
	  SWML (1999 to Today):  There are four forms of SWML, the SignWriting
Markup Language in the world:  SWML-UCPel: the original SWML Formats,
SWML-D: for the Flemish Online Dictionary, SWML-S: for SignPuddle
Online Dictionaries, and SWDB: for UCPel Linguistic SignWriting
Database.
	SignWriting TrueType Fonts (2000-Today):  There are three families of
TrueType fonts with SignWriting symbols: The Sutton Fonts are
Fingerspelling Fonts for 18 different countries, the Woehrmann Fonts
include commonly-used signs in German Sign Language (DGS), and the
Parkhurst Fonts were used to create the textbooks on SignWriting
written in Spain, by Steve and Dianne Parkhurst, including their
well-known book SignoEscritura. The symbols in the Parkhurst Fonts are
specific to writing the Spanish Sign Language dialect of Madrid.
	The Flemish Sign Language Dictionary on the web (2004 to Today) can be
searched by words or by sign-symbols. Converts SignWriter DOS
dictionary files automatically. Search for over 6,000 Flemish signs. An
important feature is the ability to search for signs by handshape
and/or contact symbols. This creates a two-way bilingual dictionary.
Signs are created with SWML.	VSigns (2004 to Today) from Greece.
Synthesis of Virtual Reality Animations from SWML using MPEG-4 Body
Animation Parameters* Find a sign. Read it in SignWriting. Then click
on an animated figure and see the sign move. VSigns generates VRML
animation sequences from SignWriting, based on MPEG-4 Body Animation.
The SignWriting of each sign is provided as input and is initially
converted to SWML (SignWriting Markup Language).
	Sign WebMessage (2004 to Today) from Brazil. SWM is a web-tool that
enables communication either in Portuguese or in Brazilian Sign
Language (Libras). In the messages, the signs can be written in
SignWriting in Libras and, optionally, their meaning in Portuguese.
          SignPoster (2005 beta) from Great Britain. Programmer Sandy
Fleming is developing a way to touch type SignWriting symbols, using a
limited symbol set for one sign language.
	SignWriting in Unicode is a project in discussion, at the Summer
Institute of Linguistics, directed by Albert Bickford in Arizona, with
the guidance of Unicode expert Michael Everson, in Dubin, Ireland. The
project is on hold until funding can be found. It will take several
years to create a Unicode for SignWriting, which will expand
SignWriting's use in other programs.
	SignBank 2002-2004 Database Software in FileMaker Pro 5.0-6.0 from
USA, by Valerie Sutton and Todd Duell. This groundbreaking
multi-lingual database was designed to publish large SignWriting
dictionaries sorted by Sign-Symbol-Sequence (the SSS), and provides the
full SymbolBank, with all symbols in the entire SignWriting system. The
International Movement Writing Alphabet (the IMWA) is every symbol for
writing body movement and can be searched and studied through SignBank
2004. SignBank 2004 also provides Deaf children with illustrated
dictionaries, and researchers a place to store their video clips and
foreign signs. Sophisticated linguistic searches make it possible to
find all the signs with the same handshape, or all the signs with the
same combination of symbols, or all the signs with the exact
SignSpelling*and several other search routines. New search routines can
be created on the fly. The SignSpelling database is the first in
history to give editors the chance to establish the sorting routines
for their Sign-to-Word multi-lingual dictionaries. There are 20 print
formats, and a special linguistic area for adding definitions written
in Sign Language, and a place to add animated SignWriting for children.
	SignPuddle 2004-2005: Stephen Slevinski has brought SignWriting to the
web with a series of web-based programs designed for the everyday use.
These programs include SignMail, for sending email in SignWriting,
SignTranslate, for translating spoken language glosses to signs, and
SignMaker, a way to create new SignWriting signs on the web by dragging
and dropping symbols into a SignBox, and then saving them to the online
SignPuddle dictionary. One can use the new signs immediately in email
or in SignWriting documents, created by another program, SignText.
Dictionaries can be edited by editors who are invited to review
dictionary entries. And Slevinski is currently working on another
related program called SignType, which will allow SignMaker to work
with keyboard strokes as well as with a mouse.