[sw-l] Computer Applications for SignWriting

Sat May 7 14:49:02 UTC 2005

SignWriting List
May 7, 2005

Vinicius - I am so impressed with this report. THANK YOU for telling us
about your new software and I plan to place this report on our web site
in the computer software area...along with the listing of other
programs too...Brazilian software developers seem to be very busy these
days! Your work is really appreciated....Val ;-)

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

On May 6, 2005, at 9:52 AM, Vinicius Souza wrote:

> 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.
>