embedding ASL in pdf/html

[Alan Post]

Wonderful!

I see that swis (sign writing image system) is installed locally and
it is called when the page is constructed to display ASL.  This
helps craft an additional question:

I haven't quite figured IWSA out yet, how to translate a sign into
the unique id used to retrieve it from the database.  The best I've
come to is looking it up in the signpuddle dictionary and copying
the unique id.  I see there is a format for these things, but it is
still opaque to me.  Any better introduction than the ABNF on this
page:

  http://www.signbank.org/swis/

Thank you Bill, seeing frostvillage.com really helps concretize some
of this for me.

-Alan

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 11:21:36AM -0400, Bill Reese wrote:
> Alan, maybe it would be good to look at Adam Frost's site for how to 
> display Signwriting on a website:
> http://www.frostvillage.com/
> 
> Bill
> 
> Alan Post wrote:
> >Hello Steve, Valerie, and the rest of the list,
> >
> >My name is Alan Post.  I was introduced to Sign Writing last night,
> >doing some research for a creative commons project of mine which
> >involves recording ASL signs both in print media (pdf), html, and
> >eventually physical signposts.
> >
> >I don't think I can adequately express how wonderful it is to find
> >Sign Writer.  My previous plan for recording ASL signs was to
> >purchase a copy of Poser, which is character modeling software, and
> >animate the signs myself.
> >
> >I have suddenly found the scope of my project go from "learn Poser,
> >make a convincing pose for every word I need, render to an image,
> >and annotate the image to add gesture hints." to "figure out how to
> >talk to the Sign Puddle server."  Building on the work you've done
> >is easily an order of magnitude less work for higher quality results.
> >
> >Thank you thank you thank you thank you.
> >
> >I spent last night learning as much as I could about Sign Writing,
> >and I could really use some orientation.  I have the following "next
> >steps" that I would like to perform, to teach me how to interact
> >with the Sign Writing infrastructure and to begin integrating it
> >into my own project:
> >
> > * I would like to display ASL sentences on my website.  I'd like to
> >   construct these sentences from individual words and control the
> >   word layout locally.  I'd like the layout of individual gestures
> >   making up a word, however, to be whatever sign puddle is programmed
> >   to say they are.
> >
> >   I think I can use the dictionary to look up the word and copy the
> >   created glyph to my server.  It seems I could also download a
> >   copy of the server to my website and transcribe the CSS rendering
> >   instructions directly onto my page.
> >
> >   Is there same way in which I could embed an ASL word into a URL
> >   that when retrieved returns the image/glyph I'd like from sign
> >   puddle server?  Can you help me better understand how all of
> >   these pieces fit together?  Teach me to fluently access single
> >   words from you server programmatically.
> >
> > * I would like to render ASL sentences to embed in a pdf document.
> >   The source for the document is TeX, and in my perfect world I'd
> >   embed an SVG graphic in my document.  In this usage, I have three
> >   different font sizes and would like to scale my ASL sentences to
> >   match my English font.  As well, I need to display these
> >   sentences in right-to-left order to match the flow of non-ASL
> >   text in the document.
> >
> >   I see that there are SVG base glyphs available.  Is there a way I
> >   can mix these together like the PNG base glyph files can be turned
> >   into a word by arranging them in space using css?  Can I generate
> >   SVG graphic files of words and sentences?
> >
> >   The rest of my pdf document will scale, so I can print them four
> >   to a page, poster size, &c and the fonts will still look nice.
> >   I'm hoping I can embed ASL words into these documents in a
> >   scalable format to preserve the ability to scale my documents, but
> >   I haven't figured out whether this is possible yet.
> >
> >I would be delighted if, by the end of the day, I had my first page
> >with ASL sentences uploaded to my website, and by the end of the
> >week had succeeded in embedding svg or png graphics of signwritten
> >ASL words into my pdf.
> >
> >May I have some guidance understanding where to go from here?  My
> >fingers tremble to write some ASL!
> >
> >-Alan
> >
> >PS: I'm a software developer, and really don't mind as many
> >technical details as you would like to provide.  I'll understand
> >things better if you literally describe the technology, rather than
> >trying to simplify it through metaphor.  No detail of how this stuff
> >works will bore me: I'm tremendously impressed by just how well
> >engineered it is, from the study I've given it so far.
> >  
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
te djuno lo do sevzi



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