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This web app uses computer vision to teach you the ASL alphabet
Fingerspelling.xyz is a web-based experience that takes advantage of computer vision software to make the process of learning the ASL alphabet fun and easy.
Google Disability Support is more accessible with sign language specialists
Google is now ready to offer live help for accessibility features regardless of your hearing. The search firm now offers Disability Support through American Sign Language, letting you troubleshoot through video chat if you're deaf or hard-of-hearing. Google reps can walk you through setting up Live Caption on your Pixel, for example.
Google's latest Gboard stickers celebrate American Sign Language
One of the benefits of using Google's Gboard, aside from predictive emojis and GIF searches, is the cute animated stickers. Sure, most of them are fun and silly, but there are a few that carry deeper meaning. One example is a recently released sticker pack of phrases in American Sign Language (ASL). Google developed them under the guidance of Jessica Flores, a San Francisco-based artist and YouTuber who's also an activist in the deaf community. In creating these stickers, her goal wasn't just to give a voice to the deaf and hard-of-hearing, but also to educate the world about the language she loves.
Uber offers basic sign language tips so you can talk to deaf drivers
Back in 2015, Uber added some features for drivers who were deaf and hard of hearing, including visual notifications of impending rides. Today, as a wrap-up for National Deaf Awareness Month, Uber has updated its main app to teach riders how to sign basic phrases like "hello" and "thank you" for drivers with hearing impairments.
Giphy made 2,000 GIFs to help you learn sign language
A GIF can be more than a well-timed punchline for a tweet or group chat. Now, the looping clips can be used to teach people new languages. As Mashable reports, GIF provider Giphy has launched a new "channel" containing more than 2,000 educational sign language clips. They're all dead simple: just the hand movements and a text caption explaining what they mean. These bite-sized flash cards have been pulled from Sign With Robert, an instructional series for American Sign Language (different versions are used throughout the world). The hope is that people will pick up a word or two by sharing them at convenient moments online.
FCC to build an open source video platform for ASL users
The FCC is developing a video access platform that will allow American Sign Language (ASL) users to communicate with businesses and government agencies more easily, Chairman Tom Wheeler announced on Thursday. With it, users will be able to make video calls as well as send text and audio to the person on the other end of the line. What's more, the platform will not only enable the creation of function-specific desktop and mobile apps that, say, allow users to connect with FCC reps through a relay service staffed by people fluent in ASL. It will also serve as an interoperability standard for existing IP-based video conferencing apps like Skype or Google Hangouts. And, since the code is open source, any developer will be able to integrate this functionality into their app.
​MotionSavvy uses gesture recognition to give sign language a voice
If you're fluent in American Sign Language, congratulations: you know one more language than most of the people reading this post. The rest of us? A solution to our communicative failures is on the way. A company called MotionSavvy is building a Leap Motion-equipped tablet case that can actively interpret ASL and 'speak' the translation out loud. It's an ambitious project, but it works: at a recent Leap AXLR8R event we saw company founder Ryan Hait-Campbell sign over a MotionSavvy equipped slate. "Hello, my name is Ryan," he said. "What's your name?" It was an impressive demo, but Hait-Campbell admitted it was limited -- the setup can only recognize about 100 words at present, and since signs can vary slightly from person to person, those words don't consistently register for every user. Still, the company's prototype shows enormous potential. If the firm can outfit it with a larger word database and the ability to decipher personalized signing, MotionSavvy could become an incredible communication tool for the hearing-impaired.
iBook Lessons: Adding ASL support to iBooks
iBook Lessons is a continuing series about ebook writing and publishing. Bilingual books have existed for a long time. Bilingual ebooks have also shown a presence in online stores. Adding American Sign Language (ASL) editions to ebooks? That's a proposition that has been hard to accomplish although possible under current EPUB standards. The reason is that video and text must coexist on the virtual page. That's hard to do with ebooks, and impossible in conventional books. With the iPad and iBooks Author, that challenge has now become possible. Recently, author Adam Stone published his first ASL/English bilingual ebook. Called Pointy Three, it tells the story of a fork that's missing one of its prongs but not, as the description points out, its spirit. The fork journeys through the land of Dinnertime, having adventures and looking for a place where he belongs. The book's possibly unique ASL/English approach offers something new and special. Stone explains that children who use both languages, or who are learning ASL, benefit from this bilingual approach. On his blog, he writes, "[It] is not simply an English story translated into ASL; it is a story created with both languages in mind, swirling around the creative consciousness." His motivation sprang from a desire to let children play with both languages. With iBooks Author, Apple provided the perfect tool for his needs. "I want to show everybody that it can be done easily, quickly, and cheaply," he wrote on his blog. "You don't need to talk to a publisher; you are the publisher." He added in a note to TUAW that "Apple products constantly open new frontiers." I had the pleasure of sitting down with him to discuss his journey into iBooks Author, and talk about how the tool had inspired him. TUAW: So how did you first hear about iBooks Author? And did you immediately think about ASL? Stone: I first heard about it during Apple's education event this past Winter. I'd already been experimenting with American Sign Language ebooks. I was trying to use Composer by Demibooks but I was having a lot of trouble with that particular tool. When I saw the iBooks Author product I immediately knew it was perfect for what I had in mind. I work at P.S. 347 The ASL and English Lower School (it's an ASL/English bilingual school). I use ASL all day so it's always on my mind. (I dedicate the book to the school, in fact - at the end of the book.) iBooks Author looked super easy to use. Obviously video was a prominent part of the iBooks Author presentation. The layout tools looked flexible. And I especially liked how it was already linked to the iBookstore; it meant that publishing it would be easy. TUAW: How did you develop the story for Pointy Three? And did you always intend to be writing for children? Stone: I wanted this book to be a point of inspiration for others. There are a lot of us who are concerned about the lack of ASL/English materials for children and who are thinking of ways to ameliorate that. So this book was first and foremost to set an example -- to tell others, "You can do this too! We all can do this!" I wanted to do a children's book first. I'm already a first grade teacher; I read children's books every day. I think adults should read children's books more often. They really are magical. Pointy Three came to me out of the blue about a week after the Apple presentation. I was sitting on the N train and suddenly I thought of a three-pronged fork. And I typed out the whole story using Notes on my iPhone. It hasn't changed very much since then. I think wanting to belong somewhere is such an universal theme. Any child can relate to that. TUAW: What kind of development effort in terms of hours did it take to build this book? Stone: I think it took me about 40 hours, max. I polished the story and shared it with a couple of friends. Then I found an illustrator, Joyce, and we met a couple of times where she showed me some sketches. Then I connected with Lauren, the ASL storyteller, and we did the whole video shoot in less than three hours in her living room in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I sent a rough edit of the video to Joyce and she did the illustrations based off Lauren's telling of the story. The illustrations took about a month and half. That was the longest part of the development process--waiting for them to be done. When I got them, it was just a matter of cleaning them up, adding them into iBooks Author along with the video, laying them out just right with the text and changing the text to match the video and the illustrations. I showed a PDF version to a few people for edits, and then publishing. I started around the middle of February, I think, and finished in mid-June. TUAW: Were there any lessons you learned specifically about shooting video for inclusion in an iBooks Author product? Stone: The interesting thing about having an ASL component is that you can't go back and reshoot the ASL - the signer will look different; the lighting will be different, and so forth. So whatever footage I had, I had to make sure that the English text matched it. There's one part in the book where the ASL version and the English version of a specific sentence are on separate pages. It was a goof made while shooting the video, and I tried to change the English text to match, but it didn't quite work. But that's okay. What is significant in one language may not be as significant in another language. English and ASL are different languages with very different storytelling and cultural properties. But one big lesson I learned - I edited it all in iMovie '09 (or is it '10? whatever the latest version is) and exported it to HD format using Media Browser in the Share menu. Much to my surprise, that format is not compatible with iBooks Author. I had to compress and convert it to "Apple TV" format with a data stream of 2 MBps in 720p - which was perfect. I used MPEG Streamclip. This discussion thread helped a lot. So - that was a big surprise for me - that iMovie couldn't easily export to a format compatible with iBooks Author. No biggie, though. TUAW: Do you worry about the product size? It's over 100MB, about 116MB if I remember correctly, but I think you nicely avoided the problem of a product that was too ginormous. Stone: I knew video would make the iBook big. I experimented with different data stream rates, basically 1 MBps, 1.5, 2, and 3. I found that 2 was perfect. I also wasn't sure just how big the image files could be; each page has about a 1.5-2 MB PNG file for the illustration. TUAW: Did you ever consider doing this project as an application instead? Stone: I have zero app programming skills. To do so would incur lots of overhead costs and stuff like that. I didn't have time for that. I knew all I wanted to do was make a book and iBooks Author fit the bill. I know of other teams working on ASL/English storybook apps, though. Of course I would love to make the book as interactive as I can: let kids play with Pointy Three, move it around the screen and fun stuff like that. But iBooks Author is strictly for making books with interactivity that is very boxed-in in the form of widgets. I see that at the end of conventional iBooks from major publishers: the very last page has a nice widget where you can immediately give a star rating and write a review. I tried to research on how to do the same thing for my book but couldn't find the solution. So my implementation is very clunky: a hyperlink to the book's iTunes Store page. TUAW: Are there any other features you'd put into future books? Stone: Since publishing, I've got some feedback that sound/reading aloud feels missing from the book. People have gotten accustomed to children's books on the iPad speaking aloud. My book is silent - like a normal book, and like any other book I read on the iPad - I'm deaf so reading is always a silent experience. So I didn't really think about that until some people told me they wanted the book to talk aloud to them, too. I'm still researching on how that works. It's not a native feature of iBooks Author, but I heard people have found ways to add read aloud to iBooks. But it sounds difficult. And you know what...it' s interesting because Apple has built in voice over. Why can't Apple allow iBooks readers to access that directly? Seems simple. TUAW: Any more thoughts you want to add about this project? I loved doing it. I want to do more. Surely this isn't Pointy Three's last adventure! Most of all, I hope others do it as well. I told some people, "If you can put together a Powerpoint, you can do this." That's how easy it was. If people are interested in adding ASL support to their books and want to hire me, you can reach me at my blog or Facebook page. I also hang out on Twitter. TUAW: Thank you for taking the time to chat!
AcceleGlove teaches you sign language: we go hands-in (video)
While we wouldn't say worthy devices at CES are rare, it's always welcome when we're dodging those middling tablets and iPhones cases scattered across Las Vega's premier tech event. Made by the Institute for Disabilities Research and Training (IDRT) and funded by the National Science Foundation, the AcceleGlove ties into a camera and PC software to act as an input device for American Sign Language. Currently, software extends to learning functionality, with a tutorial input program and more advanced translation software both on show this week. Accelerometers within the glove measuring finger movement, with the camera able to gauge distance and dynamic movement. We strapped on the AcceleGlove and gave the fundamental program a go, training our hands to spell out the alphabet -- with a fair bit of help from inventor Jose Hernandez-Rebollar. It's pretty pacey and certainly detects subtle changes that distinguish letters. The two-way gesture translator can apparently translate over 25,000 english words and phrases into ASL, with the ability to translate gestures into both text and speech. Future aims for the device include translating commands to PC operating systems, tablets and TVs. More functional applications include integrating hand signal communication into military and medical first response units, when conditions make both visual and audio communication difficult. The current iteration of both the glove and software are available now from IDRT for $300. Hit up the source for more info, or check out our nascent signing skills in our hands-in after the break. Zach Honig contributed to this report.
Microsoft says Kinect won't support sign language, downgraded cameras likely to blame
It was mentioned in the patent application, but it looks like Microsoft's Kinect won't be offering support for sign language after all. That's now been confirmed by Microsoft itself, which told Kotaku that it "files lots of patent applications to protect our intellectual property, not all of which are brought to market right away," before flatly stating that "Kinect that is shipping this holiday will not support sign language." The reason? It seems to be the result of Kinect's cameras, which Kotaku says were originally supposed to have a "much higher resolution," but were eventually downgraded to 320 x 240 in an apparent cost-saving move. If you parse Microsoft's, however, you'll noticed that it doesn't exactly rule out the possibility of Kinect ever supporting sign language; it simply says that the version launching this holiday season won't support it.
ZVRS to support live sign language translation via iPhone 4's FaceTime for calls between deaf and hearing users
While SMS and mobile email are great, they still can't match the emotion, interaction, and intonation of a live conversation with someone -- that's why our phones still ship with microphones and speakers, apparently. Of course, this is much more difficult when one of the parties is deaf or hard of hearing, which is where video relay services come in. With the help of a videophone or your computer's webcam, you can make a call with a live translator, who speaks your signed ramblings out loud to the hearing person on the other end. Of course you're usually stuck at a desk when doing this, but now ZVRS is going to be supporting calls made from the iPhone 4 over FaceTime. It might not be quite as sexy as Apple's goosebump-raising iPhone 4 commercial, since the phone obviously makes two-way sign language calls possible, but if the person on the other end doesn't have an iPhone 4 or doesn't know sign language, ZVRS seems like the next best thing. The new service will launch on July 26th. Check out a video of it in action after the break, the actual call starts at 2:25.
AT&T announces deals with OpenPeak, Zeebo, American Security Logistics
Well, it looks like AT&T is maintaining a steady pace with its non-cellphone news during CTIA (in addition to cellphone news, of course), with it now following up yesterday's announcements with another three. That includes a deal with OpenPeak that will see AT&T provide 3G service for the company's OpenTablet device (now slated to be available in "late 2010"), and an agreement with Zeebo to provide mobile broadband for the company's gaming / entertainment / education console. That's currently only available Brazil and Mexico, but Zeebo is apparently "planning for commercial opportunities in the domestic market " sometime next year. Rounding things out (for now) is a deal with American Security Logistics, which has announced that it will be using AT&T to wirelessly connect a whole range of location-based tracking devices -- including everything from cargo shipments to pet tracking to Alzheimer's patient monitoring. Alright, AT&T. Anything else left up your sleeve? A 3G-equipped sleeve, perhaps?