SBIR Phase II: Software Tools for Authoring American Sign Language

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第二阶段项目将开发一个功能齐全的原型软件工具，允许熟练掌握美国手语(ASL)但不懂计算机3-D动画的教育工作者、口译员和语言学家创建完全符合语法的综合ASL。这项技术将为聋人提供访问互联网网页和基于光盘的媒体的语言通道。该项目建立在P.I.S商业签名史密斯产品的基础上，该产品部分是根据美国国家科学基金会早先的SBIR拨款开发的。目前的技术允许用户生成由引用或非屈折形式的手势组成的独特句子，并添加面部表情。由此产生的符号和句子结构接近于英语语法，因此表示音译，也称为有符号英语。虽然手语英语确实提供了一些接触数字媒体的途径，但由于缺乏美国手语语法的许多元素，限制了更多需要有语法美国手语的聋人使用这项技术。这些工具将使用户能够使用几个空间参照系从参数化组件中动态合成和改变ASL标志。这些符号类型包括代词、指示动词和处所动词以及量词谓词。最终的商业产品将是P.I.S商业符号史密斯工作室创作工具中的一个新的集成工具。这一工具将允许教育工作者和多媒体开发人员制作引人入胜、语法正确的美国手语动画，以便以语言访问网页和CD-ROM标题上的数字信息。软件界面不仅允许作者在空间上改变符号，还可以用来创建符号。这一能力为快速建立用于教育和科学课程的技术和科学术语库提供了机会。它还提供了创建外国手语库的潜力，从而使该产品有可能进入国际市场。可以使用专有许可的软件播放器查看内容。该产品将增加聋人和重听儿童和成年人获得基于数字的信息的机会，并促进包容性教育和就业方法，符合新自由倡议、1973年康复法案第508条、美国残疾人法案和电信法第255条的最近修正案的语言和意图。这项技术不仅有一个可行的商业市场，而且对美国和其他地区的聋人和重听人也有广泛的社会利益。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop a fully functioning prototype software tool that will allow educators, interpreters, and linguists skilled in American Sign Language (ASL), but not in computer 3-D animation, to create fully grammatical synthesized ASL. This technology will provide language access for Deaf individuals to Internet web pages and CD-ROM based media. This project builds upon the P.I.'s commercial Sign Smith products, which were developed, in part, under an earlier NSF SBIR grant. The current technology allows users to generate unique sentences composed of signs that are in citation, or non-inflected form and to add facial expressions. The resulting sign and sentence structure approximates English grammar and therefore represents a transliteration, also known as Signed English. Although Signed English does provide some access to digital media, the absence of many elements of ASL grammar limits the use of the technology by the larger segment of the Deaf population who require grammatical ASL for access. These tools will enable the user to dynamically compose and inflect ASL signs from parameterized components using several spatial frames of reference. These sign types include pronouns, indicating and locative verbs, and classifier predicates.The final commercial product will be a new integrated tool within the P.I.'s commercial Sign Smith Studio Authoring Tool. This tool will allow educators and multimedia developers to create engaging, grammatically correct, ASL animations for language access to digital information on Web Pages and in CD-ROM titles. The software interface not only allows authors to spatially inflect signs, but also it can be used to create signs as well. This capability opens opportunities for quickly building libraries of technical and scientific terms to be used in educational and scientific curricula. It also affords the potential to create libraries of foreign sign languages, therefore making it possible for the product to enter international markets. Content can be viewed using a proprietary licensed software Player. This product will increase access of Deaf and Hard of Hearing children and adults to digitally based information and promote inclusive education and employment approaches which accords with the language and intent of the New Freedom Initiative, recent amendments to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act. Not only does this technology have a viable commercial market, it also has broad societal benefits for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals in America and beyond.