What's New In Science

A team of UW and Cornell University researchers are working on a project that will allow deaf people to communicate live through mobile video technologies.  

According to the MobileASL Web site, the current wireless telephone network has inadvertently excluded over one million deaf or hard of hearing Americans.

Although mobile video devices have a low bandwidth and processing power, this technology captures the movements of American Sign Language (ASL) via video-compression technology.  

"Our technology can transmit sign language on the cell phone network more understandably than existing technology," said Richard Ladner, a computer science and engineering professor working on the project.  

The technology works to distinguish the face, arms and hands, while giving the peripheral areas less attention.  

Thus, finer movements are easier to detect even with low bandwidth.  

"Clarity in the face does help in moderation," said Anna Cavender, a graduate student. 

A test video ran at seven frames per second with an available bandwidth of 25 kilobits per second.  

"There is a lot of interest in the deaf community," Ladner said.  

Alongside the warm welcome from the deaf community, the researchers are also talking to Sprint and Cingular Wireless about applications for the product.

"I think it's great," said Dennis Lang, associate director of disability studies at UW, via email.

While bandwidth may be expected to increase with technology, the influx of users still drives available bandwidth down.

The availability of low bandwidth technology is still important, Ladner said.

On their quest to achieve low bandwidth goals, an unexpected aid came in the form of Loren Merritt, a former UW computer science and engineering student.  

He independently created the x264 software that the research team adapted to use in their technology.  

This technology improves off of a previous H.264 program.  

"You want a fast encoder and at the same time you want good quality," said graduate student Rahul Vanam.  

Luckily for the research team, x264 did just that.

Without the x264 encoder, one or two years alone might have been spent developing an equivalent encoder, Vanam said.

The initial idea for the project came about through an unrelated project using low bandwidth video, which led to the application for ASL.

"Richard was probably the only person in the world who knows video compression and ASL," said Eve Riskin, an electrical engineering professor and principal investigator on the project.

Although there exists high bandwidth 3G networks that enabled deaf people to communicate with mobile devices, the available U.S. mobile devices do not have enough bandwidth to accurately depict the movements involved with signing.

The project is accepting volunteers who are fluent in ASL to participate in user studies. Those interest can sign up online.

SIDEBAR

MobileASL online: http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/MobileASL/