Mobile device transmits sign langauge

The tool is currently completing its initial field test by participants in a UW summer programme for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

‘This is the first study of how deaf people in the United States use mobile video phones,’ said project leader Eve Riskin, a UW professor of electrical engineering.

The MobileASL team has been working to optimise compressed video signals for sign language.

By increasing image quality around the face and hands, researchers have brought the data rate down to 30 kilobytes per second while still delivering intelligible sign language.

MobileASL also uses motion detection to identify whether a person is signing or not, in order to extend the phone’s battery life during video use.

Bandwidth issues

Phones including the iPhone 4 and the HTC Evo offer video conferencing but users are said to have encountered problems due to broadband companies blocking high-bandwidth video conferencing from their networks. Similarly, companies are rolling out tiered pricing plans that would charge more to heavy data users.