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Sign language applications: preliminary modeling

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Abstract

For deaf persons to have ready access to information and communication technologies (ICTs), the latter must be usable in sign language (SL), i.e., include interlanguage interfaces. Such applications will be accepted by deaf users if they are reliable and respectful of SL specificities—use of space and iconicity as the structuring principles of the language. Before developing ICT applications, it is necessary to model these features, both to enable analysis of SL videos and to generate SL messages by means of signing avatars. This paper presents a signing space model, implemented within a context of automatic analysis and automatic generation, which are currently under development.

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Notes

  1. A proform is a handshape, which refers to an entity previously signed in the discourse. The proform not only characterizes an entity among several ones, but also provides a particular point of view on this entity regarding the context. It is used to spatialize an entity in the signing space and to express entity relations and actions.

  2. Allen’s temporal relationships are expressed as follows: v: or, =: equal, <: precedes, m: immediately precedes, o: partially overlaps, e: completely overlaps at end.

  3. http://lsscript.limsi.fr

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LIMSI-CNRS, BP 133, 91403, Orsay cedex, France

    Annelies Braffort

  2. IRIT-UPS, 118 rte Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse cedex9, France

    Patrice Dalle

Authors
  1. Annelies Braffort
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  2. Patrice Dalle
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Correspondence to Annelies Braffort.

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Braffort, A., Dalle, P. Sign language applications: preliminary modeling. Univ Access Inf Soc 6, 393–404 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10209-007-0103-y

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