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ASEE Prism, Sep 2002
A DIGITIZED PERSON TELLS THE HEARING IMPAIRED THE PRICE OF POSTAGE IN SIGN LANGUAGE.
LONDON -For the deaf and hearingimpaired who rely on sign language, communicating with the hearing world is an often difficult and frustrating chore. But in Britain, they may soon find it somewhat easier to handle basic exchanges at the post office. Consignia, the company that runs the British post office network, is to begin a trial of a computer screen at some branches that displays a digital avatar that can communicate in sign language. The software takes oral speech, changes it to text, and the avatar-a computer animation that looks human-then translates the text into sign language. An initial trial of the software, developed at England's University of East Anglia, occurred at London's Science Museum last year and was deemed a success. And if this trial scores similar high marks, the screen could become commonplace at most branches. The post office technology is limited to a set of key and useful phrases for postal transactions. But future versions many years from now will take real-time speech and translate it directly into sign language. That could mean deaf people could regularly communicate with the hearing world using handheld computers. There's a shortage of trained human interpreters, and they often need to be booked well in advance. So digital avatars conversant in sign language could some day put much more of the hearing world at the finger tips of the hearing impaired.
Copyright American Society for Engineering Education Sep 2002
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