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A Deaf-to-hearing communication aid on a mobile phone

A Deaf-to-hearing communication aid on a mobile phone. By Mr. Muyowa Mutemwa Supervisor: Dr W D Tucker Co-Supervisor: Mr. M Norman. Introduction (1). Deaf with a capital 'D' is different from deaf or hard of hearing. Deaf people primarily use sign language to communicate

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A Deaf-to-hearing communication aid on a mobile phone

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  1. A Deaf-to-hearing communication aid on a mobile phone By Mr. Muyowa Mutemwa Supervisor: Dr W D Tucker Co-Supervisor: Mr. M Norman

  2. Introduction (1) • Deaf with a capital 'D' is different from deaf or hard of hearing. • Deaf people primarily use sign language to communicate • And define their sense of culture, as opposed to the other groups that use spoken, and textual, languages like English or Xhosa.. • User trials done with Deaf Community of Cape Town (DCCT).

  3. Introduction (2) • SignSupport is a system that will ease communication between a Deaf and hearing users. • A set of web pages, • Each page has a combination of SASL videos and English text • To enable a Deaf person to tell a hearing person (e.g. doctor) how s/he is feeling. • Requires a mobile phone with: • A data connection • And a browser that supports Adobe Flash video (FLV).

  4. Introduction (3)

  5. Introduction (4)

  6. Research question • The central problem that this research work seeks to address is “can we develop a model using Adobe Flash technology on a mobile phone that will ease communication between hearing users and users who primarily use SASL for communication? ”.

  7. Rationale (1) • Communication between a hearing person and a Deaf person requires an interpreter. • Most public workers such as doctors, train ticket sellers, policemen cannot sign. • Technology in South Africa is not as supportive towards Deaf people like in England, they have TESSA in public places such as post offices. • Most Deaf people in South Africa rely on neighbors and family members for emergency situations.

  8. Rationale (2) • Most Deaf people can use computer, but they have to travel for long distances to use of them • While they carry their mobile phones with them at all times. • By combining video with the text, it can be for educational purposes. • I intend on learning sign language while doing this study.

  9. Aims of my Research • provide a semi-synchronous communication aid on a mobile phone for SASL users to be able to communicate with hearing users in public places. • Sub-aims: • put the Signsupport on a mobile phone. • experimenting with the video quality for SASL visualization. • create internet pages for Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) • create a lookup dictionary of videos for the hearing user’s response. • This system is not designed to a replace a public worker

  10. Background (1) • Deaf telephony projects have been conducted with DCCT members at the Bastion over the years. • As a result Deaf people there have become accustomed to using information and communication technologies (ICT) at a small 'internet café’. • Most Internet usage at the Bastion involves visual media, educational programmes in sign language, and Deaf channels on Youtube. • Results indicate that Deaf users prefer to use SASL to communicate, they can also use text but their skills are limited.

  11. Background (2) • DCCT members tend to own low-end mobile phones with low-resolution cameras and narrow bandwidth data connectivity. • Deaf users do not take advantage of low cost text messaging like Mxit. • They might be more inclined to use data services if content were available in SASL on a mobile phone.

  12. Related Work (1) • TESSA (UK), is a Text and Sign Support Assistant, for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. • TESSA combines speech recognition technology and virtual human animation. • Video calling is available on advanced mobile phones, • but the poor resolution and low frame rate of the video remains unacceptable for SASL communication, speech is still a priority here.

  13. Related Work (2)

  14. Related Technology • The YouTube client is available for a limited number of phones and mobile operating systems. • Most video playbacks of on mobile devices come in the form of third party media players. • Skyfire (www.skyfire.com) is a cross platform browser that enables Video streaming. • Flash Lite 3 brings engaging experiences like web content and streaming video to a mobile phone.

  15. Preliminary user trial & results (1) • Looijesteijn’s industrial design

  16. Preliminary user trial & results (2) • Testing • We tested a mock-up of the PC-based prototype of SignSupport at the Bastian. • 4 Deaf users split into pairs • Storyboard • At the end of trial semi structured interview • Recording using a video camera for further analysis • Results • Overall, the users indicated that they would like to see the prototype developed further.

  17. Project Design (1) • Participants • Deaf people who use sign language as their primary source of communication with other deaf people and hearing people who do not sign. • DCCT staff member who were involved in the computer-based prototype done by Looijesteijn. • 10 Deaf people will help in the re-designing of Signsupport, focus group. • 4 Deaf people will evaluated the mobile-based prototype.

  18. Project Design (2) • Materials • mobile phone, • mobile phone browser, • a video camera, • & Adobe Flash program.

  19. Project Design (3) • Design

  20. Project Design (4) • Data collection • semi-structure interviews, • questionnaires, • discussion like interview, • & a video camera to capture the user trail.

  21. Mobile prototype design (1) • Using Skyfire our intention is to design the next prototype with 'plug and play' scenarios, of which the doctor's visit is just one. • Experiment will be done with content stored on (client-side video storage) • and off (server-side video storage) the device. • text lookup vs. sign lookup, by designing a clickable image of the entire body and having questions for part that can be clicked.

  22. Mobile prototype design (2)

  23. Chapter Outline • Introduction • Overview of project • Literature survey • Prototype design • Research findings and analysis • Conclusion

  24. Project Schedule (1)

  25. Project Schedule (2)

  26. Conclusion • The initial SignSupport mock-up on the PC showed a potential to help Deaf users to communicate with people that do not sign. • The next version of SignSupport will run in a mobile browser and allow multiple content modules. • We will continue to conduct user trials with Deaf participants to provide a solution that is useful for them. • Testing will resemble that of the PC mock-up, but on a mobile phone.

  27. Q & A

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