MobileASL: Intelligibility of Sign Language Video Over Mobile Phones
By Cavender, Anna; Vanam, Rahul; Barney, Dane K.; Ladner, Richard E.; Riskin, Eve A.; Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology, Vol. 3, No. 1-2, pp. 93-105Publication Date: January/March 2008
Study assessing the potential for mobile video sign language communication over the US cell-phone network. A one-hour focus group was conducted with 4 adult members of the Deaf community ranging in age from mid-20s to mid-40s to investigate the potential needs and desires for mobile sign language communication. A user study with 18 adult members of the Deaf community assessed the effects of a region-of-interest (ROI) encoding, where the face regions of the video were encoded at better quality than other regions, and reduced frame rate encodings, where fewer, better-quality frames were displayed every second. These two factors were studied at 3 different bit rates representing a lower-end possible range for transfer over the current cell-phone network. Results indicated that reducing the frame rate and increasing the quality of the image near the signer’s face may help yield more intelligible ASL for low bit rates. A second study with 6 adults from the Deaf community found that encoding speed could significantly be increased without severely affecting video quality by implementing a reduced complexity encoder. These results were found to show promise for real-time access to the current low-bandwith cell-phone network through sign-language-specific encoding techniques. Implications for future work are discussed.
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Limited (Website:http://taylorandfrancis.org)
International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (Web Site: http://www.isprm.org )
Link to text: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17483100701343475
