Sign language translator is music to some ears
PERHAPS the most unusual product at CES Unveiled came from Krown Manufacturing, whose products are otherwise poised at the hearing impaired (think TTY devices and alarm monitors): a sign language translator!
Although we only saw a prototype device as it's due in May 2009, the device will allow a sign language impaired person to input desired words, then have the display translate them to the less popular American Sign Language (ASL). International Sign might some soon, should the device become popular.
Using a flimsy stylus, one inputs the words or sentence needing translation. As an example, asking where the loo is does not show a fellow standing on one leg bounding up and down, rather it signs 'where is the restroom'.
The vocabulary is designed to have as many as 3500 or so words and phrases, which is many more than the typical Italian waiter. Future variants might include other language combinations although teenager shrug emoters are apparently not among them. µ
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This might seem like a silly question but what use would a sign language translator be? I mean, let us think about this, it takes words that I'm writing down and then translates them into on screen sign language, right? This allows the other party to view the screen and understand the sign language? Correct?
Couldn't I just let the other person read what I've written on the screen in the first place? Or, better yet, just write the message down on a piece of paper and let them read that instead?
This seems like a rather worthless device unless it can translate sign language into text rather than the other way around.
"Couldn't I just let the other person read what I've written on the screen in the first place?"
Just what i was thinking, what is the point exactly ? the reverse - video capture of a signer + processing & translation - MIGHT be more helpful but horrendously computationally intensive, and the above would also apply.
as an aside and re: italian waiters, how many languages do you assume the typical british waiter at an arbitrary local resort speaks ? i've met one, in spain (his adopted homeland) whose spanish was just about enough to call for help, but here in the uk? strictly english! so be thankful for the pidgin english you get from all foreign waiters as they're making a much greater effort than we do. truth is the average brit demands english from foreigners in his own country (quite rightly, to a point) but then curses the poor service provided by "foreigners" for not speaking english while on holiday abroad himself. pot.... kettle...
Or what kit they may have at The Royal Armouries in Leeds - Italy would do well to open a Tales of Camorra for punters gunning down Naples way. Now that The Tales of Robin Hood attraction is bust in Nottingham (alas, Poor Robin and Maid Marian), the evil Sheriff of, has won his way. What is the sign for birra?
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You're assuming that all deaf people can read written english, which most definitely isn't the case. It can be much harder for a deaf person to learn to read than a hearing person. Also the sentence structure and wording in sign language is often very different to that of spoken english. All in all, deaf people often find sign language much easier to understand than text. I would say this isn't a worthless device by any means, and it could be an important step to bridging the gap between the hearing and the deaf.