Washington, Dec 6 (ANI): Scientists have created cell phones that allow deaf people to communicate in sign language - the same way hearing people use phones to talk.

“We completely take cell phones for granted,” said Sheila Hemami, Cornell professor of electrical and computer engineering, who leads the research with Eve Riskin and Richard Ladner of the University of Washington.

“Deaf people can text, but if texting were so fabulous, cell phones would never develop. There is a reason that we like to use our cell phones. People prefer to talk,” she added.

Hemami said that the technology is about much more than convenience. It allows deaf people “untethered communication in their native language” - exactly the same connectivity available to hearing people, she said.

Standard videoconferencing is used widely in academia and industry, for example, in distance-learning courses.

However, the Mobile ASL (American Sign Language) team designed their video compression software specifically with ASL users in mind, with the goal of sending clear, understandable video over existing limited bandwidth networks.

They also faced such constraints as phones’ battery life and their ability to process real-time video at enough frames per second.

They solved the battery life problem by writing software smart enough to vary the frames per second based on whether the user is signing or watching the other person sign.

Because ASL requires efficient motion capture, the researchers had to make video compression software that could deliver video at about 10 frames per second.

They also had to work within the standard wireless 2G network, which only allows transmission of video at about 15-20 kilobits per second.

This is a relatively small amount of information when compared with a YouTube video, which travels at about 600 kilobits per second. For further comparison, high-definition digital television images come in at 6-10 megabits per second.

Researching how ASL developed gave the team clues on how people use it, said Frank Ciaramello, a graduate student working on the project. They learned that deaf people often use only one hand to sign, depending on the situation, and that they’re very good at adapting as needed.

And they found that when two people are talking to each other, they spend almost the entire time focused on the other person’s face.

“The facial expressions are really important in ASL, because they add a lot of information,” Ciaramello said. (ANI)