Cellular Sign Language
The world has gone mobile, but without parallel technological developments for the hearing impaired, deaf consumers are in danger of falling behind. Phones have caused a longtime problem in terms of providing an adequate communication medium in the deaf community. Cell phones have offered improvements by leaps and bounds over land lines, helping to expand the options available for the hearing impaired to contact the outside world. However, while applications such as text messaging provide practical function, the cell phone experience has still been far from optimized for deaf users.The prospect of video chatting via cell phone finally offers the chance for those with hearing loss to use cell phones in the same way as the rest of the world, by allowing for instant person to person communication, as opposed to the response delay and out of context issues so often found when texting. Still, the limited bandwidth poses clarity issues in video chat sessions, with an uninterrupted, streaming feed necessary in order for sign language to be properly interpreted back and forth. Not to mention, small screens and limited picture quality make the process difficult.With this in mind, the University of Washington is currently developing a program dubbed MobileASL (Mobile American Sign Language). Were higher bandwidth available to United States cell phone networks, no such technology would be necessary, as current cell phones can be used effectively by hearing impaired abroad (i.e. Japan), with such resources at their disposal. Not only will MobileASL aspire to circumvent bandwidth issues, the software will offer enhanced imagery in the face and hands, to better cater to deaf users than standard video technology, as it is being developed with the demographic specifically in mind.Once available, MobileASL should be applicable to any mobile device with a screen and camera on the same face, just like regular video chat.
