Evaluating quality and comprehension of real-time sign language video on mobile phones

Jessica J. Tran, Joy Kim, Jaehong Chon, Eve A. Riskin, Richard E. Ladner, Jacob O. Wobbrock

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Video and image quality are often objectively measured using peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), but for sign language video, human comprehension is most important. Yet the relationship of human comprehension to PSNR has not been studied. In this survey, we determine how well PSNR matches human comprehension of sign language video. We use very low bitrates (10-60 kbps) and two low spatial resolutions (192×144 and 320×240 pixels) which may be typical of video transmission on mobile phones using 3G networks. In a national online video-based user survey of 103 respondents, we found that respondents preferred the 320×240 spatial resolution transmitted at 20 kbps and higher; this does not match what PSNR results would predict. However, when comparing perceived ease/difficulty of comprehension, we found that responses did correlate well with measured PSNR. This suggests that PSNR may not be suitable for representing subjective video quality, but can be reliable as a measure for comprehensibility of American Sign Language (ASL) video. These findings are applied to our experimental mobile phone application, MobileASL, which enables real-time sign language communication for Deaf users at low bandwidths over the U.S. 3G cellular network.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationASSETS'11
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
Pages115-122
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011
Event13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ASSETS'11 - Dundee, United Kingdom
Duration: 24 Oct 201126 Oct 2011

Publication series

NameASSETS'11: Proceedings of the 13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

Conference

Conference13th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, ASSETS'11
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityDundee
Period24/10/1126/10/11

Keywords

  • american sign language
  • bitrate
  • deaf community
  • mobile phones
  • online survey
  • psnr
  • spatial resolution
  • video compression

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