Variable frame rate for low power mobile sign language communication

Neva Cherniavsky, Anna C. Cavender, Richard E. Ladner, Eve A. Riskin

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

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

The MobileASL project aims to increase accessibility by enabling Deaf people to communicate over video cell phones in their native language, American Sign Language (ASL). Real-time video over cell phones can be a computationally intensive task that quickly drains the battery, rendering the cell phone useless. Properties of conversational sign language allow us to save power and bits: namely, lower frame rates are possible when one person is not signing due to turn-taking, and signing can potentially employ a lower frame rate than fingerspelling. We conduct a user study with na,tive signers to examine the intelligibility of varying the frame rate based on activity in the video. We then describe several methods for automatically determining the activity of signing or not signing from the video stream in real-time. Our results show that varying the frame rate during turn-taking is a good way to save power without sacrificing intelligibility, and that automatic activity analysis is feasible.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationASSETS'07
Subtitle of host publicationProceedings of the Ninth International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
Pages163-170
Number of pages8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007
EventASSETS'07: 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility - Tempe, AZ, United States
Duration: 15 Oct 200717 Oct 2007

Publication series

NameASSETS'07: Proceedings of the Ninth International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility

Conference

ConferenceASSETS'07: 9th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityTempe, AZ
Period15/10/0717/10/07

Keywords

  • Activity analysis
  • Deaf community
  • Low power
  • Mobile telephone use
  • Sign language

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