Deaf students test the MobileASL-capable device. Image Credit: Mary Levin, University of Washington
DCL
For deaf people, using a telephone can be a cumbersome ordeal that includes special equipment and services that connect callers through translators. Cell phones have become incredibly useful tools for the deaf community, but it's their texting capabilities that are so valuable. Yet students at University of Washington are helping to make cell phones convenient for deaf and hard-of-hearing people to communicate face to face. Making a quick call is soon to be a whole lot easier.
University of Washington engineers are developing the first software for mobile devices that allows American Sign Language to be transmitted over U.S. cellular networks. The software is called MobileASL, and could potentially run on any cell phone with video calling capabilities. It brings the advances of video calls brought about by tools like Skype to the ubiquitous devices that fit in a hip pocket. It has just completed its first round of field tests with students in a University of Washington summer program for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, and it looks promising.
Transmitting sign language over cellular networks requires a device that has optimized video quality so that the signs aren't muddled. Just as with poor voice quality, seeing blurred, slowed, or pixelated images would block communication. Researchers have been able to compress the data to 30 kilobytes per second without impacting the image quality too much, and the devices are even equipped with motion detection that determines whether or not a person is signing so that battery life is preserved, since one too-long video call wiping out an entire charge is not exactly desirable.
By compressing the data as much as possible to make transmitting it efficient, the software keeps the possibility of video calling affordable, reliable even on slower networks, and doesn't drain device batteries. And after three weeks of field testing among 11 participants, researchers found that they're definitely useful -- the question is how useful, and in what settings during peoples' every-day lives. The phones would need to be used in settings with enough lighting so each caller could be easily seen by the other, and unless the two callers are proficient at understanding signs made with just one hand, the callers would need to be able to prop the device up so they can free both hands for communication. While slight hindrances, these aren't necessarily factors that would stop wide adoption of the technology.
According to University of Washington, "Most study participants say texting or e-mail is currently their preferred method for distance communication. Their experiences with the MobileASL phone are, in general, positive."
"It is good for fast communication," said Tong Song, a Chinese national who is studying at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. "Texting sometimes is very slow, because you send the message and you're not sure that the person is going to get it right away. If you're using this kind of phone then you're either able to get in touch with the person or not right away, and you can save a lot of time."
"Sometimes with texting people will be confused about what it really means," Song said. "With the MobileASL phone people can see each other eye to eye, face to face, and really have better understanding."
While FaceTime on the new iPhone 4 might pop into mind as an existing technology for something like this, it uses ten times the bandwidth as MobileASL. Figuring out how to keep the bandwidth down while maintaining image quality is key to making this work with any device on a larger scale. If field tests continue to go well, we may soon see the software expanded and MobileASL making cell phone calls a breeze for the deaf.
