Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed October 16, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Doctor Educationis / Research has shown that five parameters are required to recognize any sign language gesture: hand shape, location, orientation and motion, as well as facial expressions. The South African Sign Language (SASL) research group at the University of the Western Cape has created systems to recognize Sign Language gestures using single parameters. Using a single parameter can cause ambiguities in the recognition of signs that are similarly signed resulting in a restriction of the possible vocabulary size. This research pioneers work at the group towards combining multiple parameters to achieve a larger recognition vocabulary set. The proposed methodology combines hand location and hand shape recognition into one combined recognition system. The system is shown to be able to recognize a very large vocabulary of 50 signs at a high average accuracy of 74.1%. This vocabulary size is much larger than existing SASL recognition systems, and achieves a higher accuracy than these systems in spite of the large vocabulary. It is also shown that the system is highly robust to variations in test subjects such as skin colour, gender and body dimension. Furthermore, the group pioneers research towards continuously recognizing signs from a video stream, whereas existing systems recognized a single sign at a time. To this end, a highly accurate continuous gesture segmentation strategy is proposed and shown to be able to accurately recognize sentences consisting of five isolated SASL gestures.

ABSTRACT Context: Communication is a primary human need and language is the medium for this. Most people have the ability to listen and speak and they use different languages like Swedish, Urdu and English etc. to communicate. Hearing impaired people use signs to communicate. Pakistan Sign Language (PSL) is the preferred language of the deaf in Pakistan. Currently, human PSL interpreters are required to facilitate communication between the deaf and hearing; they are not always available, which means that communication among the deaf and other people may be impaired or nonexistent. In this situation, a system with voice recognition as an input and PSL as an output will be highly helpful. Objectives: As part of this thesis, we explore challenges faced by deaf people in everyday life while interacting with unimpaired. We investigate state of art work done in this area. This study explores speech recognition and Machine translation techniques to devise a generic and automated system that converts English speech to PSL. A prototype of the proposed solution is developed and validated. Methods: Three step investigation is done as part of thesis work. First, to understand problem itself, interviews were conducted with the domain experts. Secondly, from literature review, it is investigated whether any similar or related work has already been done, state of the art technologies like Machine translation, speech recognition engines and Natural language processing etc. have been analyzed. Thirdly, prototype is developed whose validation data is obtained from domain experts and is validated by ourselves as well as from domain experts. Results: It is found that there is a big communication gap between deaf and unimpaired in Pakistan. This is mainly due to the lack of an automated system that can convert Audio speech to PSL and vice versa. After investigating state of the art work including solutions in other countries specific to their languages, it is found that no system exists that is generic and automated. We found that there is already work started for PSL to English Speech conversion but not the other way around. As part of this thesis, we discovered that a generic and automated system can be devised using speech recognition and Machine translation techniques. Conclusion: Deaf people in Pakistan lack a lot of opportunities mainly due to communication gap between deaf and unimpaired. We establish that there should be a generic and automated system that can convert English speech to PSL and vice versa. As part of this, we worked for such a system that can convert English speech to PSL. Moreover, Speech recognition, Machine translation and Natural language processing techniques can be core ingredients for such a generic and automated system. Using user centric approach, the prototype of the system is validated iteratively from domain experts. / This research has investigated a computer based solution to facilitate communication among deaf people and unimpaired. Investigation was performed using literature review and visits to institutes to gain a deeper knowledge about sign language and specifically how is it used in Pakistan context. Secondly, challenges faced by deaf people to interact with unimpaired are analyzed by interviews with domain experts (instructors of deaf institutes) and by directly observing deaf in everyday life situations. We conclude that deaf people rely on sign language for communication with unimpaired people. Deaf people in Pakistan use PSL for communication, English is taught as secondary language all over Pakistan in all educational institutes, deaf people are taught by instructors that not only need to know the domain expertise of the area that they are teaching like Math, History and Science etc. but they also need to know PSL very well in order to teach the deaf. It becomes very difficult for deaf institutes to get instructors that know both. Whenever deaf people need to communicate with unimpaired people in any situation, they either need to hire a translator or request the unimpaired people to write everything for them. Translators are very difficult to get all the time and they are very expensive as well. Moreover, using writing by unimpaired becomes very slow process and not all unimpaired people want to do this. We observed this phenomena ourselves as instructors of the institutes provided us the opportunity to work with deaf people to understand their feelings and challenges in everyday life. In this way, we used to go with deaf people in shopping malls, banks, post offices etc. and with their permission, we observed their interaction. We have concluded that sometimes their interaction with normal people becomes very slow and embarrassing. Based on above findings, we concluded that there is definitely a need for an automated system that can facilitate communication between deaf and unimpaired people. These factors lead to the subsequent objective of this research. The main objective of this thesis is to identify a generic and an automated system without any human intervention that converts English speech into PSL as a solution to bridge the communication gap between deaf and unimpaired. It is identified that existing work done related to this problem area doesn’t fulfill our objective. Current solutions are either very specific to a domain, e.g. post office or need human intervention i.e. not automatic. It is identified that none of the existing systems can be extended towards our desired solution. We explored state of the art techniques like Machine translation, Speech recognition and NLP. We have utilized these in our proposed solution. Prototype of the proposed solution is developed whose functional and non functional validation is performed. Since none of existing work exactly matches to our problem statement, therefore, we have not compared the validation of our prototype to any existing system. We have validated prototype with respect to our problem domain. Moreover, this is validated iteratively from the domain experts, i.e. experts of PSL and the English to PSL human translators. We found this user centric approach very useful to help better understand the problem at the ground level, keeping our work user focused and then realization of user satisfaction level throughout the process. This work has opened a new world of opportunities where deaf can communicate with others who do not have PSL knowledge. Having this system, if it is further developed from a prototype to a functioning system; deaf institutes will have wider scope of choosing best instructors for a given domain that may not have PSL expertise. Deaf people will have more opportunities to interact with other members of the society at every level as communication is the basic pillar for this. The automatic speech to sign language is an attractive prospect; the impending applications are exhilarating and worthwhile. In the field of Human Computer Interface (HCI) we hope that our thesis will be an important addition to the ongoing research. / Ahmed Abdul Haseeb & Asim ilyas, Contact no. 00923215126749 House No. 310, Street No. 4 Rawal town Islamabad, Pakistan Postal Code 44000

Made available in DSpace on 2015-03-05T13:53:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 25 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Grandes avanços na ciência têm ocorrido nos últimos anos, provocando um processo de mudanças sócio-culturais, no qual o acesso a novas tecnologias se torna extremamente importante para todos. Entretanto, a grande maioria das ferramentas computacionais não está preparada para uso por pessoas portadoras de necessidades especiais. Mesmo assim, algumas iniciativas estão sendo desenvolvidas para difundir as línguas de sinais como forma de apoiar a inclusão digital e social dos surdos. Porém, a utilização dessas línguas em software ainda é bastante complexa e dispendiosa. Assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo o desenvolvimento da SWService, uma biblioteca que visa fornecer os recursos necessários para que softwares baseados na web possam utilizar a Língua Brasileira de Sinais. A solução apresenta como principal vantagem a utilização da tecnologia de Web Services, o que permite seu uso sem necessidade de desenvolvimento ou instalação local. Além disso, foram realizados um estudo de caso e uma pesquisa de opinião s / Great advances in science have been made in the last years promoting a social-cultural changing process, in which the access to the new technologies becomes too important for all. However, most of computational tools are not prepared to people who has special necessities. Some initiatives have been developed to spread out the sign languages as a way to make possible the deaf digital and social inclusion. But, the use of these languages in software is still complex and expensive. Thus, the aim of this work was to develop a library, SWService, which provides the wanted features to enable web-based software to use the Brazilian Sign Language. This solution presents as main advantage the use of Web Services technology witch allows the SWService use without local development or installation necessity. Besides, a case study and an opinion research applied to Sign WebForum, a discussion forum which uses the SWService to permits the writing and reading of messages both in Portuguese and Libras, were realized.

This dissertation explores the emergence of the linguistic use of pointing as first- and non-first-person pronoun in Greek Sign Language. Despite the similarity in form between the pointing gesture and pronominal pointing signs, children acquiring sign language pass through the same stages and acquire personal pronouns at about the same age as children acquiring spoken language. According to Petitto (1984, 1987, 1994), the transition to pronominal pointing in American Sign Language is characterised by: (a) a period of discontinuity in which children avoid using pointing directed towards persons, and (b) the occurrence of reversal errors before the acquisition of first and second-person pronouns. The present study offers additional evidence on the acquisition of personal pronouns through the investigation of: (a) the manner and the age at which pronominal pointing signs are acquired by a child exposed to Greek Sign Language, (b) the use of other signs for reference to persons and self, and (c) the existence of reversal errors in the child’s early use of pointing. Data consist of video-recorded spontaneous interaction between a deaf boy and his family every fortnight from the age of 12 to 36 months. Thirty hours of the child’s communicative behaviour have been transcribed and all sequences that included pointing were analysed in terms of reference and function. This study confirms that language modality plays a restricted role in language acquisition. The time and the frequency of occurrence of pronominal pointing signs correspond to the general developmental pattern observed in the acquisition of ASL. However, there are also important differences: (a) common nouns and proper names are used for reference to others before the acquisition of pronominal pointing, but to a limited extent (b) the existence of only one erroneous pointing sign indicates that the deaf child, from the beginning, uses pronominal signs correctly, and (c) there is no evidence of discontinuity in the transition from the early communicative pointing gesture to pronominal pointing signs. / <p>För att köpa boken skicka en beställning till exp@ling.su.se/ To order the book send an e-mail to exp@ling.su.se</p>

This study investigated the language use of deaf adult bilinguals in conversation with each other in workplace settings, and with their deaf and hearing children in home settings. The aim was to gain insight into the Auslan-English language contact outcomes that might be found in these settings, and what factors influenced these outcomes. The results indicated that the most unique use of language by deaf bilinguals was that of simultaneous use of both spoken English and Auslan, and it was this simultaneous use which facilitated the two examples of code-switching (defined as a complete change of language from Auslan to spoken English) that was found in the data. The other two contact outcomes of significance were frequent transference of English into Auslan, and the equally frequent use of fingerspelling, which has a pivotal role in filling the gap in Auslan, a language with no orthographic form. The study also revealed that Auslan (a signed language) was the language in which many issues of identity were expressed by deaf bilinguals, regardless of whether the individual was a first or second language learner of Auslan. The results confirmed that these language and identity factors did influence the language contact outcomes.

This study investigated the language use of deaf adult bilinguals in conversation with each other in workplace settings, and with their deaf and hearing children in home settings. The aim was to gain insight into the Auslan-English language contact outcomes that might be found in these settings, and what factors influenced these outcomes. The results indicated that the most unique use of language by deaf bilinguals was that of simultaneous use of both spoken English and Auslan, and it was this simultaneous use which facilitated the two examples of code-switching (defined as a complete change of language from Auslan to spoken English) that was found in the data. The other two contact outcomes of significance were frequent transference of English into Auslan, and the equally frequent use of fingerspelling, which has a pivotal role in filling the gap in Auslan, a language with no orthographic form. The study also revealed that Auslan (a signed language) was the language in which many issues of identity were expressed by deaf bilinguals, regardless of whether the individual was a first or second language learner of Auslan. The results confirmed that these language and identity factors did influence the language contact outcomes.

This study examined the effectiveness of two procedures, a visual cue and performance posting, to modify the use of sign language by psychiatric technicians. The visual cue was first introduced alone, then paired with performance posting to encourage staff use of sign language with the developmentally disabled children in their charge. Application of the visual cue alone produced little change in staff sign useage. The visual cue plus performance posting condition increased staff use of sign language during mealtimes. Four weeks of follow-up data indicated that the use of sign language remained at a level well above baseline.

Nous considérons plusieurs problèmes autour des matrices à signes alternants (MSA). Dans un premier chapitre nous donnons une formule de comptage des MSAs selon le nombre k de -1 qu'elles contiennent et leur taille n. Cette formule permet d'obtenir une évaluation asymptotique pour un k donné lorsque n tend vers l'infini et une expression simple pour les valeurs de k inférieures ou égales à 7.Une deuxième partie est consacrée à une famille de MSAs dont les triangles Gogs (ou triangles monotones) associés sont en bijection avec une famille de triangles Magogs (ou des partition planes auto complémentaires symétriques). Nous présentons une méthode de minoration du nombre d'éléments de taille n dans cette famille d'objets.Enfin, nous évaluons la probabilité d'apparition de motifs (sous-diagrammes) dans des diagrammes de cordes tirés selon la distribution limite introduite par la conjecture de Razumov et Stroganov. / Abstract

Distinguishing patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) within the very large proportion with suspected cardiac pain is a diagnostic challenge, especially in individuals without clear symptoms or electrocardiographic features. This thesis presents the development of a patient data fusion system that would ultimately be able to assist with early identification of patients with non-ST-elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome (NSTEACS) in the pre-hospital setting. In order to identify high-risk ACS patients, patients with ST changes need to be identified. A rule-based ST segment analysis technique was developed and validated on two publicly available databases. Even in subjects who are known to have myocardial ischaemia (MI), ST changes are not considered as a basis for a definitive diagnosis of individual episodes of ischaemia. A technique to differentiate between ST changes caused by MI and those caused by non-ischaemic ST changes such as body position changes or conduction changes was also developed. At the outset of this research there was no available database with continuous vital-sign data for recorded during the ambulance transport. A clinical study was set up to collect vitalsign data and ECG during ambulance transport. Additional parameters from the ECG such as heart rate variability that can be used for detecting ACS, particularly NSTEACS, were investigated. High-risk patients may be identified early by appropriate combination of vital-sign data, demographic information and ECG analysis. This thesis contributes to the literature on early identification of NSTEACS patient during the ambulance transportation. Firstly, it differentiate between ischaemic and non-ischaemic ST episodes using non-linear classifiers. pre-hospital data to ensure . Secondly, it investigates the diagnostic and prognostic value of heart rate variability in identifying high-risk NSTEACS patients in a pre-hospital setting. Thirdly, the thesis attempts to show how data fusion of vitalsign data and additional parameters from the ECG can be used to differentiate between noncardiac and NSTEACS patients in a pre-hospital setting. Lastly, the thesis also provides some insight into the data collection process in a pre-hospital setting.