How Salute! was made

SignPS, a TIDE project

Many deaf people have a relatively small vocabulary when it comes to the spoken language used by the people around them. As a consequence, their reading and writing skills are limited. This limitation wouldn't exist if they could read and write in sign language. So the goal of the project Sign Printing System was: making it possible for the deaf to write sign language on the computer.

The project partners' research focussed on how signs could best be rendered on paper. Then Handicom designed prototype software with which signs could be drawn and documents could be made and printed in sign language.

SignPS was subsidized by the European Union as a part of the TIDE (Technology Initiative for Disabled and Elderly People) program (1994-1997).

Features of Sign Language

The signs that comprise sign language, are dynamic, three-dimensional, visual symbols. Words on the other hand are represented using different sound-based letters. Signs may also be divided in different components: the shape, the movement of the hands, the exact position of the hands and the distance to the body, the facial expression.

During the SignPS project, these features were first identified and then it was considered how to best render them on paper. With the SignPS prototype software these components had to be combined into two-dimensional sign drawings.

The other project partners were:

MicroCentre, University of Dundee, GB
Department of Technical Computer Science, RWTH Aken, DL
IRV, Hoensbroek, NL
RNR, Amsterdam, NL

SignPS software (prototype)

The software that was used in the Sign PS project to write and print sign language texts consisted of two modules: the Sign Editor and the Document Editor. The next phase of development came when, at the initiative of Inge Zwitserlood, then working at Viataal, the project Lees&Teken was started (financed by Nuts-Ohra). The goal was to improve the Sign Editor and to draw a number of signs of the Dutch sign language. The sign drawings were made by Viataal, and verified by the Nederlands Gebarencentrum (Dutch sign centre).

At this point in time, a lot could be accomplished by the use of the Sign Editor and the Document Editor, but there were still a lot of superfluous components in the software, like speech output and scanning. This made the package rather expensive, while on the other hand much could be gained in the area of user friendlyness by adding other components. In short, Handicom wanted to design a full-fledged software package that would be user friendly and affordable. So we got to work and the result was Salute!. With Salute! a comprehensive package is on the market, with which digital communication in sign language is possible without the help of expensive videosystems. We hope you will enjoy the program as much as we did making it.