Signing will be a new form of mobile communication for the Deaf or hard of hearing

You’ve surely heard of Speech to Text applications even on mobile phone these days as well as those that work the other way around but this latest development but Cornell University researchers will blow your mind. The researchers have been working on a system that will allow mobile users who are hard of hearing or deaf to communicate with other users via sign language. The technology was drafted about four years ago by Mobile ASL (American Sign Language) but only on paper till a prototype device was developed in 2008 and is being used by about 25 deaf people in Seattle, Washington.

Battling issues like limited bandwidth and more importantly, battery life since this concept works as a form of video conferencing via the handset’s camera, researchers were still able to create a working model with the confines. The researchers also created video compression software that could deliver video at approximately 10 frames per second so as not to overload standard 2G networks. The next step will be to make this an app that‘s cost effect and easy to integrate into mobile handsets with appropriate capabilities. The concept is brilliant and the evolution of the mobile handset has taken a new step forward.
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