Modern Information Technology/Computer Engineering
Candidate of Technical
Sciences Kudubayeva S.A., M.Sc. Ermagambetova G.N.
Kostanay State University named after
A.Baytursynov Kazakhstan
On the
creation of a network application for the Kazakh sign language.
Since the dactyl speech was used first by a Spanish monk named Pedro
Ponce de Leon and, a century later in 1620, Juan Pablo Bonet published his book
with dactyl alphabet "Summary of the letters and the art of teaching
speech to the mute" in Madrid, the learning problems, development and sign
language usage are the subject of heated debate and numerous scientific
battles.
The broad invasion of new information technologies has led to attempts
to create programs teaching the sign language. The necessity for establishment of such
programs is not in doubt - for now, about 21 thousand of Kazakhstani people
(according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Republic of
Kazakhstan) suffer from hear and speech impairments. A category of people who
need to communicate with these people should be added to this count. Thus, the
systematic training of sign language and its his appropriate usage and
development are the most important social tasks. At Kostanay State University
named after A. Baytursynov with the support of the MES of Republic of
Kazakhstan a project devoted to create an Internet portal "Surdo.kz"
has been created. It is designed mostly to help people with hearing
impairments.
Types
of sign language
During the process of working on the project, the Kazakh sign language
analysis has been done and its specialties have been revealed. There are two types of
sign language: 1) gestural conversational speech which is used for
communication between deaf people; 2) repetitive gestural language which is
used mostly by sign language interpreters in official communication forms.
Speaking gestural language uses the
sign language. Gestures are varied and complex in structure. They take one or
two hands, and a combination of fingers has a definite meaning. Hands are
placed in front of the speaker's body, but in different spatial positions -
near to face, chest, waist down. The movement is carried out by varying route.
The speed of movement varies: they can be fast and slow. In some cases, when it
is necessary to emphasize the value of expression the same movements can be
repeated several times.
Repetitive gestural
language is used for the sequence of gestures as an exact
reproduction. In
other words, this means the element-wise transfer of verbal expression. The
gestures are used in repetitive speech have double origin. They either come
from the conversational sign language, or gestures are constructed from the
inclusion of a full or partial dactyl pronunciation of individual words. By
this form of speech, most diverse business information, public, political and
scientific content is delivered. Some news programs on television are
accompanied with repetitive gestural speech.
The conversational sign language specialties:
The conversational sign language features are determined with its focus
on everyday communication. Here are the important ones:
-
limited vocabulary;
- design proposals;
- the conversational sign language morphology;
- amorphous;
- inflection;
-
ruggedness;
-
polysemy;
-
concreteness;
- imagery.
The sign language sentences
design has its own peculiarities: usually the first place takes an object,
then its value, after that the action which is directed to the the object is
placed. Facial
expressions often acts as a semantic unit of expression.
Inflection
(change of mode of the gesture performance), due the verb form (perfect,
imperfect), person, number and other characteristics can be expressed.
Polysemy
(multiple meanings of gestures). The same gesture can be used to express
the figure, the action and the result of action. For example, the same gesture
determines words "to write", "a letter", or words "an
ax" and "to hack". The specific sense of the gesture is
determined by context.
The
imagery of gestures helps to
memorize them easier, it means an ease of perception for deaf people. The gestures denoting
words in a foreign language are understandable and easily digestible.
Existing analogues and prototypes:
-
"Russian Sign Language"
e-learning system by "Istina" development center together with the
Central Board of FOG creative team;
- RuSLED (Russian Sign Language Education Dictionary) is a multimedia
dictionary of the Russian Sign Language by Voskresensky A.L., Hahalin G.K. ANO
"College of Management, Law and Information Technology MESI";
- digitgestus.com: "Russian Sign Language" electronic dictionary;
- Signing Science Dictionary (SSD) Vcommunicator Studio Animated
Dictionary, developed by Vcom 3D company(Orlando, Florida, USA);
- "Hear the world" the Internet site, with the financial support
of "SOROS-Kazakhstan".
The project of the Internet portal
"Surdo.kz" establishment
The purpose of the
project development: "The system
of the sign language words and terms automated translation, along with the free
access to the on-line resources of the Kazakh sign language and world sign
languages provision, which serves to facilitate communication of deaf and
normally hearing people."
The project relevance is defined by:
- insufficient number of specialists in the field of the sign language;
- the need to create a sign language on-line machine translation to help
people with hearing impairments;
- the need to create new gestures for different areas of expertise;
- the need for gestures uniformity.
Project objectives:
- the software and its functions definition and description;
- development of the structure and the creation of a flexible database of
video files with the possibility of capacity expanding;
- providing search and gesture playback functions;
- IT terms explanation;
- information on sign languages of different countries provision;
- Kazakh language words to the International sign language gestures
translation implementation;
- Surdo.kz on-line access for users provision.
The steps:
- Surdo.kz layout and template development;
- The used software definition;
- A bank of new Kazakh language gestures creation followed by the
dictionary completion;
- Surdo.kz on-line access provision.
Surdo.kz layout development:
- the dictionary of widely used Kazakh language gestures;
- the dictionary of new Kazakh language gestures and their descriptions;
- existing dactyl alphabets of world countries;
- information on sign languages in different countries (in the link form);
- search gestures by choice;
- translation to the International sign language;
- Surdo.kz on-line access provision.
Technology platform:
- Linux (Ubuntu Server 8.04 LTS) operation system;
- Apache Web-server version 2.2;
- PHP 5.3 programming language;
- Zend Framework 1.11;
- MySQL 5.0.14 database server.
Technical Platform:
The server used in the project is a VPS (Virtual Private Server) leased
from the VPS.NET company (London,
UK). VPS.NET effectively implements
the technology of "cloud computing" which allows to increase the
computational capacity of the leased server to required amount in a very short
time (less than a minute). Thus, the reliable application performance under
increasing load is ensured.
Server specifications:
- The central processor (CPU) 400 MHz;
- 256 MB RAM;
- 10 GB on a hard drive (HDD);
- 250 GB of summary allowed Internet traffic per month.
Creation of the Kazakh
language new gestures bank:
- learning new gestures of the Kazakh language and international sign
language;
- shooting new videos and video files processing;
- an additional function creation for IT terms clarification;
- the dictionary with new learned gestures the subsequent completion.
Surdo.kz will provide
users with the following features:
· search and reproduce gestures alphabetically;
· search and reproduce gestures on certain themes;
· dactyl Kazakh alphabet;
· dactyl alphabets of more than 30 countries;
· Web links to various sites of world sign languages;
· new themes adding and the gesture bank reinforcement;
· translator empowerment;
· new gestures creation, promotion and standardization;
· developing the Kazakh sign language writing representation;
· sign language teaching methods creation;
· children's section;
· processing feedback from users.
This project can be undoubtedly considered as original and new. In Kazakhstan there are
no projects that provide on-line access to the Kazakh sign language and
database and dactyl alphabet on-line, being accessible all the time. There are
the rich variety of on-line services for deaf people abroad, but they obviously
refer to appropriate national sign languages. The project meets the world
standards and its functionality is relevant and socially important. Here in
Kazakhstan is a great lack of resources for training and rehabilitation for
people with hearing impairments. There is a lack of kindergartens and schools
for deaf children, deaf people find it difficult to obtain professional
education. At the same time, modern technology and the Internet offer new
features, which are very suitable for the expansion of knowledge and outlook of
hearing impairment people. The project "Surdo.kz" has no aim to
replace surdopedagogs in their activities entirely, but still allow anyone to
reinforce their knowledge of sign language through self-study, will help
parents of deaf children learn gestures and dactyl. It can be used also by
social and other services to learn the sign language.
References:
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æåñòîâ. [Ýëåêòðîííûé ðåñóðñ]. – Ðåæèì äîñòóïà: http://psychologiya.ucoz.ru
2. Çàéöåâà Ã.Ë.
Äàêòèëîëîãèÿ. Æåñòîâàÿ ðå÷ü: Ó÷åá. äëÿ ÂÓÇîâ./Çàéöåâà. – Ì.: «ÂÀËÄÎÑ», 2004.
[Ýëåêòðîííûé ðåñóðñ]. – Ðåæèì äîñòóïà: http://www.pedlib.ru/Books/l/0275
3. Âîñêðåñåíñêèé À.Ë.
Æåñòîâàÿ ðå÷ü – ÿçûê èëè çíàêîâàÿ ñèñòåìà? [Ýëåêòðîííûé ðåñóðñ]. – Ðåæèì äîñòóïà:
http://www.dialog-21.ru/Archive/2004/Voskresenskij.htm
4. Âîñêðåñåíñêèé À.Ë.,
Ãóëåíêî È.Å., Õàõàëèí Ã.Ê. Ðàçðàáîòêà ñðåäñòâ ïåðåâîäà ñ åñòåñòâåííîãî ÿçûêà íà
æåñòîâûé ÿçûê ãëóõèõ. [Ýëåêòðîííûé ðåñóðñ]. – Ðåæèì äîñòóïà:
http://www.dom3.deria.ru/article/~pr/info_articles/5