Text to Fingerspelling and Speech on the Amiga Micro-computer
Manjula Waldron and Ben Choi
Department of Engineering Graphics & Biomedical Engineering
Department
of Electrical Engineering
The Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio 43210
Abstract: A software package to convert English text to fingerspelling was developed on the Amiga micro-computer. The software can convert text to either American (one hand) or English (two hand) manual alphabet. The purpose of the software is primarily to train persons who are learning fingerspelling. The rate of fingerspelling can be varied as well as the sequence of the text. There is a synthesized speech option so that the persons can see the fingerspelling by itself or coordinated with voice. Currently the fingerspelling software does not contract words by syllables like a deaf person would. Nevertheless, the software has great potential in teaching persons to receive and practice fingerspelling visually. Receptive fingerspelling is usually more difficult than producing the spelling manually.
Paper on:
IEEE Ninth Annual Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society,
pp.1769-1770, 1987.