Editorial: As per usual at VAOJ, there are no product endorsements here. You might be wondering why I am comparing a technology aimed at "helping deaf people" and an iPhone case/toy. The answer is that they are both pretty ridiculous, although that might be a bit too harsh to describe the iPhone case. There might be a market for the case and it might generate some fun. But it would be as useless for deaf people communicating with hearing people as the sign language gloves. Those gloves are a continuing and contemporary example of the deficit model towards deaf people and their natural language. It expects deaf people to make the added effort to use this new technology so they can better communicate with hearing people through speech. It completely ignores the needs of deaf people and the realities/linguistics of sign language. How so-called scientists could work on such a technology (and receive research grants for it) while ignoring the vast research and literature about sign languages is astounding.
I hope more people read my article.
Fedorowicz, Steven C. 2019. "Performance, Sign Language, and Deaf Identity in Japan." Anthropology News website, June 5, 2019. DOI: 10.1111/AN.1182
http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2019/06/05/performance-sign-language-and-deaf-identity-in-japan/
Read on...
Image and text borrowed from The Atlantic.com.
Why Sign-Language Gloves Don't Help Deaf People
Along with jet packs and hover boards, a machine to translate from any language to any other is so appealing as a fantasy that people are willing to overlook clunky prototypes as long as they can retain the belief that the future promised by science fiction has, at last, arrived. One particularly clunky subspecies of the universal language translator has a rather dismal history: the sign-language glove, which purports to translate sign language in real time to text or speech as the wearer gestures. For people in the Deaf community, and linguists, the sign-language glove is rooted in the preoccupations of the hearing world, not the needs of Deaf signers.
The basic idea dates to the 1980s, when researchers started exploring how humans could interact with computers using gestures. In 1983, a Bell Labs engineer named Gary Grimes invented a glove for data entry using the 26 manual gestures of the American Manual Alphabet, used by speakers of American Sign Language. But the first glove intended to make interactions between deaf and non-deaf people easier was announced in 1988 by the Stanford University researchers James Kramer and Larry Leifer. It was called the “talking glove,” and the entire system cost $3,500—not including the price of the CyberGlove itself.
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The most recent project is from July 2017, when a team at the University of California, San Diego, published a paper in PLOS One describing a gesture-recognizing glove. The project was headed by Darren Lipomi, a chemist who researches the mechanical properties of innovative materials, such as stretchable polymer-based solar cells and skin-like sensors. On July 12, the UCSD news office promoted Lipomi’s publication with a story proclaiming, “Low-cost smart glove translates American Sign Language alphabet and controls virtual objects.” The next day, the online outlet Medgadget lopped “alphabet” out of its headline, and reports of a glove that “translates sign language” again spread far and wide, getting picked up by New Scientist, The Times in the United Kingdom, and other outlets. Medgadget wasn’t entirely to blame—Lipomi had titled his paper “The Language of Glove” and written that the device “translated” the alphabet into text, not “converted,” which would have been more accurate.
Linguists caught wind of the project. Carol Padden, the dean of social sciences at UCSD and a prominent sign-language linguist who is also deaf, passed along a critique of the sign-language glove concept...
“I was surprised and felt somehow betrayed because they obviously didn’t check with the Deaf community or even check with ASL program teachers to make sure that they are representing our language appropriately.”
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all the sign-language translation gloves invented so far—misconstrue the nature of ASL (and other sign languages) by focusing on what the hands do. Key parts of the grammar of ASL include “raised or lowered eyebrows, a shift in the orientation of the signer’s torso, or a movement of the mouth,” reads the letter. “Even perfectly functioning gloves would not have access to facial expressions.” ASL consists of thousands of signs presented in sophisticated ways that have, so far, confounded reliable machine recognition. One challenge for machines is the complexity of ASL and other sign languages. Signs don’t appear like clearly delineated beads on a string; they bleed into one another in a process that linguists call “coarticulation” (where, for instance, a hand shape in one sign anticipates the shape or location of the following sign; this happens in words in spoken languages, too, where sounds can take on characteristics of adjacent ones).
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Also, though the gloves are often presented as devices to improve accessibility for the Deaf, it’s the signers, not the hearing people, who must wear the gloves, carry the computers, or modify their rate of signing. “This is a manifestation of audist beliefs,” the UW letter states, “the idea that the Deaf person must expend the effort to accommodate to the standards of communication of the hearing person.”
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Still, as long as actual Deaf users aren’t included in these projects, inventors are likely to continue creating devices that offend the very group they say they want to help.
Read the whole article: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/11/why-sign-language-gloves-dont-help-deaf-people/545441/?fbclid=IwAR2gD3-rpnw2AEcWPds8TdFFmzlpS3JCFz9VnQ6Y7EXBvyVNVNfY8zCDq0k
Images and text from Japan Today, 7/1/19.
'Woman's hand' iPhone case to keep you company
If you're looking for a handy new iPhone case, look no further. Sold by Japanese smartphone case retailer Hamee, this unusually shaped case called "Nami's Hand" is realistically modeled after a real woman's hand, reproducing details right down to the whites of the nails and palm lines. Although not as soft and flexible as a real hand, the fleshy parts of the fingers and palm are still remarkably soft to the touch.
You can use it as a conversation starter, as a joke (but please be careful with people with weak hearts or who are easily frightened or startled) or, if you're not creeped out by an inanimate hand, as a "virtual" friend to keep you company.
You can enjoy a bracing breakfast that will quickly dispel the sleep from your eyes when you put Nami's Hand at your table in the morning.
You can use Nami's Hand to organize your headphones and she looks great when you're charging your phone. You can also give Nami's Hand as a gift to someone in a paper bag (bag sold separately).
Source: https://japantoday.com/category/features/new-products/'woman's-hand'-iphone-case-to-keep-you-company
Here are a couple examples to help deaf people that actually collaborated with deaf people (again, no product endorsements, just fyi...)...
"Fujitsu develops user interface device to sense sound with body"
From Japan Today, June 30, 2019.
Fujitsu Ltd has launched a service supporting sports and cultural events using Ontenna, a device that lets users sense sound with their bodies. The company said it is providing a free trial version of Ontenna for schools for the deaf.
The trial is being conducted in 30 schools, with the goal of encouraging the use of this device in day-to-day education for deaf students.
Developed in collaboration with members of the deaf and hearing impaired community, Ontenna is a user interface device that can be equipped to users in various ways - worn like a hair pin or attached to the shirt collar-, letting them sense sound characteristics through vibration and light.
The manufacturer of Ontenna, Fujitsu Electronics Inc, plans to develop enterprise businesses using Ontenna and begin sales to individual consumers via ecommerce sites, in July 2019.
Fujitsu said Ontenna can convert sound vibration patterns from an audio source between approximately 60 and 90 dB to 256 levels of vibration and light strength. In addition, by delivering specific sounds at sports competitions and events with more dynamic vibration and light, Ontenna can convey the ambiance and a sense of unity among the audience, increasing the value of the experience.
Because Ontenna is not reliant on language, it can also provide a new way of attending events regardless of disability or nationality, Fujitsu said.
Source: https://japantoday.com/category/tech/fujitsu-develops-user-interface-device-to-sense-sound-with-body
"Wavio and Area 23’s ‘See Sound’ Project Wins Top Innovation Grand Prix at Cannes Lions"
From ADWEEK.COM, June 20, 2019.
A new way to help people who are hard of hearing understand the sounds around them at home has won this year’s top innovation award the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Today at the annual festival in France, judges awarded Area 23’s campaign for Wavio the coveted Grand Prix for its “See Sound” project. The mobile app, enabled by machine learning through a collaboration with Google to identify everyday sounds, notifies users of normal and abnormal sounds in and around the home with text-based notifications on their smart phone.
According to Bill Yom, global creative director of Cheil Worldwide and jury president for the Innovation Lions, the project had the jurors “convinced from the beginning” after the presentation. They were impressed not just by the idea of helping people who are hard of hearing, but also by the use of collaboration with YouTube and the project’s “beautiful design.”
“We should definitely award it to send a signal to the industry that you have to collaborate to create something outstanding for innovation, because that’s the way you have to change to try something outstanding for this world to help people,” Yom said during a press briefing.
Source: https://www.adweek.com/creativity/wavio-and-area-23s-see-sound-project-wins-top-innovation-grand-prix-at-cannes-lions/
Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92pweVNZAXc&feature=share
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