Diego Roberto Antunes

Structure of the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) for Computational Tools: Citizenship and Social Inclusion

This work presents a computational model (XML) of the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), based on its phonology. The model was used to create a sample of representative signs to aid the recording of a base of videos whose aim is to support the development of tools to support genuine social inclusion of the deaf.

A framework to support development of Sign Language human-computer interaction: Building tools for effective information access and inclusion of the deaf

Sign Languages are tools the deaf use for their communication, education, information access needs, among others. Information Systems, whose role should be to facilitate those processes, still do not present a natural interaction for the deaf. There are many attempts by Computer Vision researches that are limited in their approach, their object of study, their lack of end use results etc. The challenge is to devise a framework with which to work towards addressing those shortcomings. The present study presents such a framework to support sign language recognition and interaction to serve as “de facto” standard that should be used by Computer Vision in order to claim back the fields noble task of developing effective technological services that take the deafs needs into consideration towards social inclusion.

Evaluation of a computational description model of Libras (Brazilian Sign Language): Bridging the gap towards information access

Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) is a complete linguistic system the deaf use for their communication, education, literacy needs. Information Systems fail to support such endeavors mostly due to limitations and inadequacies in using sign languages, thus precluding the deaf from social inclusion and citizenship. A computational model to describe the sign languages is needed to build effective technological artifacts for the needs of the deaf. This study presents an evaluation of a computational description model in Libras. Thus validated, the model addresses as challenge for the Information Systems community the development of technological tools to bridge the gap towards inclusion and citizenship of the deaf.

Pedagogical Architecture -- Internet Artifacts for Bilingualism of the Deaf (Sign Language/Portuguese)

Deaf children born to non-Deaf parents have little to no exposure to Sign Language acquisition. Sign Language, the natural language of the Deaf, is a complete linguistic system, different from the oral language, and it is necessary for intellectual development. There is a lack of educational tools for/in Sign Language and few researches to inform designers on how to build computational tools to provide the Deaf children and their parents with Literacy: the effective appropriation of knowledge, via bilingualism. Such goal can be achieved by the use of Sign Language as the first language for the Deaf and as a second language for the parents, and by the use of the written modality of the oral language for the Deaf. This paper presents a pedagogical architecture and a computational process that allows for scientific-based design of Artifacts. A case study is presented to discuss the development of a prototype.

Challenges of knowledge management and creation in communities of practice organisations of Deaf and non-Deaf members: requirements for a Web platform

This study analysed the role of knowledge management (KM) tools used to cultivate a community of practice (CP) in its knowledge creation (KC), transfer, learning processes. The goal of such observations was to determine requirements that KM tools should address for the specific CP formed by Deaf and non-Deaf members of the CP. The CP studied is a formal knowledge organisation based on learning and the evaluation of socio-linguistic aspects pertaining to the Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). Non-Deaf and members of the Deaf community cultivated such knowledge organisation through specific collaborative meetings and the use of Internet-based tools for KM. Knowledge was created to validate an intellectual artefact (a computational description model of the phonetic structure of Libras (PSL)) to be used as basis in the development of tools to aid the Deaf community in their learning, communication, informational, educational and other needs necessary for full exercise of citizenship. The Internet-based KM tools were paramount for the cultivating of the CP. Nevertheless, additional requirements for the KM tools emerged, such as: video-conferencing, video manipulation features, better management of asynchronous communication, among others.

Conceptual meta-environment for Deaf children Literacy challenge: How to design effective Artifacts for bilingualism construction

In Brazil, most Deaf children (approximately 90%) are born into non-Deaf families. These children suffer prejudice in social situations and within their own families. They have few chances to get exposed to Sign Language (SL), the natural language of the Deaf, thus being deprived of adequate language acquisition and age-appropriate intellectual development. Libras, the Brazilian Sign Language is a complete linguistic system to be used by the Deaf as a tool for communication, development, social inclusion, citizenship exercise among others. This paper presents a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) conceptual meta-environment framework to construct computational Intellectual Artifacts in SL to promote bilingualism (Libras/Portuguese) via Intellectual Interactions (computer-mediated systems based on cognitive theories for mind development). A storytelling environment illustrates its use in order to increase family bonding activities and effective bilingualism for Deaf children and non-Deaf parents.

Automatic SignWriting Generation of Libras Signs from CORE-SL

It can be argued that the lack of access to information and knowledge in their natural language is one of the obstacles faced by Deaf Communities around the world. Providing access to communication, information and knowledge for the Deaf are just some of the motivations for writing record in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras). SignWriting is the most used writing system in sign languages, because it is complete, with the power to graphically represent any of them. However, this expressive power implies a great complexity that has not yet been computationally solved. This paper describes a research project of an automatic generator of Libras signs in SignWriting as an alternative to this problem, together with its results so far.

An Evaluation Method of Educational Computer Games for Deaf Children Based on Design Guidelines

Computer games have been used for a long time as a valuable tool in the teaching and learning of a variety of subjects. The Deaf communities and in particular the Deaf children have different learning needs compared to hearing children. For this reason, there have been, even timidly, some educational games that focusing on such children. However, as these games do not have a standard methology for development, they usually do not meet the needs of the target audience. Therefore, this paper proposes a method for evaluating the quality and suitability of existing educational games for Deaf children through a tested set of design guidelines for Deaf children games. Two computer educational games for Deaf are evaluated. In addition, after the evaluation, a case study is presented to demonstrate the redesign of a game based on the guidelines and the results obtained.

A CPML-Signwriting Interpreter: A New form to Generate the Graphical Symbols of Signwriting

The Brazilian Sign Language is the natural language used by deaf people in Brazil to communicate between themselves and with the society, as well as it is part of culture and tradition. Despite this importance, the record of Libras is still one difficulty, because many existing tools do not support their needs for plain appropriation. This paper presents, through SignWriting, a new way to generate graphical symbols correspondents do Libras Signs in order to make possible the Libras recording for the members of the deaf communities …

The Low Use of SignWriting Computational Tools from HCI Perspective

There are several ways of communication, however, these are considered volatiles, i.e. passed from people to people, there is the risk of having changed meaning and significance. But the writing stays intact and that’s why comes the need of the written record of languages, even of sign languages. Several tools exists to provide support for the written record of sign languages, however which are not used by these communities, especially the Brazilian. This paper supported in the HCI literature, has the objective point out the reasons from no or low use of these tools by an analytical inspection.