ROMANIAN SIGN LANGUAGE E-HEALTH APPLICATION FOR DEAF PEOPLE WITH ANIMATED AVATAR TECHNOLOGY
ROMANIAN SIGN LANGUAGE E-HEALTH APPLICATION FOR DEAF PEOPLE WITH ANIMATED AVATAR TECHNOLOGY

Summary/Abstract: During the last years, the effort for better integration of persons with disabilities has become a European and global priority. Creating computer applications whose message to be naturally accessible to hearing impaired persons is part of this endeavour. The development of applications with avatars performing sign language becomes more and more extensive worldwide. In Romania, developing such an application is a national premiere. This type of applications can be accomplished through two main means, video technology and animation technology. The presented project is part of a wider research project that compares two technologies with respect to design, implementation and impact assessment. The article presents the steps that have been taken to realize with animated avatar technology an application for health education meant for people with hearing disabilities in Romanian sign language. The study shows step by step the stages that were followed in accomplishing this program. It presents the steps followed to build the collection of words and phrases edited with animated avatar technology. The design phase block diagram of the project is described in detail. It describes the software, the editing stages and the format of the data. It presents also the editing style of different parts of the application content. The last chapter concludes onparticular items used in this approach, but also general considerations necessary to achieve similar kinds of projects. For future work it gives various data formats that can be used as alternatives. The final part of the article sketches the specific steps to be carried out in the research project in the future, and also the general trends that might represent new directions of research in the domain of e-health applications with animated avatar for deaf people in Romanian sign language.

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