Evaluation of a psycholinguistically motivated timing model for animations of american sign language

Using results in the psycholinguistics literature on the speed and timing of American Sign Language (ASL), we built algorithms to calculate the time-duration of signs and the location/length of pauses during an ASL animation. We conducted a study in which native ASL signers evaluated the ASL animations processed by our algorithms, and we found that: (1) adding linguistically motivated pauses and variations in sign-durations improved signers' performance on a comprehension task and (2) these animations were rated as more understandable by ASL signers. Categories and Subject Descriptors I.2.7 [Artificial Intelligence]: Natural Language Processing

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ASSETS
• Authors: Matt Huenerfauth
• Keywords: American Sign Language, Asl Animations, ASL Signers, ASSETS 2008, Emerging Technology