A narrow-band video communication system for the transmission of sign language over ordinary telephone lines.

Abstract

After a brief review of the origin and present state of sign-language as the principal means of communication among the deeply deaf, the main existing proposals for enabling telecommunications for this sub-community of handicapees are reviewed. Arising from this analysis, a new system is proposed, based on the transmission of a severely simplified image sequence, using extraction of contours to obtain the effect of a real-time animated cartoon drawn from the actual scene. Some preliminary experimental results are presented. -from Authors