Sign language communication support at the class for hearing impaired using a control camera

Abstract

Sign language is a visual language, which is difficult to share the information without their view. In the class of Tsukuba College of Technology and the other school for the deaf, there are many efforts to share the sign language presented by a deaf student with other participants. So we attempted a new method to share the sign language by using a camera and a monitor screen. We got some results as "a lecturer and a student can be simultaneously put into a view", "there are few mental and physical loads". However, some problems were left such as the camera control and the way to take and show the sign language video. © Springer-Verlag 2004.