Multimodal multilingual Dictionary of Gestures: DiGest

Abstract

The paper presents a web-based multimodal and multilingual dictionary of gestures. Its current version contains several hundreds of gestures represented by a still image, a description of the gesture and its meaning, and optional sound and video records. The current version includes language and culture dependent content for American English, Slovak, Italian, and Mongolian. Entries for Japanese, Chinese, and Hungarian are being implemented. The primary motivation for database creation is to build a research tool that will facilitate identifying problems in research on nonverbal speech displays and their intercultural and intermodal aspects, and help in testing proposed solutions to these problems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.