Mobile Phones are used by almost everybody in the world. But there is a certain group of people for whom cell phones are just useless when it comes to talking, they can only send text messages and Emails, obviously they are the Deaf and Dumb. The only alternative is sign language for them, but that requires video telephony (Video Calling). It requires high speed 3G network connections which is not affordable for everyone. So the only option is to come up with video compression technology which can be used on standard GPRS networks without a significant drop in video quality so the sign language is still understandable to the person on the other side and not just some random pixels moving on the screen.
That's what a team of engineers lead by Eve Riskin, professor of electrical engineering. at The University of Washington are trying to develop. It is the first device to transmit American Sign Language over U.S. cellular networks its named MobileASL. The whole idea behind this project is to Transmit sign language as efficiently as possible to increase affordability, improves reliability on slower networks and extends battery life, even on devices that might have the capacity to deliver higher quality video.
