Ben Fletcher

(A signed video about this post.)

At my work, it is sometimes essential that a specific meaning of a verb is emphasised.  The question is: how can the sign language interpreter distinguish between “integration” and “integrator“, for example?

The technique used in British Sign Language is to adapt the sign to reflect the specific meaning - for example, for “integration”, the basic sign for “integrate” is first signed and then this is followed up with “processor” - in one fast flow, as if both were one whole sign.  For the other word, “integration”, this is signed using “integrate” and then following this up with “set”.

The sign for “integration” is “integrate” + “going on”.

The following video demonstrates, in this order: integrate, integrator, integration, and integrating.

English: integrate + or, ion, e, ing…
BSL: integrate + “processor”, “set”, <nothing>, “going on”

Finally, it should be noted that adapting the basic sign to reflect the meaning needn’t be done if this needn’t be emphasised or can be taken as a given.

I hope all this makes any sense, but certainly, I hope, to demonstrate how rich British Sign Language can be.

I have a Java-based web server called Tomcat running on a remote machine (in my case, on Amazon’s cloud computing infrastructure called EC2).  I also run a Java-based video streaming server on the same remote machine called Wowza.

I do the development work using an integrated application called Eclipse, on which I do the various coding for the servers using Eclipse’s “dynamic web project” facility.  All this is done on my local machine (in my case, a laptop).

A rapid development “cycle” - where I can go through the steps of coding, deployment, testing, and back to coding, testing, deployment, and again for a number of cycles - is essential.  For the cycle to be rapid the actions that are needed to go from coding to testing need ideally be automated.

With the servers running locally, this is very easy, however with the servers running on a different machine, this often involves doing some work to automate the local to remote deployment process.

There is an Eclipse plug-in from Amazon to automate some of these however at present this requires the use of their predefined server configuration termed “machine image”.  This is an issue for me because this does not have Wowza present, and Wowza forbids installing Wowza on a non-Wowza server configuration on EC2.

I still use the plug-in Amazon for its other capabilities, namely the ability to list running machines (instances), starting and stopping them, amongst others, from within Eclipse.

To automate the deployment process to a server configuration with Wowza, I have taken the following approach:

• extract Tomcat Client Deployer (downloaded from Tomcat website) into the dynamic web project in my Eclipse workspace - I use Tomcat version 5.5;
• configure Tomcat Manager on the remote machine with a new username and password;
• configure the Ant script included in the deployer installation to point to the web project using the following properties (set in deployer.properties in the same directory as the script):

build=../build/
webapp=../WebContent/
path=/TalkToWife
url=http://ec2-174-129-110-38.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/manager
username=<username>
password=<password>The TalkToWife is the contextual path, in my case, is the name of the web application, and the address is where the Tomcat manager is located.  The address for this application would therefore be http://ec2-174-129-110-38.compute-1.amazonaws.com:8080/TalkToWife.  The username and password are as set with the Tomcat manager earlier.

In the dynamic web project, the servlets, by default, have their compiled classes put in build/classes, which I have modified to WebContent/WEB-INF/classes in order for the Ant script to include these in the deployment as follows (mileage may vary for Eclipse versions other than 3.4):

1. right-click on the project in Project Explorer and select Properties
2. in the left pane, select “Java Build Path”
3. in the right pane, tick “Allow output folders for source folders”
4. Edit the “src” folder’s properties to output to “WebContent/WEB-INF/classes”

Now the following tasks can be automated using Eclipse’s built in Ant support:
compile

• deploy web application to remote Tomcat server
• undeploy web application from remote Tomcat server
• start the web application on remote Tomcat server
• reload the web application
• stop the web application

… and now the cycles are automated.

With my thanks to the following, whose materials have helped me to realise this solution:

Patricia’s contribution produced here: http://linux-sxs.org/internet_serving/a1421.html

Sathya’s blog post here: http://arkblog.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/creating-a-deployable-war-file-from-eclipse-project/

A job of mine is to provide my interpreters with some idea of what context they’ll be interpreting in. A colleague at work developed a visualisation tool called Wordle with which I can copy and paste some text and, like magic, come out a “word cloud”. To give you an example, with text from Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009:

I would be delighted to hear from any reader of alternative training materials for the interpreter; I’m curious what else there is

(A signed video about this post.)

I have a possible vision for a national deaf organisation.

A quick glance at the list of messages on a “deaf” egroup tells me that there are many people who just don’t think on the same wavelength as each other - which can be counterproductive to making progress on common issues.

Fact is that for the Deaf community there cannot be a single voice that can claim to represent this community - apart from to champion diversity.

A quick glance at my Facebook list of notifications tells me that people work together very well, organise events, support each other, give each other encouragement, etc., all seeming very much like-minded people.  It’s all very amicable and productive.

The reason is clear: the “deaf” egroup is a place where _all_ deaf people are put together under the same roof, forcing people with very different backgrounds, ideas and opinions to listen to everyone else’s views, with disastrous results. In contrast, Facebook allows members to form groups, “go where your network is”.  These different networks work very well on their own.

This is why I think a national social deaf organisation like BDA should look into adopting a similar model to Facebook: where deaf people are encouraged to form their own groups or networks, with the organisation as an umbrella providing support, encouraging and enabling diversity within the deaf community.  This, I would imagine, would lead to the potential to really grow to become a successful deaf organisation - or community.

Dear fellow Deafies,

I have more American contributions to this blog than any other country - and I’d very much value your input.

Take this picture:

Does the caption in the photo above make any sense? (No, it does not!)

I have 21 further photos and videos showing more poor captioning (we call it subtitling in the UK) in the space of just 15 minutes in this prime-time Saturday evening programme. (Click on the links to see them.)

I’ve had the good fortune to use captioning services from America at work, where I am constantly in awe of the accuracy and speed of it even with a heavy usage of technology jargon. Here’s a video that I hope gives America some idea of how unbearably slow and vague the captioning is in the UK in comparison:

My question to my friends in America: is it possible for the accuracy and speed to be improved significantly?

My hope is that your answer is a resounding yes, and, even better, for you to point to references of how this is achieved, in order to demonstrate to the Brits including Deaf consumers, policy makers and regulators, that the poor quality of subtitling in the UK is a) unacceptable, and b) not a technology limitation.

I congratulate the same people on achieving a 100% subtitling rate however, given choice, I would seriously be happy to reduce the coverage and invest the the money saved to improve subtitling quality.

To the UK, am I the only one with this view?

I’m told, although being deaf, I can’t promise this is true, that there is the concept known as “small talk” like this:

Small Talk Practice 2: At the Office

that happens in the office that I, to be sociable, am supposed to overhear and get involved with!

Emergency! I’m deaf, I don’t get to hear the small talk?

Twitter to the rescue.  What? I see you say.

Twitter is the online version of social “small talk”, another of the social networking tools.  I get to overhear and, if I like, participate in “small talk” amongst my colleagues and this is really a great way of making new contacts at IBM.

With thanks to Twitter, I have made new colleagues and achieved a lot. To illustrate how, I will show you some examples. But first some background on Twitter.  Twitter is where people send and read other people’s updates about any subject - as long as each update is 140 characters in length.

These updates are checked like with emails, as pop-up boxes from the status bar on the computer, or through the mobile phone like texts.

Some example of updates I get from my colleagues, please note that the names are random and fictional!

ScottA: “any flash developers willing to discuss what is or isn’t possible with it? dm me a phone #”

JohnB: tired

MrBoss: Playing with Google Friend Connect : Seems good

An example of a small talk:

RemoteWorker: Great, Nitrox qualification arrived. Now, when’s my next diving holiday…?

AnotherWorker: @RemoteWorker hope you fare better than me. I haven’t dived in the two years since I got EAN certified and ended up selling all my gear.

Here’s an example of how Twitter’s small talk has directly helped my work:

bjfletcher: keen to join BCS, does anyone at IBM know how to as an IBMer? is there a page with a form or something?

almost immediately, I got a update from someone at my work that I hadn’t met before:

UnknownGuy: @bjfletcher There’s a fast track membership process for members of the IBM professions. Sent you a note with a link to the info.

and likewise but from someone I already knew:

KnownGuy: @bjfletcher just sign up through the bcs website, then claim the cost back..this may not be the best time..

some more updates within 5 minutes:

Thomas: @bjfletcher the hursley library have copies

LeeA: @bjfletcher BCS membership : more for you to look over… http://tinyurl.com/5fnarb - ;o)

Another example, there was a small chat about keeping an empty inbox. A colleague then instant messenged with me and mentioned a book.  I proceeded to order it and told Twitter:

bjfletcher: the “Getting Things Done” book is on order, thanks @thecolleague.. it’s also known as “Zen and the Art of Schedule Maintenance”

Later I received an update from someone I didn’t know based at an IBM office in Leeds who clearly noticed in my profile that I worked with Lotus products:

Yorkie @bjfletcher If you like GTD, you should try to get to LS09… (or at least get the slides!) http://snurl.com/6t7xj

Of course I thanked him:

@Yorkie thanks for the Getting Things Done heads up! Have added the link will eagerly check it out tonight!

Well, isn’t Twitter absolutely brilliant?  As a deaf contact, I now love my interactive small chats with people all around the world!  This is especially so given that IBM is global.

I thought I’d have some fun tonight!

Inspired by Charlie Swinbourne I had a go at being an amatuer (not that Charlie is these days!) film maker. Here’s the 3 hours worth of effort, which is also available on YouTube

In the evening yesterday over at Portcullis House, Westminister, we were lobbying for better provision for deaf people to communicate with hearing people over the phone and Internet. The BBC picked this up here - incidentally today BBC also interviewed me with 13 questions here. It was great to see SignVideo and Teletec demonstrating high quality captioning and video interpreting technologies.  The services need urgent funding to become real and as widespread as in, amongst others, America and Sweden. I got to meet Ofcom people Peter Bourton, Commerical Policy, and Katie Hanson, Consumer Policy, whom I knew from Sense. We discussed the US’s model of varied tax schemes versus UK’s across the board. In the US,  federal and state governments add specific taxes to bills such as “tax for relay services” on phone bills, whereas the UK has just the VAT and smoking, petrol, etc., duties. We compared the situation in Sweden, with high taxation providing services, with the one which exists in the UK: low taxation with businesses expected to provide what is termed as reasonable - often inadequate or poor  - access. I met the lobby sponsor Malcolm Bruce MP who emphasised the need for more awareness of the urgency of the issues in political circles (”talk to your MP too,” he said).

Speakers all said that in general the 1 pound a minute it costs deaf people for communication over the phone and Internet compared to the 1 pence a minute it costs hearing people is a gap that needs narrowing. Tish Kerfoot who had the good fortune to live in America and now has been living in London for over a year explained, in BSL, how the video service really opened up the world for her - and me when I had the opportunity - where everyday conversations went from unclear and prolonged to very amicable and productive.

Meanwhile, Jeff and I wondered about deaf people who are also blind, people who weren’t mentioned in the speeches, naturally tactile gloves and augmented video streaming came up but today a colleague Twittered about something Jeff and I didn’t see coming:

Airbourne Ultrasound Tactile Display

Looking at the interview with BBC again, I was described as “hearing and visual impaired” which is absolutely fine but I think a more appropriate description for some deaf people in the UK, which has more urgency, would be “language impaired” - we need full language access!!

Looking back to the blog entry about train station as a partially blind citizen, what can augmented reality technology do?

Everything is of greyness.  To the untrained sight, it is not immediately very clear where the taxi rank may be.

Augmented Reality

The same except that the view is now augmented with useful assistance.  A pink path that suggests where the taxi rank may be.  A yellow circle that suggests where the first taxi’s passenger door may be.

The same thing, but from a different standpoint.

Visor

Photo Credits: Leonard Low

This visor is not just a visor, but augmentation is projected onto the back of the visor, providing an augmented view for the wearer. The augmentation of the pink and the yellow objects can possibly one day be projected onto the visor. The intriguing technical challenges may include determining the visor’s idea of location and orientation to accurately augment the computed objects to non-computed objects such as the taxi rank and the taxi passenger door.

This picture shows very clearly where to not walk to, to avoid falling off the platform! What could be more useful is that no longer does the citizen need to listen out for announcement or keep an eye on the public display, it’s all written out on the platform.

Thanks

Ian Hughes for this entry’s inspiration.

I imagine myself arriving at a train station somewhere random in Sydney.  I am a citizen who is:

• deaf without speech (hearing impaired); and
• partially blind (visually impaired).

What to do? Here is a demonstration of a small Proof of Concept.

The top two-thirds of the screen shows the map of the station. The bottom one-third contains the text saying welcome to the station.

Text to Speech Technology

The text is also spoken using the phone’s built in technology which translates text into audio for the blind citizen or James Bond.

Navigation

I press the big button, and a menu is brought up.

This list shows just the Go to Ticket Office option, but of course it would contain options for other places such as Toilet, Barrier Line, Taxi Rank, and so on.  I scroll to the Go to Ticket Office option and select it.

I can navigate to the ticket office using a choice of the map with the route, the text, or the voice guidance.

Location Aware Technology

I can tell the phone where I am going manually or automatically: manually by using the phone’s joystick as I walk along; automatically by using location aware technology.

Location Aware Messaging Technology

As soon as I arrive at the ticket office, the phone, knowing that I’m at ticket office, informs me that the office is closed and that the barrier line is open. This is because of the location aware messaging technology, which uses my location information to provide me with more relevant information.

The phone then takes me to the barrier line.  Before I catch the train, I would like to go to the toilets.

Profile

The phone knows I want to go to the gentlemen, rather than ladies, because my profile is provided with the phone.  This profile includes my gender; it can also contain my disabilities and alert the staff of my needs as I enter the station.

Let’s say that I am actually female and I ended up in the ladies.  I want to take a beeline to the next train for London.

The phone picks up my new location as being in the ladies, rather than the gentlemen, and takes me to Platform 3 which has the next train to London.  This is calculated through messaging technology which should be linked to the railway’s information backends.

Rendezvous

The phone provides me with up to date information regarding the train delay and how to make a connection with the conductor if I need his assistance. This eliminates the need for a good eyesight to read the public display and/or hearing to be alerted through the speaker.

Development

This is a standalone application which runs on the Nokia N95 using Python (for Series 60) and MQTT (a lightweight messaging protocol).  I hope to develop the same application that is web-based and therefore can be used by a compatible mobile phone with no need for an application installation.

Contacts

I was inspired to write this when I heard through Andy Stanford-Clark that Glenn Wightwick, another inspiring colleague from Australia, produced something similar, and with thanks to Bharat Bedi and Dave Conway-Jones for some more inspiration behind this work.  Lastly, but by no means least,  the LAMA team who worked on very similar scenarios.

See Also

Location Aware Messaging for Accessibility (LAMA) - an Extreme Blue project.

MQTT - the lightweight messaging protocol used in this PoC.

Really Small Messaging Broker (RSMB) - the lightweight messaging broker used in this PoC which can also be downloaded.