🚀 go-pugleaf

The author of this email has okayed me posting it; I think it's fascinating!

From: Sherman Wilcox <wilcox@hydra.unm.edu>
To: clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
Subject: Re:  Alone

Thanks for the feedback, Kathy. I'm gonna answer this message private to you
then figure out a way to start a thread on the newsgroup.

We have started thinking about "disk real-estate management" more in terms of
word frequency -- what will be the most likely words that users will want, then
put them together.

Let me give you a brief idea of what I envision for the ASL dictionary (yeah,
I agree -- ain't it a SUPER use of the technology? -- I yearn to answer the
folks who say that multimedia is just a bunch of hype -- this technology is
the only viable solution to the problem of creating a signed language
dictionary, I know, because we have the guy who wrote the *FIRST* ASL dictionar,
William Stokoe, on our project!)

We want a dictionary with the following features: (1) bilingual (ASL/English).
This means users can start with an English word and look for an ASL translation,
or start with an ASL word, perhaps one they've seen and don't know the meaning
of, and search for an English translation (more on this later); (2) it will
incorporate not only ASL (videodisk) and English (text) words, but also
bilingual contextual sentences, definitions, usage notes, grammatical info, etc-
in other words, it'll be a real dictionary; (3) there will be no direct link
between ASL words and English words -- the user will have to go thru meaning
(just as when you ask "How do you say 'critical' in language X" and I have to
ask "What do you *mean* by the word 'critical' -- 'important' or 'to criticize'
or 'life-threatening' (as in critical condition)?" the dictionary will do the
same); (4) extensible (in at least two senses: user can enter notes about
particular entries, sort of notes in the margin of the dictionary, or, the
interface and dictionary engine can be used with videodisks other than those
that we will provide, if the user is willing to do the coding herself.

A key element of the design which will (god, I hope!) allow us to implement
some of these features is that the dictionary will have a relational database
underlying it. Codings (formal features of ASL words -- handshapes, movements,
locations on the body, facial features, etc; frame numbers of ASL entries;
English translation equivalents; etc etc) will be stored in the database. We
are doing our first prototype in MacroMind Director. We hope to implement the
database in a thing called HyperHIT -- a relational database engine implemented
entirely in XCMDs (intended for use with Hypercard, but I think it'll hook to
director as well -- here, I'm praying every night for luck!!!).

So, I bet you are thinking of some interface goodies, aren't you. It makes
me freak out when I think of all the neat interface ideas we could try out.
For example, think about leading the user thru an ASL "phonetic" lookup --
the case where he sits down with an ASL word in mind and wants to know what
it means (by the way, this is one of the examples of how multimedia enables
this type of work: there is only *ONE* print media ASL dictionary in the world
that lets you do this [written by Bill Stokoe] and most people don't understand
how to use it because it requires them to learn a new, ASL "alphabet"). We
will have to lead them to "sound out" (geez, what is the exact parallel for
visual languages -- "light out"???) the word: the interface will say, in 
effect, "show me what the word looked like..." Then we need to give the user
feedback on the results of the search given the info provided so far -- "if
you give me only the shape of the hand and the location on the body, the
dictionary has 30 words which might fit your description -- do you want to
provide more info or look at those 30 words?" Etc etc et....

OK, I've taken up enough of your time. Do you think we have a do-able project
here? I've got a 6-month NIH feasibility grant, and have to convince them
to give me the real bucks, the phase two money, so that we can go into 
production. I'm convinced -- I hope they will be!

=====================

I think there are analogies here to the way Chinese is currently done on
computers: you start with a radical, maybe two, and the computer presents
you with, say, 12 characters based on that radical: is it one of these?
(This is Kathy talking now...) What are the radicals of an ASL word?
Gesture? Direction? Hand shape? Distance? Position near body? 

--Kathy



-- 
...........................................................................
:   Kathy Strong               :  "Try our Hubble-Rita: just one shot,     :
:  (Clouds moving slowly)      :   and everything's blurry"                :
:   clouds@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu  :                           --El Arroyo     :
:..........................................................................: