A Investigation of Cisco Technologies & Access Solutions

October 25, 2010

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Purpose of Today’s Presentation

• Provide an overview of the plan of work for the upcoming year

• Involve NTID-RIT-Rochester community in the project

• Collect names and email addresses of interested persons

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Cisco and RIT/NTID

• Cisco has supported RIT Information Science and computer programs

• Jim Ebenhoch and NTID past president Hurwitz visited Cisco, with introductions to Cisco’s Accessibility, Compliance and Certification office by Len Mudrock ’84 who is a senior software engineer at Cisco

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Proposal

• Three strands• One year effort• Establish our understanding and areas where we

can contribute to Cisco product development• Development of position papers and a call for

further research• Deaf perspective

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Strands of R&D

• Provide Cisco with a deaf perspective on their products and the services they support

• Three strands– 911-411-211 Communication– Avatars– TelePresence

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Award

• From the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, following the recommendation of the Cisco Accessibility Team

• To the NTID Center on Access first year of what is anticipated to be a multi-year effort

• Approximately $65,000 cash, and $35,000 equipment

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But…

• TelePresence equipment donation was upped to the equivalent of $300,000!– One 65” HD screen– Three 65” HD screens– System installation and

furniture

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General Structure of Work• Form teams of RIT/NTID, local and national

experts• Conduct a literature review to understand issues• Produce “White Paper” and disseminate for

comment• Convene meeting(s) and focus groups• Revise “White Paper”• Produce final recommendations

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Web-based Resources

• http://www.rit.edu/ntid/cat/cisco

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911-411-211 Communication• Project Team– Bill Clymer, Project Leader– Gail Hyde, Project Coordinator– Kelly Masters, Focus Group and Evaluation

• RIT/NTID experts• External experts• Cisco experts

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Issues• Access to Emergency Information and Services

through 9-1-1 emergency public safety answering points (PSAP’s) through receipt of text and video

• Identify barriers and offer solutions• Next generation 9-1-1 communication• Recognize the “community” of interested persons• Fail safe technology that emergency responders,

telecommunication companies, equipment companies and users can accept

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Major Tasks• Develop set of issues from literature• Convene focus groups at RIT – Policy– Technology– Users

• Literature review & “White paper”• Post and collect comments• Review and comment by experts• Publish final report

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Signing Avatar• Project Team– Joe Geigel, Project Co- Leader‐– Gary Behm, Project Co- Leader‐– Gail Hyde/Bill Clymer, Project Coordination– Kelly Masters, Focus Group Expert and Writer

• RIT/NTID experts• External experts• Cisco experts

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Signing Avatar

• Goal is to explore:– Possibility of signing avatars, guided by voice-to-text

or other input processes, to be used effectively for signing communications support (over videophone, TelePresence or conferencing systems)

– Similar to what is provided by live, professional sign language interpreters.

Signing Avatar• An avatar is a computer

representation of a person in the form of a three-dimensional model used in virtual space.

• Signing avatar – use of a 3D avatar for displaying signed messages.

http://www.vcom3d.com/vault_files/making_forest_asl/

Applications• Automated sign language translation in public

spaces• Education• Remote sign language

support– Virtual spaces– Teleconferencing

http://www.visicast.co.uk/demo/tessa/tessa_demo.htm

Idealized Signing Avatar System

Speech to text

Speech to text Text to SLText to SL SL to

gesturesSL to

gestures

Motion captureMotion capture

Live interpreter

audio

text Sign language

gestures

gestures

AVATAR

Expertise Required• Sign Language / Linguistics• Current signing Avatar systems• Speech to text• 3D Graphics / Animation– Motion capture (body and hand)– Facial analysis, modeling, and animation

• Deaf communities – Cyber/virtual – Educational

Deliverables• “White Paper”– State of the art– Future possibilities– Identify key questions and challenges– Recommendations

• Focus Group Meeting– Discussion among experts in areas previously listed– Refine “White Paper” based on discussions

TelePresence Evaluation• Goal is to explore:– Possibilities and applications of TelePresence to

support communication: • in instructional, laboratory and social environments for

students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

• of closed caption, presentation, signing avatars, social networking, and others.

TelePresence• Telepresence refers to a set

of technologies which allows a person to feel as if they were present, to give the appearance that they were present, or to have an effect, at a location other than their true location.

• TelePresence makes remote or distant people appear or feel present and part of the local activity by using telematics technology.

http://matthewwall.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c68d853ef011168a477f0970c-800wi

Applications• Education

– Classroom and Laboratory• Direct• Indirect

– Tutoring / Mentoring• Remotely (different colleges)

– Job Interview• Remotely

• Social– Networking

• Communication Support– Remote Sign language

• virtual spaces– Teleconferencing– Closed Captions– Others?

TelePresence Network System

Expertise Required• Instructors for Deaf / Hard-of-Hearing people• Deaf / Hard-of-Hearing Students (direct and indirect)• Sign Language / Linguistics• 3D Graphics / Animation / Avatar

– Motion capture– Facial analysis, modeling, and animation

• Communication Support– Closed captions / presentation– Other

• Deaf Communities – Cyber / virtual – Educational

Deliverables• White Paper– State of the art– Future possibilities– Key questions and challenges identified– Recommendations

• Focus Group Meeting– Discussion among experts– White paper refined, based on discussions

Team• Gary Behm, NTID • Wendy Dannels, NTID• Kelly Masters, outside consultant

• Gail Hyde / Bill Clymer, NTID

If interested in participating in evaluation, send a note to Gary Behm: gwbnts@rit.edu