[HN Gopher] Learn American Sign Language Fingerspelling with Mac...
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       Learn American Sign Language Fingerspelling with Machine Learning
        
       Author : joe5150
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2021-05-27 21:40 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (fingerspelling.xyz)
 (TXT) w3m dump (fingerspelling.xyz)
        
       | eipipuz wrote:
       | If you are interested in ASL, I think a good resource is:
       | https://www.lifeprint.com/
        
       | SatvikBeri wrote:
       | This is great! I've tried to use Anki cards to remember
       | fingerspelling after my first ASL class, but it's pretty hard due
       | to the lack of detailed feedback - this is a lot better.
        
       | adzm wrote:
       | Really wish this was available on a mobile device. Would be a
       | great way to practice while I'm waiting on something.
        
         | yorwba wrote:
         | It works just fine in Firefox for Android for me after enabling
         | desktop mode.
        
       | Johnover_Board wrote:
       | Thanks a bunch for this! I've been meaning to learn ASL but it
       | doesn't usually get fun enough to engage long term online with
       | video lectures.
        
       | tomcooks wrote:
       | A really dumb question, which a close friend that teaches sign
       | language in Europe couldn't answer to: why do we have different
       | sign languages, one per spoken language, instead of a common
       | international single language?
       | 
       | I understand there's partly nationalism in this, and that if
       | Esperanto taught us something is that international languages are
       | HARD, but I can't help but think that a single standard sign
       | language would help communication between users and easier
       | involvement of speakers.
       | 
       | Again, I hope I don't sound offensive, I'm just curious.
        
         | CatsEyes wrote:
         | American Sign Language is rooted in French Sign Language,
         | because a teacher at a long-running school for the deaf there
         | came to America to teach.
         | 
         | British Sign Language developed in a different direction, where
         | fingerspelling the alphabet is very different from how it is
         | done in ASL. So even though US and England share a spoken
         | language, signed expression developed differently.
         | 
         | Same deal with signed languages around the world. They
         | generally develop locally and incorporate influences from
         | elsewhere, much as spoken languages do, with the local dominant
         | spoken language having the most influence.
        
         | SatvikBeri wrote:
         | Basically for the same reason we have multiple spoken
         | languages. Sign languages were mostly developed independently
         | by communities of deaf people around the world, with occasional
         | cross-pollination. People often think of e.g. ASL as a
         | translation of American English, but that's not quite true -
         | the grammar, idioms, puns etc. are quite different.
        
         | InvisibleUp wrote:
         | A lot of these sign languages were developed before the
         | Internet or any easy mass communication via video. Each region
         | developed their own language, and at this point it's so
         | ingrained into local cultures that trying to get every sign
         | language user to switch to some international language would be
         | like trying to get everyone to switch to Esperanto. It's not
         | happening.
        
         | eipipuz wrote:
         | (disclaimer: I'm not Deaf, just interested in ASL.)
         | 
         | Signs very geographically even in ASL. (See: https://www.reddit
         | .com/r/asl/comments/dcvqo9/is_there_much_d...)
         | 
         | Wouldn't your argument hold for spoken languages as well? Why
         | do we have french and spanish? Because it would be impossible
         | to force most people to learn the other language.
         | 
         | English is the widely spoken for economical reasons and yet
         | that's only 13% of the world population.
         | 
         | No sign language has that kind of pull. We would need TV shows
         | / movies that pushed a particular sign. The internet helps but
         | how do you prevent groups from drifting?
         | 
         | At some point accents become dialect that become languages.
         | Written ASL doesn't seem to be growing.
         | 
         | Why do people communicate in different languages? Because they
         | live in slightly disconnected social circles.
        
       | Ajedi32 wrote:
       | Would love to see something like this implemented a keyboard
       | replacement. Would be a neat way to passively learn ASL while
       | doing other tasks.
        
       | dwighttk wrote:
       | seems to be having trouble identifying M, N, D, and K for me...
       | the hand skeleton is identifying the shape my hand is making but
       | I have to rotate around a few different axes for a while until it
       | decides to accept it.
        
       | laszlokorte wrote:
       | works really well, even in a dark room in which I could barely
       | see my own hand on the webcam. I am really impressed.
        
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       (page generated 2021-05-28 23:01 UTC)