@inproceedings{sevilla-etal-2022-quevedo:lrec, author = {Sevilla, Antonio F. G. and D{\'i}az Esteban, Alberto and Lahoz-Begoechea, Jos{\'e} Mar{\'i}a}, title = {{Quevedo}: Annotation and Processing of Graphical Languages}, pages = {2528--2535}, editor = {Calzolari, Nicoletta and B{\'e}chet, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric and Blache, Philippe and Choukri, Khalid and Cieri, Christopher and Declerck, Thierry and Goggi, Sara and Isahara, Hitoshi and Maegaard, Bente and Mariani, Joseph and Mazo, H{\'e}l{\`e}ne and Odijk, Jan and Piperidis, Stelios}, booktitle = {13th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2022)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Marseille, France}, day = {20--25}, month = jun, year = {2022}, isbn = {979-10-95546-72-6}, language = {english}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/2022.lrec-1.269}, doi = {10.63317/3o5k57ihtc7d}, abstract = {In this article, we present Quevedo, a software tool we have developed for the task of automatic processing of graphical languages. These are languages which use images to convey meaning, relying not only on the shape of symbols but also on their spatial arrangement in the page, and relative to each other. When presented in image form, these languages require specialized computational processing which is not the same as usually done either for natural language processing or for artificial vision. Quevedo enables this specialized processing, focusing on a data-based approach. As a command line application and library, it provides features for the collection and management of image datasets, and their machine learning recognition using neural networks and recognizer pipelines. This processing requires careful annotation of the source data, for which Quevedo offers an extensive and visual web-based annotation interface. In this article, we also briefly present a case study centered on the task of SignWriting recognition, the original motivation for writing the software. Quevedo is written in Python, and distributed freely under the Open Software License version 3.0.} } @inproceedings{sevilla:20023:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Sevilla, Antonio F. G. and D{\'i}az Esteban, Alberto and Lahoz-Bengoechea, Jos{\'e} Mar{\'i}a}, title = {Tools for the use of {SignWriting} as a Language Resource}, pages = {203--208}, editor = {Efthimiou, Eleni and Fotinea, Stavroula-Evita and Hanke, Thomas and Hochgesang, Julie A. and Kristoffersen, Jette and Mesch, Johanna}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2020} 9th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Sign Language Resources in the Service of the Language Community, Technological Challenges and Application Perspectives}, maintitle = {12th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2020)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Marseille, France}, day = {16}, month = may, year = {2020}, isbn = {979-10-95546-54-2}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/20023.html}, doi = {10.63317/4g9c2355h2bu}, abstract = {Representation of linguistic data is an issue of utmost importance when developing language resources, but the lack of a standard written form in sign languages presents a challenge. Different notation systems exist, but only SignWriting seems to have some use in the native signer community. It is, however, a difficult system to use computationally, not based on a linear sequence of characters. We present the project "VisSE", which aims to develop tools for the effective use of SignWriting in the computer. The first of these is an application which uses computer vision to interpret SignWriting, understanding the meaning of new or existing transcriptions, or even hand-written images. Two additional tools will be able to consume the result of this recognizer: first, a textual description of the features of the transcription will make it understandable for non-signers. Second, a three-dimensional avatar will be able to reproduce the configurations and movements contained within the transcription, making it understandable for signers even if not familiar with SignWriting. Additionally, the project will result in a corpus of annotated SignWriting data which will also be of use to the computational linguistics community.} } @inproceedings{borgia-etal-2012-resource:lrec, author = {Borgia, Fabrizio and Bianchini, Claudia S. and Dalle, Patrice and De Marsico, Maria}, title = {Resource production of written forms of Sign Languages by a user-centered editor, {SW}ift ({S}ign{W}riting improved fast transcriber)}, pages = {3779--3784}, editor = {Calzolari, Nicoletta and Choukri, Khalid and Declerck, Thierry and Do{\u g}an, Mehmet U{\u g}ur and Maegaard, Bente and Mariani, Joseph and Moreno, Asuncion and Odijk, Jan and Piperidis, Stelios}, booktitle = {8th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2012)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Istanbul, Turkey}, day = {21--27}, month = may, year = {2012}, isbn = {978-2-9517408-7-7}, language = {english}, url = {https://aclanthology.org/L12-1210}, doi = {10.63317/5mxcr5ow296a}, abstract = {The SignWriting improved fast transcriber (SWift), presented in this paper, is an advanced editor for computer-aided writing and transcribing of any Sign Language (SL) using the SignWriting (SW). The application is an editor which allows composing and saving desired signs using the SW elementary components, called ``glyphs''. These make up a sort of alphabet, which does not depend on the national Sign Language and which codes the basic components of any sign. The user is guided through a fully automated procedure making the composition process fast and intuitive. SWift pursues the goal of helping to break down the ``electronic'' barriers that keep deaf people away from the web, and at the same time to support linguistic research about Sign Languages features. For this reason it has been designed with a special attention to deaf user needs, and to general usability issues. The editor has been developed in a modular way, so it can be integrated everywhere the use of the SW as an alternative to written ``verbal'' language may be advisable.} } @inproceedings{machadooliveira:10057:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Machado Oliveira, Carlos R.}, title = {Adapting an Efficient Entry System for Sign Languages}, pages = {147--149}, editor = {Dreuw, Philippe and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Johnston, Trevor and Mart{\'i}nez Ruiz, Gregorio and Schembri, Adam}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2010} 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies}, maintitle = {7th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2010)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Valletta, Malta}, day = {22--23}, month = may, year = {2010}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/10057.html}, abstract = {Building sign language written corpora may, combined with video corpora linguistics, provide richer sign language research frameworks. Tools that allow direct sign language writing could increase sign language corpora availability significantly. Here, adaptation of a free efficient computer entry system to allow sign writingis presented.} } @inproceedings{pizzuto:08014:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Pizzuto, Elena Antinoro and Chiari, Isabella and Rossini, Paolo}, title = {The Representation Issue and its Multifaceted Aspects in Constructing Sign Language Corpora: Questions, Answers, Further Problems}, pages = {150--158}, editor = {Crasborn, Onno and Efthimiou, Eleni and Hanke, Thomas and Thoutenhoofd, Ernst D. and Zwitserlood, Inge}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2008} 3rd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Construction and Exploitation of Sign Language Corpora}, maintitle = {6th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2008)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Marrakech, Morocco}, day = {1}, month = jun, year = {2008}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/08014.html}, abstract = {This paper aims to address and clarify one issue we believe is crucial in constructing Sign Languages (SL) corpora: identifying appropriate tools for representing in written form SL productions of any sort, i.e. lexical items, utterances, discourse at large. Towards this end, building on research done within our group on multimedia corpora of both SL and spoken or verbal languages (vl), we first outline some of the major requirements and guidelines followed in current work with vl corpora (e.g. regarding transcription, representation [mark-up], coding [or annotation] Chiari, 2007; Edwards {\&} Lampert; 1993; Leech {\&} al, 1995; Ochs, 1979; Powers, 2005, among others). We highlight that a basic requirement of vl corpora is an easily readable transcription that, aside from specialist linguistic annotations, allows anyone who knows the object language to reconstruct its forms, and its form-meaning correspondences. Second, we show how this basic requirement is not met in most current work on SL, where the `transcription' of SL productions consists primarily of word-labels taken from vl, inappropriately called `glosses'. As argued by some authors (e.g. Pizzuto {\&} Pietrandrea, 2001; Russo, 2005; Pizzuto et al., 2006), the use of such word-labels as a primary representation tool grossly misrepresents SL, even when supported by specialist linguistic annotations (e.g. Stokoe-based notations, the Berkeley Transcription System [Slobin et al., 2001]). Drawing on a crosslinguistic overview of relevant work on SL lexicon and discourse (e.g. Brennan, 2001; Cuxac, 2000; Cuxac {\&} Sallandre, 2007; Russo, 2004; Antinoro Pizzuto et al., 2007), we illustrate how the `transcriptions' most widely used for SL do not allow to anyone who knows the specific SL to reconstruct its forms and form-meaning correspondences, and are especially inadequate for representing complex sign units that are very frequent in SL discourse, and exhibit highly iconic, muldimensional/multilinear features that have no parallel in vl. Third, we present and discuss ongoing research on Italian Sign Language (LIS) in which experienced deaf signers explore the use of SignWriting (Sutton, 1995) as a tool for both composing texts conceived in written form -- thereby creating a corpus of written LIS -- and for transcribing corpora of face-to-face LIS discourse (Di Renzo et al., 2006; Di Renzo, in press; Lamano et al., in press). The results show that, in both cases, deaf signers can easily represent the form-meaning patterns of their language with an accuracy never experienced with other representation or notation systems. The analysis of the texts produced has also provided new indications on the structure of LIS, highlighting the need of revising the criteria for constructing lexical corpora on the grounds of regularities (and variance) found in discourse corpora. While all of this suggests that SignWriting can be a valuable tool for addressing the representation issue in constructing SL corpora, the present computerized form of SignWriting poses technical problems that severely constrain its use. We conclude specifying the problems that need to be faced for conducting more extensive experimentations.} } @inproceedings{direnzo:06003:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Di Renzo, Alessio and Lamano, Luca and Lucioli, Tommaso and Pennacchi, Barbara and Ponzo, Luca}, title = {{Italian} {Sign} {Language} ({LIS}): Can We Write it and Transcribe it with {SignWriting}?}, pages = {11--16}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06003.html}, abstract = {This paper is the result of our discussions and reflections on using Signwriting for writing and transcribing LIS texts} } @inproceedings{denardi:06009:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Denardi, R{\'u}bia Medianeira and Blauth Menezes, Paulo Fernando and Costa, Ant{\^o}nio Carlos da Rocha}, title = {An Animator of Gestures Applied to Sign Languages}, pages = {43--48}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06009.html}, abstract = {Motivated for to the expansion of the Internet and the increasing development of Web technologies and for a great number of people with distinct necessities search at that the information they need, we try to attend the deaf community by development an Animator of Gestures applied to the Sign Languages, the AGA-Sign, with the goal of assisting practical writing of signs and in the familiarization with the language. This work presents an application for automatized generation of animations of gestures applied to the Sign Languages from texts written in SignWriting. The used signs for the development of the application had been elaborated from the LIBRAS and the animations had been generated through model AGA (graphical animation based in the Automata Theory).} } @inproceedings{aznar:06012:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Aznar, Guylhem and Dalle, Patrice}, title = {Analysis of the Different Methods to Encode {SignWriting} in Unicode}, pages = {59--63}, editor = {Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2006} 2nd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic Matters and Didactic Scenarios}, maintitle = {5th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2006)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Genoa, Italy}, day = {28}, month = may, year = {2006}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/06012.html}, abstract = {This paper lists, evaluates and discuss the solutions to encode SW in Unicode. SignWriting is the most complex and popular writing formalism for sign languages. Unicode is the most popular encoding of characters aimed at unifying the various language-oriented encodings into a single format supporting every human language. This paper focuses on the first functional layer, which gives a correspondence between a SignWriting sign and a series of bytes. This is one of the prerequisites to represent a sign language electronically. The different possibilities to encode a given SignWriting sign are evaluated and compared on different criteria : the Unicode space requirements, the number of bytes the storage will require, the mathematical complexity and the side advantages offered. Keeping as much as possible of the information on how signs are written and entered, and offering capabilities to easily compare the symbols that compose these signs is also considered, so that the encoding can serve to study and compare how SignWriting is written. A reference encoding is then proposed, to serve as a basis for the next layers. Other bi-dimensional writing formalisms, currently not supported by Unicode, are considered to extend the presented work.} } @inproceedings{gleaves:04003:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Gleaves, Richard and Sutton, Valerie}, title = {{SignWriter}}, pages = {7--12}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04003.html}, abstract = {This paper reviews the design history of SignWriter, a word processor for the SignWriting system. While the primary goal of SignWriter was simply to create a word processor for SignWriting, its development and subsequent use had several beneficial effects on the SignWriting system. Various design aspects of SignWriter are considered in the context of current computing technologies and sign processing development efforts.} } @inproceedings{costa:04007:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Costa, Ant{\^o}nio Carlos da Rocha and Dimuro, Gra{\c c}aliz Pereira and Baldez de Freitas, Juliano}, title = {A Sign Matching Technique to Support Searches in Sign Language Texts}, pages = {32--36}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04007.html}, abstract = {This paper presents a technique for matching two signs written in the SignWriting system. We have defined such technique to support procedures for searching in sign language texts that were written in that writing system. Given the graphical nature of SignWriting, a graphical pattern matching method is needed, which can deal in controlled ways with the small graphical variations writers can introduce in the graphical forms of the signs, when they write them. The technique we present builds on a so-called degree of graphical similarity between signs, allowing for a sort of ``fuzzy'' graphical pattern matching procedure for written signs.} } @inproceedings{papadogiorgaki:04009:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Papadogiorgaki, Maria and Grammalidis, Nikos and Sarris, Nikos and Strintzis, Michael G.}, title = {Synthesis of Virtual Reality Animations from {SWML} using {MPEG-4} Body Animation Parameters}, pages = {43--50}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04009.html}, abstract = {This paper presents a novel approach for generating VRML animation sequences from Sign Language notation, based on MPEG-4 Body Animation. Sign Language notation, in the well-known SignWriting system, is provided as input and is initially converted to SWML (SignWriting Markup Language), an XML-based format which has recently been developed for the storage, indexing and processing of SignWriting notation. Each sign box (basic sign) is then converted to a sequence of Body Animation Parameters (BAPs) of the MPEG-4 standard, corresponding to the represented gesture. These sequences, which can also be coded and/or reproduced by MPEG-4 BAP players, are then used to animate H-anim compliant VRML avatars, reproducing the exact gestures represented in sign language notation. Envisaged applications include producing signing avatars for interactive information systems (Web, E-mail, info-- kiosks) and TV newscasts for persons with hearing disabilities.} } @inproceedings{roald:04014:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Roald, Ingvild}, title = {Making Dictionaries of Technical Signs: from Paper and Glue through {SW-DOS} to {SignBank}}, pages = {75--78}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04014.html}, abstract = {Teaching mathematics and physics in upper secondary school for the deaf since 1975, this author has felt the need to collect signs for the various concepts. In the beginning illustration of signs were pasted into a booklet. Then SignWriting appeared, and signs were hand-written and later typed into the booklet. With the 3.1 version of SignWriter, the dictionary program appeared, and several thematic dictionaries were made. With the new SignBank program, there are new opportunities, and I can fill in what I before just had to code. Last year a Fulbright research fellow and myself were collecting signs for mathematics, and these are transferred into a SignBank file. From that file various ways of sorting and analysing is possible. Here these various stages are presented, with a focus especially on the SignBank and the opportunities and limitations that are present in this program.} } @inproceedings{aerts:04015:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Aerts, Steven and Braem, Bart and Van Mulders, Katrien and De Weerdt, Kristof}, title = {Searching {SignWriting} Signs}, pages = {79--81}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04015.html}, abstract = {At the moment the publication of the first written Flemish Sign Language (VGT) Dictionary is in progress. It consists of VGT glossaries and allows its users to lookup the signs for over 2000 Dutch words. The signs are written in SignWriting. \par We have established an electronic representation of this sign language dictionary. Searching for signs starting from a Dutch word works straightforward. The opposite, receiving results ordered by relevance, has never been develloped before. In this paper we explain how we have worked out such a system.} } @inproceedings{noelpp:04019:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Noelpp, Daniel Thomas Ulrich}, title = {Development of a New ``{SignWriter}'' Program}, pages = {95--97}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04019.html}, abstract = {The ``Sutton SignWriting'' system is a practical writing system for deaf sign languages. The symbols describe shape, location and movement of hands as well facial expressions and other signing information. ``SignWriter Java 1.5/Swing'' is being developed as the successor to ``SignWriter DOS'', a program for typing and editing ``SignWriting'' texts, used by school children, teachers, linguists and Deaf people. The new Java version 1.5 ``Tiger'' is used in development and Swing as the graphical user interface.} } @inproceedings{aznar:04022:sign-lang:lrec, author = {Aznar, Guylhem and Dalle, Patrice}, title = {Computer Support for {SignWriting} Written Form of Sign Language}, pages = {109--110}, editor = {Streiter, Oliver and Vettori, Chiara}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the {LREC2004} Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: From {SignWriting} to Image Processing. Information techniques and their implications for teaching, documentation and communication}, maintitle = {4th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation ({LREC} 2004)}, publisher = {{European Language Resources Association (ELRA)}}, address = {Lisbon, Portugal}, day = {30}, month = may, year = {2004}, language = {english}, url = {https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/04022.html}, abstract = {Signwriting's thesaurus is very large. It consists of 425 basic symbols, split in 60 groups from 10 categories. Each basic symbol can have 4 different representations, 6 different fillings and 16 different spatial rotations.} }