Photo: Mary Levin/University of Washington

Researchers at the University of Washington have begun testing new technology that allows for American Sign Language to be transmitted over U.S. cellular networks, taking advantage of the video conferencing features now available on many mobile phones. "This is the first study of how deaf people in the United States use mobile video phones," said Eve Riskin, a UW professor of electrical engineering, who is leading the project.

Here's more from the UW press release:

The MobileASL team has been working to optimize compressed video signals for sign language. By increasing image quality around the face and hands, researchers have brought the data rate down to 30 kilobytes per second while still delivering intelligible sign language. MobileASL also uses motion detection to identify whether a person is signing or not in order to extend the phones' battery life during video use. Transmitting sign language as efficiently as possible increases affordability, improves reliability on slower networks and extends battery life, even on devices that might have the capacity to deliver higher quality video.

The project is being tested in the field this summer with students from the UW Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing. The 9-week program is geared to students who are interested in learning more about computer programming and animation.

Josiah Cheslik, a UW junior and volunteer in the MobileASL field study, demonstrates using the phone to communicate in his native language. He is signing with Pete Michor, seen in the background, another participant in the study. Photo and cutline via via Mary Levin at the UW.

In the initial tests, the researchers have been studying how the students use the technology in their daily lives and what common problems they encounter. As part of the program, 11 students have been testing the phones for the past three weeks.

In the first two and a half weeks of the study, some 200 calls were made with an average call duration of a minute and a half, researchers said. A larger field study is set for this winter.

"Texting is for short things, like 'I'm here,' or, 'What do you need at the grocery store?'" said Josiah Cheslik, a UW undergraduate and past participant in the summer academy who is now a teaching assistant. "This is like making a real phone call."

The MobileASL system allows individuals to communicate face-to-face.

While new high-end phones like the iPhone 4 and HTC EVO allow video conferencing among callers, researchers at the UW said that the calls consume large amounts of bandwidth and therefore are capped by carriers. The UW researchers estimate that the iPhone 4's video conferencing feature consumes 10 times as much bandwidth as MobileASL.

"We want to deliver affordable, reliable ASL on as many devices as possible," Riskin said in the release. "It's a question of equal access to mobile communication technology." Here's a video of how the technology works: