A Investigation of Cisco Technologies & Access Solutions
1. A Investigation of Cisco
Technologies & Access Solutions
October 25, 2010
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2. 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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. 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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7. 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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8. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. 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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14. 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.
15. 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/
16. 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
17. Idealized Signing Avatar System
AVATAR
audio
Speech to
Speech to SL to
SL to
Text to SL
Text to SL
text
text gestures
gestures gestures
text Sign
language
Motion
Motion
capture
capture gestures
Live interpreter
18. 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
19. 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
20. 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.
21. 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.
http://matthewwall.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c68d853ef01116 • TelePresence makes remote
8a477f0970c-800wi
or distant people appear or
feel present and part of the
local activity by using
telematics technology.
22. 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?
24. 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
25. 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
26. 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
