Video Tool Would Aid Sign Language Interpretation

Researchers are working on an interactive video project that would allow someone to demonstrate a sign in front of a camera, and have a computer program interpret and explain its meaning. American Sign Language has no written form, and even though there are print and video ASL dictionaries, one needs to know the meaning of the word to look up the sign. That's sort of like trying to figure out the meaning of a foreign word by looking it up under its English equivalent.The researchers, working with a 3-year, $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, are in the early stages of the project, capturing thousands of ASL words on video in a brightly lit Boston University lab. The goal is to develop a lexicon of more than 3,000 signs. The meaning of each sign is not just determined by the shape of the hands, but the movements of the hands and arms, and even facial expressions.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/05/26/sign.language.video.ap/index.html