Free Online Sign Dictionary - NEEDS YOUR HELP

jamielee said:
I added some signs - works well. I apoligize for the quality of mine it they dont show a nice as Simons.
Click to expand...

Hey Jamie,

One thing that might help your videos would be to check if you can change the "codec" when you save your files from your webcam. If you can change it, pick something everybody has like "Microsoft MPEG-4". You see, many webcams pick "Uncompressed video" if you don't tell them what codec to use, and that makes the files large and kind of slow when they're downloaded.

Also, if you can get another light in your room, that would probably help too.

Keep on signing! I think it's kind of fun!

--Calphool
 
Yeah, having some kind of compression will be a big help... thanks for suggesting it Calphool...

just one word of warning, i'm having issues with MS-MPEG4 - currently the only plugin that I can get working properly with firefox browsers is Quicktime and that dosen't have the MS-MPEG4 codec, so firefox users currently can't see those videos.

I am working to try and figure out a way round it, so don't be put off from using it, it's just for those who are using Firefox and can't see Calphool videos.

I hope to have it fixed ASAP... will keep you posted.
 
s_t_harvey said:
Yeah, having some kind of compression will be a big help... thanks for suggesting it Calphool...

just one word of warning, i'm having issues with MS-MPEG4 - currently the only plugin that I can get working properly with firefox browsers is Quicktime and that dosen't have the MS-MPEG4 codec, so firefox users currently can't see those videos.

I am working to try and figure out a way round it, so don't be put off from using it, it's just for those who are using Firefox and can't see Calphool videos.

I hope to have it fixed ASAP... will keep you posted.
Click to expand...


Hey s_t_harvey,

Have you seen this thing?

Turbine Video Engine SDK

It looks like it has exactly what you need, and it's not too expensive. It looks like it will allow everyone to upload in whatever codec they have, and it'll get converted to Flash. It also includes an SDK so you can do whatever you need to plug it into your web site.

I'm not a wiz at PHP (I can get around in it, but it's not my web primary scripting language), but if you're willing to buy that SDK (or maybe just start with the trial version), I could probably figure out how it works and how to plug it into your site if you don't have time.
 
I was jsut thinking that there should be a space to type about how you sign the sign. Just the basic idea.
 
Hi Calphool
When i go to save my file it only says .avi I dont know how to change it to something different. I got another light in the room I hope it helps.
 
jamielee said:
I was jsut thinking that there should be a space to type about how you sign the sign. Just the basic idea.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. We need a little place to type out text instructions for how to do the sign. It's also helpful to give learners little memory hooks to remember the sign by.

I also thought it might be worth it to put a little slider knob on each sign with "ASL" on one side, and "SEE" on the other, with "PSE" in the middle or something. Then, as you put the sign in, you can slide it to whichever seems to fit best. Most of them would probably be sitting at "PSE", since they're used either way, but some would be exclusively ASL and some would be exclusively SEE.
 
jamielee said:
Hi Calphool
When i go to save my file it only says .avi I dont know how to change it to something different. I got another light in the room I hope it helps.
Click to expand...

What brand is your webcam? I'll look and see if I can figure out what you have to do for yours. Some of them don't let you change the codec, but many do. If we can get your codec changed, we can increase the frame rate on you videos, which will make them smoother. Mine's not perfect, but I spent half an hour trying to get it perfectly smooth, and finally gave up.

Also, if the software you're using has a "Help" menu at the top, click "Help" and then "About..." and tell me what it says.

Hey, the light looks better. I saw that you're doing the colors! My daughters wanted to do the animals. I let my youngest daughter do a few of them (it's a bit more hastle with the girls doing it though--they get too excited watching themselves on video, and they don't concentrate on the sign!! :lol: )
 
ok, I will take a look at the camera later and let you know if I find anything. I will leave the animals for your daughters. enjoy! I agree about the slider for PSE and SEE .
 
Hi Again,

Thanks again everyone for adding some more clips... especially the children - great to see young people signing!


Thanks for that info about Turbine Calphool. The basic program can't be used with the dictionary because of the location that the video files are stored, however it may be possible to use the SDK to get something working... it would be great, but I'm going to have to chat to my host about it and see if they would allow it, it would take up a lot of CPU processing power.

Anyway, thanks again.

Simon
 
200 and counting!!

Hey Jamie!

We have 200 signs now! :h5:

So far I haven't seen any regional differences between your area of Canada and Iowa. Well, I take that back--I saw a minor difference. Your "sell" sign is "store" here in Iowa, and "sell" is just one wrist movement. "Shopping" here in Iowa is an 's', palm toward you, brushed on the chin a couple of times. However, people know what you mean when you mix them up.

We'll have 3000 by the end of the year!!

--Calphool
 
That's great guys!!

I'm so pleased to see your enthusiasm, I just hope that some British and Australian signers will soon help us out too... Once I get some more time I'll carry on with the British section (I'm in my final 2 months of teacher training at the moment so things are a little bit hectic for me!)...

Just a quick note, as much as I love your enthusiasm please realise that the sponsorship I have from solarstorm design is limited! - I hadn't anticipated such an enthusiastic start. I might change the offer to last until the end of November... at least until I can find some more sponsorship.... I realise you guys aren't doing it for the payment, but it's just to let you know, seems as though you are the only two to have contributed so far! Keep an eye on the front page of the site for any changes to that side of things.

Thanks again both of you, you have done a fantastic job!!
 
One other note.

To make it easier for cross-language searching in the 'This sign also means' box please could you type and obvious spelling differences between UK and US - eg ize & ise color & colour

Thanks

Simon
 
Hi again!

Have fixed the firefox issues!! phew.... i was starting to think that it wasn't going to be possible, but all videos should now be working in firefox and IE (you may be prompted to install an updated plugin).

Simon
 
s_t_harvey said:
One other note.

To make it easier for cross-language searching in the 'This sign also means' box please could you type and obvious spelling differences between UK and US - eg ize & ise color & colour

Thanks

Simon
Click to expand...

I'll try... however I must admit that I don't really know many of those differences. Having grown up here in the heartland of the USA, we don't really think too much about "The Queen's English". We learn a particular spelling, and sometimes people will even go so far as to say "Hey, that Canadian guy doesn't know how to spell {whatever}", when it truth, there are just multiple spellings. (I doubt that Brits learn all the "Americanizations" as they call them... the same goes in reverse.)

If you were doing java development, I'd point you to the apache commons codec package:

org.apache.commons.codec.language Class Hierarchy (Codec 1.4-SNAPSHOT API)

You could then use metaphone searches instead of exact text searches (by storing the metaphone AND the actual text, and searching against the metaphone) Perhaps PHP supports something similar. Yes, actually, it looks like it does:

PHP metaphone() Function

--Joe
 
Thanks for that Calphool... I'd never heard of that before, looks like a really useful function.

I will add it to the site when I get some time.

I guess we Brits know a lot of americanisations through using incorrectly configured Microsoft products! - but I'm sure there are many more than just the ones we come accross.


Simon
 
Compression

Hi Jamie,

Just to follow on from your discussion with Calphool... did you manage to work out what brand of webcam you are using and what software you are using to record your video clips.

I have had a few emails to say that your videos are not loading properly, which is wrong, it's just they are taking a while to load on some connections.

I have had a look at your files and it is because they are quite big... eg. sad.avi :

Your upload: 4.95MB
Compressed (MS MPEG-4): 0.2MB

I am happy to go through your clips and compress them myself but I wont get a chance to do that until December.

If you let me know what software you are using then I will figure out how to make sure your future clips are compressed.

Thanks a lot, and thanks again for your hard work!

Simon
 
Hi Simon
I am using something called videoimpression 1.6 to record my clips. I dont know much about it I know that the camera I am using is a low end one that I got for cheap!
 
Calphool said:
Hey Jamie!

We have 200 signs now! :h5:

So far I haven't seen any regional differences between your area of Canada and Iowa. Well, I take that back--I saw a minor difference. Your "sell" sign is "store" here in Iowa, and "sell" is just one wrist movement. "Shopping" here in Iowa is an 's', palm toward you, brushed on the chin a couple of times. However, people know what you mean when you mix them up.

We'll have 3000 by the end of the year!!

--Calphool
Click to expand...
Hi Calphool

ya it seems to be coming along now! good work! Its great you have your daughter doing some signs!! Sorry I did not get back to you about my camera and everything. I dont know much about it except that its a low end one i got for cheap. its made by dynex and the program it uses is called video impressions 1.6 - on the box it only list the avi format. is there a program that i could download to compress the files?


Jamie
 
Simon
can you please delete my sign of "fire" I tried a compression program but it goofed up the files and made it super fast.
Thanks
 
Back
Top