Language Development Technology to Help Hearing Impaired Children 
From: Georgia Institute of Technology - 10/18/2005
By: Jen Martin

Scientists in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology
have used sophisticated gesture recognition technology to develop a new
learning tool for hearing-impaired children. As part of the CopyCat project,
the researchers have created a sign language development tool that comes in
the form of an instructive computer game. Hearing-impaired children can use
CopyCat, which makes use of a virtual sign language tutor, to interact with
and sign to on-screen characters in an engaging and enjoyable manner. CopyCat
is designed to speed up the linguistic development of hearing-impaired
children, who often have limited exposure to sign language in their early
childhood other than in school because they tend to have hearing parents who
do not know or are not very proficient in sign language. "The computer
provides a patient, skilled, communicative partner for the children anytime
they choose, and that level of interaction is invaluable," explains Dr.
Harley Hamilton, an education technology specialist at the Atlanta Area
School for the Deaf. The National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department
of Education's National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
helped fund the project. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/news/starnerhearing.html

Link:
College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/