3-D Imaging and the Deaf Community

Researchers at Galudet University are using the 3D imaging technology often used to create animation, to create apps and movies which support language development in the deaf population. They’ve decided to focus on improving a child’s exposure to narrative structure and prosody by honing in on nursery rhymes. They are an important way that the hearing population learns about sound patterns, a language’s rhythm, and narrative elements; right now they are not accessible to the deaf community. The researchers have found a way to translate the temporal auditory rhythms heard in a nursery rhyme to a visual temporal rhythm in ASL. For more information about apps or current research, please see:

http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2015/06/28/417109518/when-it-comes-to-learning-for-the-deaf-its-a-3-d-language