JISC TechDis, in conjunction with the BIS and the TSB, has selected Gamelab as one of two companies to develop prototypes for the Making Waves initiative. Making Waves is about converting gesture (or sign) language into digital data. Gamelab’s offer, uKinect, has already past through a proof of concept phase. uKinect  is  a gesture recognition system for learning disabled non-verbal communication including Makaton signing.

Phase 1 produced a proof of concept…See the uKinect page

In Phase 2, Gamelab, together with our partners Hassell Inclusion and Reflex Arc,  will further explore the use of Microsoft Kinect technology to produce games, training and support applications which help users to communicate and express their needs more naturally developing a prototype for both learners and those supporting them. Additional work will include:

• enable learners to show progress in their signing to help them achieve curriculum targets,
• creation of a new engine for minimising the cost of generating ‘sign recognisers’ to allow new sign recognition vocabularies to be created more quickly and cheaply;
• the inclusion of reference videos so signs which are new to the learner can be demonstrated
• addition of new gameplay techniques to allow the level of difficulty in the game to be personalised for the individual learner, and allow the learner to see how they are progressing in their learning and accuracy of signing;
• extending the target audience for this prototype to include students with autism and people whose communication has been limited by them having a stroke;
• creation of a ‘personalised gesture support communication system’ which could help a much larger cohort of learners whose limited use of their hands prevents them from signing, but who can make gestures consistently enough for such a system to provide a more efficient, capable interface than the ‘switches’ which currently constrain their interaction.

Gamelab together with partners Hassell Inclusion have completed phase one of a proof of concept project which allows young people with learning disabilities to sign through to a computer game through Microsoft’s Kinect sensor.

Visit the uKinect page for more detail.

Gamelab have been nominated in two educational sections at the annual children’s BAFTA awards.
Primary Learning category: Ways of Talking produced with BBC Learning
Secondary Learning: Wanna Be a Rockstar also produced with BBC Learning

more to follow…..

A good deal of interest has been shown in Judge Jenny’s Folktale Court – an animation series from Gamelab’s stable. She could well be talking in Arabic, Spanish and other languages before long. Contact us if you’d like to know more.