tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88998428292295859892012-01-26T09:02:30.653-08:00Being an Online Journal for My Graduate Research Regarding Sign Language, Computer Vision and Artificial IntelligenceEd Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.comBlogger421100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-78767798627663386232012-01-26T09:02:00.000-08:002012-01-26T09:02:30.838-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I haven't forgotten this. A lot of things happened and I ran out of time for updating the blog. But, I'm back! I plan to make at least one post a week. See you around!

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-60402719431293277202011-08-04T22:35:00.000-07:002011-08-04T22:48:48.198-07:00

Installing LibreOffice in Fedora 14 This is a short note for myself (also for the search engines). Download LibreOffice tarballs from https://www.libreoffice.org/download/ Extract the RPMs and install the RPMs as per instructions here Delete or move libstdc++.so.6 in /opt/libreoffice3.4/ure/lib The RPMs from LibreOffice install to /opt and it has its own copy of libstdc++.so.6. Unfortunately,

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-32556085126605190552011-06-02T03:50:00.000-07:002011-06-02T04:02:08.211-07:00

We would like to get 150,000 signatures within this month to pass two laws: House Bill 4121: Sign language insets for TV news programs House Bill 4631: Court interpreters for the Deaf Learn more about the House Bills and sign our petition list at http://housebills4deaf.webs.com/

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-79644654466547466342011-05-18T05:40:00.000-07:002011-05-18T05:55:54.600-07:00

To all hearing interpreters , sign language enthusiasts, anybody interested to be sign language interpreters; to all deaf interpreters and deaf individuals: There will be a general assembly meeting for sign language interpreters Date: 2011 May 21 (Saturday) Time: 7:30 am - 3:00 pm Venue: CAP Development center 7th floor, CAP Building 126 Amorsolo corner VA Rufino Legaspi

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-36985058789870283452011-04-15T05:49:00.000-07:002011-05-06T00:36:17.753-07:00

Part 1 here Part 2 here Non-linear dimensionality reduction In an earlier post, we saw we can approximate higher dimensional data using dimensionality reduction techniques. However, PCA (and similar methods) have a weakness. It requires the constraints to line along or near straight lines. What about data that lie along curves? Another Illustrated Example Let us pretend again we have 2-

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-4341841375211771632010-12-04T06:24:00.000-08:002010-12-04T17:38:39.311-08:00

I recently installed Fedora 14 on a Lenovo Ideapad B450 for PDRC and I have had problems with getting the Wi-Fi to work. I am posting this so Google search engines can find it.The Lenovo Ideapad B450 has an Atheros Gigabit ethernet card and an Atheros AR5001 wifi card. I had installed Fedora 12 on it previously and it worked with no problems. After upgrading it to Fedora 14, the wireless card

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-17662931675149492232010-10-04T09:15:00.000-07:002010-10-08T05:02:43.368-07:00

UPDATE: As of 8 am, October 7, 2010, the Bureau of Immigrations under the directive of Under Sec. Jovy Salazar of the Department of Justice has placed Mr. Franklin Corpuz on a Qatar-bound flight this morning. This is to rectify the situation and treatment Mr. Corpuz received on 4 October, 2010. This was made possible thru the appeal of Prof. Raul Pangalangan of the U.P. College of Law. A full

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-42634518443830055462010-09-22T23:00:00.001-07:002010-09-23T01:00:38.019-07:00

I recently got interviewed by loQal about my research. You can read the article here. I guess I didn't explain some things clearly enough and I'd hate to give a false impression regarding the research. Here are some items I'd like to clarify or correct. The Filipino Sign Language (FSL) Archive project is a collaboration between: Philippine Deaf Resource Center (PDRC) - an NGO Philippine

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-85984870477019789212010-09-21T18:32:00.000-07:002010-09-22T23:54:10.639-07:00

What makes it hard to do Sign Recognition? I touched this topic briefly in an earlier post. Simply put, there are a lot of things going on in sign language. In spoken languages, you just have to listen to one thing; in sign language you pay attention to the face, the body, the hands and arms simultaneously. Another part of the problem is the complexity of sign language itself. Facial expressions

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-10315400739680053152010-09-09T12:01:00.000-07:002010-09-10T03:41:22.137-07:00

This is a partial dump of the references I have used so far. Rafaelito M. Abat and Liza B. Martinez. The history of sign language in the philippines: Piecing together the puzzle. In 9th Philippine Linguistics Congress, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, 2006. Julius Andrada and Raphael Domingo. Key findings for language planning from the national sign language committee (status report on the

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-41570293219949936012010-08-04T02:22:00.000-07:002010-09-10T18:19:08.186-07:00

Dimensionality Reduction Trying to make sense of 19,200 dimensions is asking for trouble. Fortunately for us poor humans, most data are constrained in some way. For example, the data varies but it doesn't vary along all 19,200 dimensions at the same time; it varies along some of the dimensions, some of the time. If we know how and when the data changes, we can approximate our data with a smaller

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-40479680732021768092010-08-01T11:04:00.000-07:002010-09-10T03:31:14.718-07:00

Background: How many dimensions? When we talk of dimensions in casual conversation, we often recall high school geometry. A point has zero dimensions, a line segment has one dimension (length), a rectangle has two dimensions (length & width), and a block has three dimensions (length, width & height). We can also think of dimensions as a tuple, or a set of numbers, and this set of numbers

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-89965399829622523982010-07-26T00:15:00.000-07:002010-07-25T09:13:01.329-07:00

I find sign language fascinating. It's a language unlike the any other languages I know. It uses a different set of body parts to communicate. Sign language linguistics is hard. Sign language recognition is hard(er). And it surprises me. For the longest time, I thought sign language used only the hands and arms. Only when I started reading about it and interacting with the Deaf, did it

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-81799710205753840322010-03-12T07:38:00.000-08:002010-03-12T08:08:18.871-08:00

or How Do We Represent Video as an Input to Our Various Algorithms? What is video anyway? To oversimplify, video is a series of images shown one after another. There are many display and storage formats; but, in essence, they are all just a set of images. How fast, how often the images are presented is measured in frames-per-second (fps). For example, television in usually shown at 30 fps. Each

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-84393177498024108232010-02-27T01:22:00.000-08:002010-03-12T08:10:50.476-08:00

Warning: This post is just me rambling. Whenever I talk about my research sometimes the topic meanders to Artificial Intelligence. Specifically, two questions come up; (1) are these machines really thinking? And (2) will machines become as intelligent as people? It seems that people conflate three things in these discussions: Intelligence, Consciousness and Life. Because us humans are

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-10846102973249340562009-12-30T06:16:00.000-08:002010-12-04T06:24:54.617-08:00

How to get Globe Tattoo prepaid wireless working in Fedora 12 updated: added minor details, minor edits It mostly just worked. By default, Network Manager and Modem Manager are installed. If not, install them first. I also installed the usb_modeswitch utility; but I didn't need it. The USB Modem is detected after about 10 secs. Create a new Mobile Broadband connection in Network Manager.

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-87260893081015241232009-11-04T08:24:00.000-08:002009-11-04T08:26:34.577-08:00

After dealing with technical and personal problems, we are back on the net. Apologies to my three readers! Regular posting starts tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by!

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-47250785560007132962009-08-12T01:26:00.000-07:002009-08-12T01:46:46.236-07:00

I could not afford the T-series nor the X-series. I settled for the small business line of Lenovo, the SL-series These have just about the same features but at half (or less) the price. What are the trade-offs? The SL-series are heavier and bulkier. Instead of using lightweight metal parts, thick plastic parts are used. Lower end video card. No roll cage in SL-series. The T- and X-series have a

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-33355152360036966752009-07-22T01:21:00.000-07:002009-07-22T02:33:27.196-07:00

I haven't been posting as much lately and for that I apologize to my readers (all three of you). I have successfully defended my thesis proposal (CS298) and I am now in thesis proper (CS300). I plan to do my final thesis defense 2nd week of October. What have we learned during the Marathon? Sign language recognition is hard. Sign language linguistics are decades behind spoken language

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-55556314376314960192009-06-01T03:02:00.000-07:002009-08-12T01:48:42.055-07:00

My notebook finally died. IBM Thinkpad X31 model 2672-B2U purchased sometime in 2003. No amount of poking, (re)assembly, or pleading would bring it back. When plugged-in (with or without battery) the lights would come on and sometimes the CPU fan, then nothing. Hard disk doesn't spin up (or down), display remains blank. It has been dying for about a year now; a few months ago I just have to keep

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-65774412079313169972009-05-21T00:20:00.000-07:002009-05-21T00:58:01.736-07:00

Data Collection total of 117 unique signs (60 2-handed signs + 57 2-handed signs) 3 signers per sign; on average 2 samples per sign per signer approximately 700 isolated sign samples 88 out of 700 isolated sign samples edited 63 grouped sign samples 37 out of 68 grouped sign samples edited This is far from complete. In addition to editing the existing samples I also need to annotate and

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-88619388938879633752009-05-11T22:24:00.000-07:002009-05-11T22:28:17.953-07:00

changed "research tips" label to "research" added "marathon" label to all research marathon posts added title to marathon day 4 post

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-70213473925740769562009-05-11T22:11:00.001-07:002009-05-11T22:16:09.677-07:00

FSL video progress 90 out of 127 signs (9 out of 13 groups) recorded 2 out of 3 signers recorded 90 out of 328 recorded samples processed Proposal/Thesis Paper writing configured LaTeX templates draft Chapter 1: Introduction draft Chapter 2: Related Literature draft Chapter 3: Research Problem

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-22488490174343645532009-05-07T03:55:00.000-07:002009-05-18T22:33:57.830-07:00

update: minor edits for clarification Challenges in Sign Language Recogniton Multiple types of events Multiple channels Multiple interpretations Sign language linguistics Multiple types of events From an earlier post, I mentioned that sign language has several things going on. We need to look at the hand shapes, the arm motion with respect to the body, the body posture, and facial expressions

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-16246353824583153762009-05-07T03:30:00.000-07:002009-05-11T22:22:41.676-07:00

It is time to re-evaluate our progress. What have we accomplished? What have we learned? Accomplishments Created a screencast of the prototype of the visualization tool for demonstrations. Incremental improvements in the visualization tool. Standardized the mencoder options for my data files. mencoder is part of the MPlayer project. Scheduled additional recording sessions with the Deaf next

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-24418638605287957312009-04-22T22:46:00.000-07:002009-05-11T22:23:31.041-07:00

From the recording sessions, I now have 89 unique FSL signs. Each sign was recorded for both Rommel and Mary Jane, making a total of 178 samples. Sometimes there two or more takes per sample, meaning I'll end up with more than 178 samples in all. Right now I am editing and resizing the video files into small 160x120 clips - one clip per sign. 20 out of 178 done

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-40753150455371969272009-04-20T23:57:00.001-07:002009-05-11T22:23:50.669-07:00

I have forgotten all about this: Structured Procrastination. Combined with mini-milestones, this approach works very well for me. Mini-milestones, for those unfamiliar with the term, are very small tasks with only two possible statuses - NOT DONE and DONE. There is no 80% Done, it is either finished or not finished. This means the tasks must be small and straight-forward. We break down projects

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-72171886230490429662009-04-19T08:47:00.000-07:002009-05-11T22:23:50.669-07:00

This summer, starting April 20, the lab is doing a Research Marathon. Forty-two days of nose-to-the grindstone research grunt work. The goals of the marathon is to (a) produce solid experimental data to back up the thesis; and (b) to produce a paper or report ready for publication. In my case, I will add a third goal: (c) my thesis proposal defense. I am simultaneously excited and terrified,

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-25268334347922747562009-04-15T08:13:00.000-07:002009-04-15T08:14:27.160-07:00

Whoo-hoo! That is all.

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-77206729293956761082009-03-27T09:12:00.001-07:002009-04-19T09:29:44.554-07:00

The other common approach to sign language recognition is Vision-based. Video footage of subjects signing are fed into the computer either in real-time or as a video file recorded earlier. Advantages Mainstream hardware. Video cameras are easier to obtain, configure and control than the CyberGlove. Closer to natural. Signers don't wear any special equipment that may impede in their signing.

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-10465841587997198532009-03-24T01:58:00.000-07:002009-03-24T02:23:18.132-07:00

There are two general approaches to sign language recognition in terms of how the computer "sees". Direct Measure approaches rely on devices that sense the position of the fingers, thumb, arms, and so on. The CyberGlove is one such measuring device. The subject wears the glove and when the subject moves, the glove relays the information from sensors built-in the glove to a computer or other

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-84494015577422916512009-03-13T07:34:00.000-07:002009-03-27T09:07:07.298-07:00

Update: changed photo URLs to point to Flickr After 4 sessions, we now have 80 signs, with each sign performed by two signers. Many thanks to my models Rommel and Mary Jane. Rommel waits patiently while we get the lights going. A reflector was placed in front of the signers (supported by two chairs) to bounce the light up and soften the shadows in the face. We had two lights, one on the

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-2170178982590098052009-02-27T09:25:00.000-08:002009-02-27T10:09:38.485-08:00

MATLAB is a very nice computation and data analysis tool. Many engineering and science research I have come across use MATLAB. Octave is another computation and data analysis tool that is mostly compatible with MATLAB. It is also Free/Open Source Software. Much like OpenOffice.org vs Microsoft Office; and GIMP vs Adobe Photoshop, comparisons will be made between the proprietary software and their

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-40334362778320663052009-02-27T08:27:00.000-08:002009-02-27T09:23:34.499-08:00

We have recorded 50 signs (FSL) with two native signers and we plan to record 50 more in the next two weeks. The Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Lab at the EEE Institute next door have been kind enough to assist us. They have a Sony HandyCam with a built-in hard drive. Our raw samples are recorded at 720x480 at 30 fps. I forgot to bring my camera last week. No pictures yet. I'll make another post

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-59114340676116689152009-02-18T22:49:00.000-08:002009-05-11T22:24:15.480-07:00

Sometimes, when doing research, we find going in circles. We keep hitting a wall. We run faster and faster only to find we hardly moved. That's where I was this past two weeks. I found that I loose interest quickly if I cannot see the goal. Or I can see the goal, but I cannot see the next milestone. The solution I found would be to look at the research roadmap and figure out where to go from

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-82015737405808168352009-02-03T23:29:00.000-08:002010-07-25T09:28:32.833-07:00

First Attempt at video processing We don't know yet what to expect, so we'll just try things out and see what sticks. We'll use that as a starting point. We already have a small pilot video. We just need to convert it to something we can play with, starting with color. To simplify things, we'll start by removing color: Monochrome (1-bit) or Black and White with dithering looks too noisy.

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-24887034480308609912009-02-02T00:28:00.000-08:002010-07-10T21:02:45.528-07:00

update: I lost the pictures In order to teach the machine FSL, video recordings of native signers are needed. For the first (pilot) stage, 50 1-handed (1H) signs and 57 2-handed (2H) signs will be recorded. Only traditional signs were selected. Each sign will be recorded in isolation; hands and arms start at a neutral position and will return to the neutral position after each sign. For comfort,

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-64449752416556555072009-01-20T09:03:00.000-08:002009-01-20T09:36:44.940-08:00

Problem solving can sometimes be modeled as a search problem i.e. we can restate the problem as looking for the answer in the among all candidate answers. For example, solving a jigsaw puzzle can be restated as "Which among all the possible arrangements of pieces do the pieces fit together to form the picture?". The set of "all possible arrangements of pieces" is our solution space and we need to

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-48492648240353530342009-01-19T23:51:00.000-08:002009-01-20T00:16:59.304-08:00

Part 1 here Signing space is a three-dimensional space from about the mid-torso to just above the head, extending forward from the chest to about one-arm length away, and extending about half an arm's length on both sides. During most signs, the hands and arms do not go beyond this space. Fingerspelling space is a small space just large enough to fit the hand; it is located midway near the

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-35787555735672727962009-01-16T01:28:00.000-08:002009-01-20T00:14:57.604-08:00

Update: Part 2 here Sign Language is the natural language of the Deaf. It is a visual language and those who use sign language are called signers. Signers use their hands, shoulders, arms, torso, neck and face to communicate. In spoken languages, the basic unit of sound utterance is called a phonemes. Similarly, the basic unit of sign language are also called phonemes even though they are not

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-79840027703431445832009-01-11T04:48:00.000-08:002009-01-11T04:57:03.818-08:00

Any errors and mistakes found here are mine. If I have misunderstood anything, please don't hesitate to point them out.Corrections and updates will be posted as soon as I am able. Thank you!

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8899842829229585989.post-55721547450816851172008-12-25T00:49:00.001-08:002008-12-25T08:13:05.183-08:00

I am a MS Computer Science student studying in the University of the Philippines and this is my blog. Most likely, this will be just another geeky blog. Hopefully, it will help me practice my writing. I'll be mostly blogging about my graduate research project. Here goes nothing.

Ed Cabalfinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06254433713567052226noreply@blogger.com