SignStream® version 3 !*
A new Java version of SignStream® is available !
Get Version 3.5.0 - an update released in August of 2024.
Users of 3.4.0 and 3.4.1 are urged to upgrade to 3.5.0, for critical bug fixes and
exciting new features! There is a new capability to search the global Sign Bank
based on the sign video being annotated, and if the sign is correctly recognized
as confirmed by the user, to automatically enter the appropriate gloss and features
(subject to further editing by the user, if desired). There are also new tools for
annotation of gestures. The new version is described extensively in
http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/rpt26/asllrp26.pdf .
Designed to facilitate linguistic annotation and analysis of video data from American Sign Language (ASL).
System requirements:
- SignStream® only runs on Mac OS computers:
- macOS Sonoma (14), Ventura (13), Monterey (12), Big Sur (11), Catalina (10.15), or Mojave (10.14).
- SignStream® 3.5.0 may also work on older versions of the MacOS..
Download the latest version (3.5.0) of the software - and follow the instructions for installation carefully.
Click here for license information
IMPORTANT: If you are upgrading from a previous version of SignStream®, please note:
SignStream files that were last saved in a version of SignStream 3 prior to 3.3.0 cannot be opened with this current version of SignStream (3.5.0). To open such files, you will need to first open them with SignStream version 3.3.0 and save them; those saved versions will then be able to be opened with the current version of SignStream. If you do not have SignStream version 3.3.0 installed and need a link to download that version of the software for this purpose, please email Carol Neidle (carol@bu.edu) for a download link. (System requirements for version 3.3.0 will be detailed in the email reply.)
User guide: ASLLRP Report No. 15 Neidle, C. [2017]: A User's Guide to SignStream® 3
[pdf - 24 MB]
About the 3.1.0 update: ASLLRP Report No. 16 Neidle, C. [2018]: What's new in SignStream® 3.1.0 ?
[pdf - 1 MB]
About the 3.3 update: ASLLRP Report No. 17 Neidle, C. [2020]: What's new in SignStream® 3.3.0 ?
[pdf - 14 MB]
About the 3.4 update: ASLLRP Report No. 22 Neidle, C. [2022]: What's new in SignStream® 3.4.0 ?
[pdf]
About the 3.4.1 update: ASLLRP Report No. 23 Neidle, C. [2023]: What's new in SignStream® 3.4.1 ?
[pdf]
About the 3.5.0 update: ASLLRP Report No. 26 Neidle, C. [2024]: What's new in SignStream® 3.5.0 ?
[pdf]
Video codecs that work with the application; if your video is in a different format, you should first convert it to one of these:
- MPEG-4 (.mp4, .mov)
- AVC1 (.mp4, .mov)
- H.264 (.mp4, .mov)
Gregory Dimitriadis Application Developer at Rutgers University (July 2015 - present) James Felice Application Developer at Rutgers University (October 2020 - 2021) Douglas Motto Application Developer Supervisor at Rutgers University (February 2016 - present) Charles Hedrick Director, LCSR, Rutgers University (2022 - present) Augustine Opoku Application Developer Supervisor at Rutgers University (July 2015 - January 2016) Thanks also to:
Jason Boyd, George Kierstein, Robert G. Lee, Joan Nash, John Olson, Stan Sclaroff, Ashwin Thangali, Christian Vogler, and Iryna Zhuravlova, for prior contributions to design and implementation; and to our linguistic consultants and to all those at BU and Gallaudet University who have used versions of the program, provided feedback and suggestions, and shared their expertise !
Partial list: : Justin Arrigo, Aimee Aylward, Ben Bahan, Carey Ballard, Cory Behm, Joshua Beckman, Rachel Benedict, Naomi Berlove Caselli, Elizabeth Cassidy, Lana Cook, Jaimee DiMarco, Daniel Ferro, Amanda Gaber, Graham Grail, Justin Bergeron, Chelsea Hammond, Ryan Hevia, Reema Kharoufa, Kelsey Koenigs, Alix Kraminitz, Corbin Kuntze, Yulia Labkovsky, Carly Levine, Rebecca Lopez, Jonathan McMillan, Travis Nguyen, Indya-Loreal Oliver, Caelan Pacelli, Braden Painter, Chrisann Papera, Emma Preston, Donna Riggle, Tyler Richard, Tory Sampson, Dana Schlang, Michael Schlang, Jessica Scott, Jonathan Suen, Norma Bowers Tourangeau, Blaze Travis, Amelia Wisniewski-Barker, Jennifer Witteborg, Norman Williams, Isabel Zehner
We also gratefully acknowledge:
Carol Neidle Project Director
*Development of SignStream®, our linguistically annotated corpora, and of our Data Access Interface (DAI and DAI 2), has been partially funded by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), including:
Illustration of annotation of a dialog, with two signers producing overlapping utterances. (Click for larger view.) Illustration of new Sign Bank functionality, enabling the annotator to search, from within SignStream, for gloss labels from a repertoire of about 3,000 signs. [Internet access is required for full functionality.] If the desired sign is found, the sign's properties can be entered automatically into the annotation.
(Click for larger view.)
Once the ASLLRP Sign Bank has been installed, SignStream® will check for Sign Bank updates each time SignStream® is launched. If an update is needed, a terminal window will open to enable the update to occur, after which the program itself will launch.
See also our online corpora:
The Data Access Interface (DAI) <http://secrets.rutgers.edu/dai/queryPages/> allows browsing, search, and download of ASL video data (linguistically annotated through use of SignStream®), for (a) the National Center for Sign Language and Gesture Resources (NCSLGR) corpus; and (b) ~10,000 examples (over 4,000 distinct signs) in citation form, as part of the American Sign Language Lexicon Video Dataset (ASLLVD), which forms the basis for the initial ASLLRP Sign Bank (see above). [See Carol Neidle and Christian Vogler, A New Web Interface to Facilitate Access to Corpora: Development of the ASLLRP Data Access Interface, 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon, LREC 2012, Istanbul, Turkey, May 27, 2012.]A new version of our Data Access Interface, DAI 2 (version 2), to faciliate, browsing, search, and download of data from our expanding corpora, annotated through use of SignStream® 3 (with more detailed morpho-phonological information than in previous datasets) is now available! For details, see http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/about-dai2.html. This interface currently allows access, to 47 collections from our new ASLLRP SignStream® 3 Corpus, with a total of over 2,000 utterances from 4 different signers (16,660 signed examples). Additional data has recently been added from DawnSignPress and RIT: see http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/about-datasets.pdf. Here is an illustration of search results for (1) the sign glossed as "ALWAYS" (on top), and (2) negation (partial) in DAI 2:Important Note:
Pop-ups must be enabled in your browser for the site to display the videos properly.
The DAI 2 also provides access to our new ASLLRP Sign Bank !
See:
Neidle, Carol, Augustine Opoku, Carey Ballard, Yang Zhou, Xiaoxiao He & Dimitris Metaxas. 2024. New Capability to Look Up an ASL Sign from a Video Example. arXiv 2407.13571 [cs.CV]. 1-11. https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.13571.
Carol Neidle and Augustine Opoku [2024] A Guide to the ASLLRP Sign Bank – New Search Features. BU ASLLRP Report No. 25, Boston, MA. http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/rpt18/asllrp25.pdf
Carol Neidle and Augustine Opoku [2020] A User's Guide to the American Sign Language Linguistic Research Project (ASLLRP) Data Access Interface (DAI) 2 — Version 2. BU ASLLRP Report No. 18, Boston, MA. http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/rpt18/asllrp18.pdf
Note that New data and new features are available as of Spring 2022:
see http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/about-datasets.pdf and http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/New-features-DAI2.pdf
See also:
Carol Neidle, Augustine Opoku, and Dimitris Metaxas [2022] ASL Video Corpora & Sign Bank: Resource Available through the American Sign Language Linguistic Research Project (ASLLRP). arXiv:2201.07899 [cs.CL] https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.07899
Carol Neidle, Augustine Opoku, Gregory Dimitriadis, and Dimitris Metaxas [2018] NEW Shared & Interconnected ASL Resources: SignStream® 3 Software; DAI 2 for Web Access to Linguistically Annotated Video Corpora; and a Sign Bank, 8th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Involving the Language Community, LREC 2018, Miyazaki, Japan, pp. 147-154.
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