Note: it can be useful to practice some of the technical terms introduced in this chapter.

• Transitional movement: Movement of the hand that is necessary to reach the start position of a sign or in order to move the hand from the end point of one sign to the start position of the next sign. This movement is not lexically specified, i.e. does not belong to any of the signs (e.g., SASL man, clip on website) – it is simply a phonetic requirement.

• Proximal: articulated by a joint close to the shoulder or trunk (e.g., SASL woman 1, clip on website);

• Distal: articulated further away from the shoulder/trunk (e.g., SASL quack);

• Weak drop: no use of weak hand in a two-handed sign (e.g., SASL car, bus, clips on website).

Note: there is no assignment on language technology for sign languages. It is important to emphasize that in order to develop such technology, a detailed phonetic description of a sign language is needed.

The following clips can be shown.

1. Sign Language avatar demo (collaborative project): http://​vimeo​.com​/89629973

2. Demonstration of Signing Avatar Technology as used in the Signing Science Project:

   http://​www​.w3​.org​/WAI​/RD​/2004​/06​/sims​-mov​.htm.

   The Avatar signs in ASL:

   "Weather is the heat we feel on a summer day. It's the rain that delays our ball game. It's the wind that blows leaves off trees. It's all these things and more. Weather is the condition of the air outside at any given time or place."