Iohana Georgescu reports that US researchers are attempting to make it possible to send video compressed live pictures of people signing (e.g., using American Sign Language) across low bandwidth networks.

"To do all this calculation and video compression runs down your battery pretty fast," said University of Washington computer scientist Richard Ladner, one of the principal investigators on the project.

The recently developed system works across networks with a bandwidth of 10-12 kb per second. It looks like the video compression tool works well enough for the research team to talk with handset makers and operators to put it on phones.

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