Computer graphics professor to study ASL for animation work

Nicoletta Adamo-Villani, associate professor of computer graphics technology, has received a Faculty Fellowship for Study in a Second Discipline for the 2012-2013 academic year.

For the last six years, Adamo-Villani has focused her research on animation-based teaching technologies for deaf children. This fellowship will allow her to learn American Sign Language (ASL) and to research the linguistics and other grammatical markers, or prosody, unique to ASL, which convey additional meaning.

“My most immediate objective is to drastically improve the quality of ASL animation by developing new animation algorithms that allow for creation of signing avatars that can convey ASL prosody,” she said. “Sign animation enhanced by algorithmically generated prosodic markers could represent a major breakthrough in the field.”

In addition to enhancing her own knowledge of the subject, she anticipates that she will create a graduate-level course in the animation of sign language based on her research.

Adamo-Villani will work with Ronnie Wilbur, director of Purdue’s linguistics program and professor of speech, language and hearing sciences.