Instrumented Measures of Sign Production and Perception
Martha E. Tyrone · 2015
One of the central goals of linguistic research on sign language is to elucidate the mechanisms of language perception and production. Instrumented studies of sign language are designed to measure such mechanisms precisely and quantitatively. Instrumented techniques and their associated measures can be applied to a broad range of research questions, but they are best suited to studies of adult sign language users. Particular techniques to be reviewed in this chapter include electronic motion capture, data glove systems, video-based motion analysis procedures, eye-tracking systems, and reaction-time paradigms. The motion capture systems that have been used most often for sign language research are optical. In addition to recording movement with a marker-based system, it is possible to record movement during signing by using ordinary video and applying a motion detection algorithm to the video data. The main advantage of instrumented techniques is that they allow precise quantitative measurements.