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SUMMARY:Blissymbolics - The Emergence of a Written Language - Annalu Walle
 r\, Dundee
DTSTART:20060627T130000Z
DTEND:20060627T140000Z
UID:TALK5130@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ryan Prescott Adams
DESCRIPTION:Blissymbolics was first used with children with complex commun
 ication  needs\n(CCN) in Canada in the 1970s. Despite its  linguistic  cha
 racteristics\,  the\nacceptance of Bliss  as  a  written  language  only  
 emerged  in  1998.  The\nfundamental rules  document  (http://blissymbolic
 s.org/)  was  developed  to\nreflect the linguistic terminology adopted in
  line with the registration  of\nthe Bliss character set.\n\nOngoing  rese
 arch  at  Dundee  University  has  illustrated  ways  in  which\nBlissymbo
 lics can be manipulated as a language. The  Blissword  project  has\ndevel
 oped a prototype Bliss wordprocessor which provides users  with  access\nt
 o the entire Bliss  vocabulary.  Student  projects  have  also  focused  o
 n\nnatural language  translation  using  stochastic  prediction  and  auto
 matic\nconcept interpretation.  However\,  implementation  of  these  prot
 otypes  is\nlimited as we still await the development of a Bliss font.\n\n
 This talk will introduce the fundamentals of the Blissymbolics language  a
 nd\nwill summarise some of the research  undertaken  at  Dundee\,  includi
 ng  the\nlatest stage in the development of a Bliss font.\n\nSelected Blis
 symbolics References\n* Andreasen\, P.N.\, Waller\, A.\, & Gregor\, P. (19
 98). BlissWord  -  Full  Access\n    to Blissymbols for all Users.  In:  P
 roceedings  of  the  8th  Biennial\n    Conference  of  the  International
    Society   for   Augmentative   and\n    Alternative Communication\, Dub
 lin\, Ireland\, 167-168.\n* Arnott\,  J.L\,  Alm\,  N.\,  &  Waller\,  A. 
   (1999).   Cognitive   prostheses:\n    communication\,  rehabilitation  
 and  beyond.   In:   Proceedings   IEEE\n    International Conference on S
 ystems\, Man and Cybernetics (Tokyo\, Japan\,\n    12-15 October 1999) IV\
 , 346-351.\n* Waller\, A\, McNaughton\, S\, Koerselman\, E\,  Jennische\, 
  M\,  Nelms\,  G  (2000).\n    Blissymbolics - the emergence of a written 
 language. In: Proceedings of\n    the  9th  Biennial  Conference  of  the 
   International   Society   for\n    Augmentative and Alternative Communic
 ation (ISAAC) (Washington\, USA\, 2-\n    6 August 2000) pp.364-365.\n* Wa
 ller\, A. (1998).  Pragmatic  approaches  to  the  design  of  augmentativ
 e\n    communication systems. In Proceedings of IEEE International Worksho
 p on\n    Robotic and Human Communication Conference (Takamatsu\,  Kagawa\
 ,  Japan\,\n    30 September - 2 October 1998) Vol. 2\,263-267.\n* Waller\
 ,  A.  &  Jack\,  K.  (2002).  A  predictive  Blissymbolic  to  English\n 
    translation system\, In:  J.A.  Jacko  (ed.)\,  ASSETS  2002  (The  Fif
 th\n    International ACM Conference  on  Assistive  Technologies\,  8-10 
  July\,\n    Edinburgh\, Scotland 2002)\, 186-191.\n* Waller A.\, Oosterho
 orn E. & Andreasen P.N. (2000).  A  Language  Independent\n    Bliss to Se
 ntence Translation System.Communication Matters.  14(3)\,  9-\n    10.\n\n
 *Biography*\n\nDr. Annalu Waller is a rehabilitation engineer who has work
 ed in  the  field\nof  Augmentative  and  Alternate  Communication  (AAC) 
   since   1985.   She\nestablished the first AAC assessment and training c
 entre in South Africa  in\n1987. Her doctoral research  highlighted  the  
 need  to  provide  access  to\nconversational narrative in AAC systems. Sh
 e has  published  widely  in  the\nareas of story telling and the design o
 f effective AAC  devices.  Dr  Waller\nis a lecturer in the School of Comp
 uting at Dundee  University.  She  serves\non the boards of several disabi
 lity-related charities and travels widely  as\nan invited speaker.\n\nhttp
 ://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/staff/awaller/\n\n\n\n\n\n
LOCATION:HEP Seminar Room\, Cavendish Laboratory
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