ArchivedLogs:Understanding

Understanding
Dramatis Personae B, Lia	16 January 2015 '
Location <XS> Treehouse
Built by enterprising students of yesteryear, this treehouse has weathered generations of Xaviers' students coming up here to study -- or escape from studying. A cozy retreat, its wood planks are sturdy and well-sanded, fit snug together to keep out draft. Snacks occasionally find their way up here, and the roof keeps the rain off well enough to pass a night -- so long as the teachers don't catch any students at it. For anyone agile enough to make the jump, a lucky leap juuust might carry them from here to the school rooftop, so long as they're careful of the drop... It is quiet up in the treehouse today. Mostly quiet, anyway. There's quiet muttering in Vietnamese, low and under the breath. Inside, B has nestled herself into a small bed of blankets, tablet propped up on a stand in front of her and her laptop nearby. Her fingers are flying rapidly over the keys, teeth digging in at her lips before she pulls back. Waves at her tablet, signs to the screen: 'My name is B. This is a test.' There is not a lot of sound to announce Lia's arrival, a swift scamper up the ladder bringing an ash-brown head peeking up into the treehouse. She has a violet wool coat belted tight at the waist, a navy-and-lavender scarf tied around her neck, and matching fingerless gloves covering her hands. A pair of galaxy-patterned socks cover the expanse between the hem of her coat and the tops of her tall, black boots. She blinks as B signs at a tablet. "Does your computer speak hand-talk?" "Huh? Oh. Oh hey." B's smile is tiny, small and brief. "Oh -- no. No, it -- it doesn't. Not -- yet, no. No. Um." He frowns, looking at the screen and then turning it around to face Lia. She shows up on the camera as he turns his gaze to his laptop. "Can you sign something? Anything. Just tell me what it is." "Maybe you should type to it instead, then. Usually computers understand typing." Lia perks at her own image appearing on the screen. She waves at it just to watch it respond. "Oh! Hello, me! Why are we signing at your computer if it does not understand?" The girl's hands and eyebrows are particularly animated as she speaks, presumably translating herself. B types quickly into his computer as Lia talks, frowning as on /his/ screen there's an image of Lia, too. Or, at least, a sketchy computer-generated figure that is more or less mimicking Lia's motions. "It understands typing. It understands talking in three different languages and can identify who's talking /to/ it. It understands a range of gestures I've programmed it to understand but it doesn't understand sign language." Hir teeth press down against hir lower lip. "Yet." Lia glides closer to B, peering over her shoulder to look at the figure. “It needs to see my face better or it will not understand,” she opines. “A lot of what I am saying is not in hand gestures or body movements. Faces are...subtle. Small movements. Can it look at my body with one part and my face with another and put those together?” "Uh -- yeah. I can have it -- analyse both, I didn't -- even think of that." B's forehead pulls inward, rumpling as she slides down to lie on her belly and continue typing. "But I'm not sure I'd even know where to start with --" For a moment she's quiet, fingers moving quickly over the keys. "This will take a bit -- hey." She tips her head up to peer at Lia. "Do you think you'd mind working with me? It'll probably be -- a lot of work." "Well, you could start simple. Even if it can only follow my eyebrows, that would help. Can it do that?" Lia waggles her eyebrows up and down. "They are pretty easy to see, as things on faces go. Faces that have hair on them, that is." Her nose scrunches up since she knows many people who aren't that strong in the eyebrow department. "If it combines the basic gestures it knows with up, down, or neutral eyebrows, it can decide what kind of sentence the hand moving goes into." Her head tilts at B as if slightly confused. "I do not know much about computers other than the class where they teach you more things than panda videos. I have taken many of the hand-talking classes, though. Is that enough to help?" "Yeah. It's gonna take me kind of an insane amount of work to even get this started on parsing the basics. But I can't use myself as a test --" B lifts his hand up, webbed fingers stretching. "Even if I was a better signer which I'm not, my hands don't look anything like /most/ people's hands, I should probably /start/ with normal body configurations and only work on edge cases /after/ it has the basics down. Once I've at least taught it the /foundations/ of capturing the -- motions and -- expressions?" She sounds a little uncertain, looking up at Lia's face, "-- I'll need to do a whole lot more work with /actual/ Deaf people to really work out -- well, language. But for the next while it'll probably be a lot of basics and I'll need someone to help me. Get at least a basic -- working. Thing. In order." Lia inspects B's hands, reaching out to run fingertips over the webbing if B doesn't resist. "For swimming, but harder to get fingers apart. Yes? I can be hands if you need them. I like to sign things. Well, also a face if that helps. I have one of those, too." Her hands move back to putty-play at her cheeks at little. Totally a face. "The eyebrows are the big part to get a sentence direction going. The rest might be harder. Where your eyes are looking or how you hold your mouth or tongue." One index finger taps at her lips. "They say in the hand-talking classes that you can get by on 100 most-common signs very well. Maybe teach it that. And the basic hand-shapes. And finger-spelling. And numbers. Oh, my, that is a lot." When the tapping stops, her lips quirk over to one side instead. "Maybe Lyric also could help? She is Deaf. I do not know how much she knows about computers." "Lyric could probably help but I kind of want this to be a surprise? I might ask her mom, though." Another small smile, amused, warmer, twitches at B's lips as Lia plays with her face. "I'm just, trying to make a program that'll translate ASL to English. It was Anole's idea. So she wouldn't have to depend on other people translating for her when --" She shrugs. "But her mom could help too. And Dusk's good at computers /and/ grew up in a Deaf house so -- so." Her teeth press down against her lip. "But the early stages I think you know plenty enough to help." "Oh, this is /for/ Lyric! I will try very hard not to give the secret away." Lia's finger meets her lips again, this time in a hushing gesture. "Is there a program that will translate finger-spelling? It might be most useful to start there. It is /slow/ but you can just spell things. That might be simpler. Make the bigger one after, building on it." The barrage of names keeps drawing new and different smiles from Lia, a little shy-pleased at Anole, more excited at Dusk. "Anole is very thoughtful. And Duskwings does know all about the computers and video games. She bounces a little at the announcement that she could, indeed, be helpful, one bounce bringing her close to B to deliver a spontaneous hug. "I do not think I have ever helped a thing before! I am so happy you think I can be helpful. You are very clever, always doing all of these things." B's eyes open wider in startled-surprise at the hug, gills fluttering briefly. Her arms lift, curling tentatively back around Lia. "Well. You're pretty brilliant too. Kinesthetic intelligence is --" She pulls back, flopping back down onto her belly again to continue typing. "You have time now? We could get started with the basics." Lia backs away with just a little stroke of her fingertips down the gills on B's neck. She blushes very faintly at the declaration of her brilliance. “It is officially weekend time now. I can definitely help. What should I do first?” B shifts the tablet, refocusing it on Lia again. "Awesome. We can start with the ABCs, then."