MyanmarSignWriting-Fingerspelling-Keyboards

မြန်မာလိုဖတ်မယ်ဆိုရင် --> README in Myanmar Language

We proposed two fingerspelling keyboard layouts for typing Myanmar fingerspelling characters with SignWriting. Fingerspelling is used in sign language to spell out names of people and places for which there is not a sign.

We learned both Myanmar fingerspelling and SignWriting. The followings are the mapping table of Myanmar characters, fingerspelling and SignWriting.

Consonant:

Vowel:

Independent Vowel:

Symbol:

Number:

Two Myanmar SignWriting Fingerspelling Keyboards

We proposed two possible keyboard mappings for typing Myanmar fingerspelling with SignWriting symbols and they are phonetic-based and symbol-based keyboard layouts.

Phonetic-based MSW Fingerspelling Keyboard:

Symbol-based MSW Fingerspelling Keyboard:

Demo Videos of Typing Myanmar SignWriting Fingerspelling Text

Demo videos of typing three Myanmar poems with both phonetic-based and symbol-based keyboards are uploaded to GitHub and Youtube. After you downloaded the repository, check the demo-video/ folder.

Typing a Myanmar poem with phonetic-based Myanmar SignWriting fingerspelling keyboard:

Typing a Myanmar poem with symbol-based Myanmar SignWriting fingerspelling keyboard:

Installation

If you want to add one of the Myanmar SignWriting Fingerspelling keyboards (e.g. phonetic-based keyboard) as a new keyboard layout in your X Windows, take the following steps:
(I assume you already downloaded xkb keyboard files from this GitHub)

1. Copy downloaded msw-fs-phonetic file to /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/ path:

   sudo cp ~/your-download-path/msw-fs-phonetic /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/msw-fs-phonetic

2. Change to the path /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/:

cd /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules

3. Open evdev.xml file with an editor such as vi, emacs and gedit:

sudo gedit evdev.xml

put following XML content, save and quit:

<layout> 
     <configItem>
       <name>msw-fs-phonetic</name>
       
       <shortDescription>msw fs phonetic</shortDescription>
       <description>MSW Fingerspelling (Phonetic)</description>
       <languageList>
         <iso639Id>mya</iso639Id>
       </languageList>
     </configItem>
     <variantList/>
   </layout> 

4. Open evdev.lst file and add following line:

 msw-fs-phonetic             MSW Fingerspelling (Phonetic)

Adding above line according to the alphabetical order is better for searching (see the following figure):

5. Open "Text Entry dialogue box" by clicking "US" (If your current keyboard layout is US) and selecting the "Text Entry Settings...".

Another option: You can also open "Text Entry dialogue box" by clicking the "Settings icon" in the upper-right corner of the screen, select "System Setting..." and then select "Text Entry".

6. Click the "+" button under the list of installed keyboard layouts and then select "MSW Fingerspelling (Phonetic)" as shown in the following figure:

7. To test "MSW Fingerspelling (Phonetic)" keyboard layout is working or not, look at the keyboard layout icon, in the upper-right corner of your screen, and then switch your current keyboard layout to "MSW Fingerspelling (Phonetic)" (see following figure).

You can also switch keyboard layout by pressing "Super Key" + "Space Bar".
Here, "Super Key" is Windows key or Command key.

Note: Depends on your Ubuntu OS distributions, sometimes you also have to update base.lst, base.xml, xfree86.lst and xfree86.xml. One more information is that you might need to reboot for activating a new keyboard layout.

SignWriting Keyboard for Windows OS Users

We developed MSW Fingerspelling (Phonetic) keyboard layout for Windows OS users and released all KeyMan source files on August 25, 2020.
Check: https://github.com/ye-kyaw-thu/MyanmarSignWriting-Fingerspelling-Keyboards/tree/master/WindowsOS

Typing demo video on Windows OS: https://github.com/ye-kyaw-thu/MyanmarSignWriting-Fingerspelling-Keyboards/tree/master/WindowsOS/demo-video

Draft guide of developing a new SignWriting keyboard layout by using KeyMan Desktop: https://github.com/ye-kyaw-thu/MyanmarSignWriting-Fingerspelling-Keyboards/blob/master/WindowsOS/creating-keyboard-draft.pdf

Lincense

MIT License

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank teachers and students from School for the Deaf, Mandalay and all participants for their kind contributions to our research and user study experiments. This research is partially supported by Ministry of Education, Department of Higher Education, Myanmar.

Citing

Conference Paper:
Hlaing Myat Nwe, Ye Kyaw Thu, Hnin Wai Wai Hlaing, Swe Zin Moe, Ni Htwe Aung , Hnin Aye Thant , Nanda Win Min, "Two Fingerspelling Keyboard Layouts for Myanmar SignWriting", In Proceedings of ICCA2018, February 22-23, 2018, Yangon, Myanmar, pp. 290-298. Paper

Journal Paper:
Hlaing Myat Nwe, Ye Kyaw Thu, Hnin Aye Thant, "Myanmar SignWriting Keyboard Mapping Layout for Fingerspelling", Journal of Intelligent Informatics and Smart Technology, April 1st Issue, 2020, pp. 45-52. (submitted December 21, 2019; accepted March 6, 2020; revised April 25, 2020; published online April 30, 2020) Paper

Presentation at SignWriting Symposium 2018

Presentation video and slide of MyanmarSignWriting fingerspelling keyboards proposal

Reference

Wikipedia of SignWriting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SignWriting
Youtube Video of "Valerie Sutton Tells Her Story ...": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzYW8_Br2MM
Sutton SignWriting Unicode standard (version 10.0): https://unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1D800.pdf
kKg Myanmar Keyboard Layout: https://github.com/ye-kyaw-thu/kKg-Myanmar-Keyboard
Keyman Desktop: https://keyman.com/desktop/
Noto Sans SignWriting Font: https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Sans+SignWriting