MySlang – AN ELECTRONIC MALAYSIAN SIGN LANGUAGE DICTIONARY

This dissertation describes the development of an electronic Sign Language dictionary, MySlang, specifically to assist in the learning of Malaysian Sign Language for both the hearing and hard-of-hearing communities in Malaysia. MySlang dictionary plays an important role to assist the learning and teaching of Malaysian Sign Language. MySlang dictionary provides instructions in English only. The content of the dictionary was developed based on the book entitled: Malaysian Sign Language, published by the Malaysian Federation of the Deaf. Two 3D animated human characters (male and female) are used to animate the signing of words. MySlang dictionary has 216 daily used words that are classified into 19 categories. These categories are: Animal, Disabilities, Clothes, Fruits, Family, Alphabets, Numbers, Verb, Race/Festivals, Administration, Feelings/Perception, Colours, Greetings, Pronouns, Food/Drinks, Transportation, Questions, Time, and Adjectives. New words with its sign, meanings and sample sentence to illustrate the meaning of the word can be added into MySlang dictionary. The signs in MySlang were developed using 3D Poser 6. Visual Basic 6 was used as the programming tool and Microsoft Access 2000 was used as the database management system. After completion of system development, MySlang dictionary was evaluated by 70 people comprising the general public and hard-of-hearing community.