Using ASL in Virtual Reality (VRChat)

hello I'm Jenny and I'm an ASL teacher and volunteer interpreter for the VR chat deaf community and I wanted to make this video with my friend to show you the differences when comparing real life sign language and VR sign language because of the limitations that controllers have it's really interesting and I hope that you enjoy and watch the video with all of us a very common question that I get is how do you make the transition from real-life sign language and VR sign language especially with the knowledge that you have to sign with this big controller in your hand so how do you do that well first off a thing that you want to understand is that each controller is different but most of them have the same rules which are that they have a set number of hand shapes the other controller that I mentioned index is a bit different in that it uses a different form of tracking allowing a much more freedom and how your hands move however it doesn't mean that it's impossible to sign with other controllers our community here has lasted for a long time before index arrived therefore we have created changes to move with the limitations that we have with all types of controllers my best advice is to not think about the controller in your hand and rather think just about the VR hands itself controllers like oculus have a very intuitive system for understanding the different hand shapes with different buttons you create the real hand shape in real life and it mimics it in VR it's a sink or swim world but I promise if you continue to practice you'll be a champ let's start with the alphabet again because of the limitations of VR they're going to be just a little different but they're always still based on real-life is a it's just signed like this and we real life you would have a thumb pressed to the other hands however in VR we just use this so that it's clear hey e many controllers don't have the liberty of the movement in this way therefore we use our other finger to imply the fact that the thumb is on top of the palm of your other hand b c more commonly you will see this variation just utilizing the relaxed position on controllers however you may also see people doing this which is implying the fact that thumb is out for their extension in list c position c b this is just using a pointed finger um to make sure it's more clear it is this way forward facing towards the person however it's pretty much the same as in real life b ii if you do know how to sign it in real life you can tell this is a bit different again this is because of the limitations the fact that our thumbs cannot go this way so we use our other hand to show where the thumb would be e F more commonly known as the okay handshape many avatars do you have this however if your avatar does not you're just going to be pointing to that finger here bringing it down to your thumb implying how this hand shape would look in real life F she only slightly different than in real life because often you'll see the thumb is slightly out in real life instead we just show it to the side like this with a pointed finger G H using the peace sign in real life they would be more close together however it's still easily understood what it means when showing it horizontally this way each eye this can be shown with using a fist and a pointed finger and moving it behind the other implying that the pinkie is up or like this showing a flicking motion of the pinkie coming upwards I J this is either just with a fist because of the motion or if you have a rock-and-roll hand or any hand with a pinky out you could just show this J okay much different than in real life you're just going to be using a peace sign towards yourself to differentiate it and the other letters you can also see it this way like this okay and an older version with the thumb however the most common version you will see is K L there is no change here all sign compatible avatars will have this motion ready L mmm this has a lot of variations this is the most clear and commonly used one however if you want to be more accurate to real-life there is M or M like this M and this again is a more commonly used version of n however if you would like to be more accurate you could be using n or n and o utilizing the fist motion and pointing it towards the person so they can clearly see the outline of the letter Oh Oh II this is sign again with a sign pointed downwards to show the p handshape p q using the pointed finger hand gesture pointing downwards to show the letter Q you are this has many variations one of them showing the twisting of the fingers with the other hand shape like this or are by just twisting the hand again implying that the fingers are crossed over each other are s or us it'd just be a static non-moving fist or it's more clearly show that's a nest and shape outlining an S in the air s see with to open hints simply making a t-shape or again if you'd like to be more accurate to your life using a fist an appointed finger and or thumb implying that the thumb is in between the other fingers T you using P signs you are going to outline the U in the air or use your other hand to imply they're squished together so you or you be simply just using a peace sign showing the v handshape w either using two L hints to make a clear letter W or again if you'd like to be more accurate to real life using a peace sign and a pointed finger from the other hand W X either with two pointed finger hands created an X in the air or showing the bending of the finger with the other hand why if your avatar does have this handshape it can be simply made if not using a thumb and a pointed finger why and finally see just the same as real life pointed finger outlining Ozzie and the air see let's start with some examples of words and how they changed according to the limitations of be our hands the first word that we'll use is the word feel in real life this is a middle finger down with the movement on your chest like so and just like this in VR every time we have this middle finger down shape you're going to be implying that with your other finger just saying middle finger is down and then doing the same motion that she would next word is like this is similar to feel because it's also utilizing a middle finger except this time it's connecting to the thumb instead of doing this we're just going to imply it with the rock-and-roll gesture you're going to be seeing this a lot when it comes to the arch at sign language a rock-and-roll hand could mean anything from a middle finger touching the thumb to that same finger that I stated before a feel or any sort of thing of this being closed in any way you might also see this used for I or Y it's depending on the person that you're signing with but in this case we're going to be implying this like hand gesture which is also known as the eighth hand so again you're just going to use this handshape that is implied and do that same exact motion as you would in real life next word is interpret in real life you'd be having two F hands but in VR we're going to substitute this with just closed hands again doing that same motion as you would in real life this is a lot of words that include this f handshape so like sentence or captions explain basically many words if you don't have this f handshape you're just going to be showing your clothes - and so interpret interpreter just like that another example of one that's often confused is how you would sign if in real life your eye hand would be up so just that pinky but again instead we're just gonna be utilizing that rock-and-roll hand because a pinky is up so you're just gonna go rock and roll right on your cheek just the same as real life just implying that your other fingers are down as well so if and our last word would be weird the reason why is because this news is the w handshape which isn't possible unless you have index so there's two variations you could either be doing it with a two hand and then going across your mouth like this implying the three fingers up or you might also see with an opened closed hand just like that another similar word using the W hand would be water this one you just show that's the W and bring it to your mouth so so the basics of these changes made is that we have set hand shapes already given to us and so the deaf community makes these changes according to those hand shapes that are the closest to real life and then these already set motions that we have like the rock and roll being an implication of the like hand or the closed hand being implication of F in some contexts or thumbs up being implication of why with that knowledge we can then just apply them to everyday signs that makes sense in the context and once you progress and learn more in practice and hang out with more deaf people and it will be easier to understand how to take real-life signs and shift that into the air thank you so much for watching I hope that you learned something new and that you're interested in joining our community here in VR chat if you're feeling nervous understand that our community is super welcoming and we want as many people as I can to join to help educate and inform as many people about deaf and hard of hearing culture we would love to have you come and visit us even if it's just for your day we month I don't know but if you're feeling nervous understand we have no problem teaching and helping out never be afraid to ask for help questions or anything else that you need thank you in advance love you [Music] [Music] you [Music] you you

Channel: Helping Hands

Views: 16,122

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Id: EIIgy8M9od0

Length: 14min 28sec (868 seconds)

Published: Mon May 04 2020