I was taken by the press report of a company that has devised an app (a small application that can be be loaded onto your laptop, tablet or mobile phone) to interpret sign language, which will be available from the second half of 2013 (or later, if the release of most new things that are not actually functioning yet is anything to go by - and its creators seem to be a new small company so there's plenty to go wrong). You use the camera in your phone or other gadget to film the move by the sign language speaker and the app translates it into text. I hope it's better than the Google translations you can get on the web.
Portable Sign Language Translator info
But this does illustrate how important technology is going to be to enable all of us to cope with greater disability and illness in the future, when there's not much care around. It's called assistive technology, and will be one of the threads of this blog.
There's a similar gadget already available to help you learn sign language, that works the other way - you type in the word and it demonstrates the sign.
Training in sign language translation gadget
More on assistive technology in general from Wikipedia: Wikipedia on assistive technology
and Tunstall, a very big operator in assistive technology in the UK: Tunstall telehealth and telecare website.
Its site gives you an idea of what is available, but obviously if you were buying, you'd shop around.
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