----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 12:00
PM
Subject: Advanced searching for symbols
and their approximate locations
Hi list,
I've added a new feature to SignPuddle:
advanced symbol searching. It is flexible and it is fast. It
searches both individual signs and sign texts. There are 5 new possible
searches you can perform: 4 available for sign entries, and a separate custom
search.
The four sign entry
searches
------------------------
==Search Location - Exact==
Find
signs that are exactly the same. Same symbols, same exact
position.
==Search Location - Approximate==
Find signs that
are approximately the same. Same exact symbols, approximate
locations. The search location for each symbol uses a range of
values. These values are based on the symbol position relative to the
sign's center.
==Search Symbols - Exact==
Find signs that have the
exact same symbols. Location is ignored.
==Search Symbols -
Base==
Find signs that contain the same base symbols. Fills and
rotations are ignored.
For sign entries, these 4 search links are
available. Let's consider the entry for "season" in ASL:
http://signbank.org/sp16/canvas.php?ui=1&sgn=4&sid=1309

Staying in
the ASL dictionary puddle, a search for an exact sign match, will only find
the entry for season.
http://signbank.org/sp16/searchquery.php?ui=1&sgn=4&ksw=M16x24S1fb20n1xn23S15a18n15xn24S2e7001xn1
Searching
for approximate locations will find 2 entries:
http://signbank.org/sp16/searchquery.php?ui=1&sgn=4&qsearch=QS1fb20499x477S15a18485x476S2e700501x499
Searching
for the exact same symbols, ignoring location, will still only find 2
entries:
http://signbank.org/sp16/searchquery.php?ui=1&sgn=4&qsearch=QS15a18uuuxuuuS1fb20uuuxuuuS2e700uuuxuuu
Searching
for the base symbols, ignoring location, will find 5 different entries:
http://signbank.org/sp16/searchquery.php?ui=1&sgn=4&qsearch=QS15auuuuuxuuuS1fbuuuuuxuuuS2e7uuuuuxuuu
If
we return to "season" and select the Search Location - Approximate link, we
are given the option to search a different puddle:
http://signbank.org/sp16/signsearch.php?ui=1&sgn=4&qsearch=QS1fb20499x477S15a18485x476S2e700501x499
If
we select the ASL Bible puddle
, we will find 6
different signs that look very similar to the sign for "season", but they have
different strings. One of the entries was used 38 times, the other
entries were only used once each. If we click on the sign that was used
38 times, we will view all of the signs or sign texts that used this exact
sign:
http://signbank.org/sp16/searchquery.php?ui=1&sgn=28&ksw=M16x24S1fb20n1xn23S15a18n15xn24S2e7001xn1
This
last page takes a few seconds to load due to all of the column images that are
downloading.
Custom Symbol Search
-------------------
The 5th
search is the revamped "Search by Symbols".

The first thing
you'll notice is the new cross-hairs in the center. These are used to
specify the position of each symbol. Different positions have different
results.

Searching for the
index above the center:
http://signbank.org/sp16/searchquery.php?ui=1&sgn=4&qsearch=QS10000493x459

Searching for the
index below the center:
http://signbank.org/sp16/searchquery.php?ui=1&sgn=4&qsearch=QS10000489x506

You can
search for more than 1 symbol. Each symbol can have 1 of 4 different
types of symbol match. The default for each symbol is the "Exact Match",
which matches the base, fill, and rotation. The "Any Match" matches the
symbol base only. The "Fill Match" will match the fill (palm facing),
but ignore the rotation. The "Rotation Match" will match the exact
rotation,but ignore the fill.
Reflections
---------
Searching
was one of the last barriers to being able to efficiently process the
SignWriting script. This new searching technique uses relatively simple
regular expressions. It is easy to code and fast to execute. No
matter the programming language or the device, real searching of the
SignWriting script is now a reality.
Most importantly, this technique
does not require artificial restrictions on the SignWriting
script.
Regards,
-Steve