We present an improved anatomically based approach to modeling the human hand for use in the animation of the American Sign Language. The joint rotations in the model are based on the bone and muscle configurations of the hand, and a forward kinematic solution is used to position the hand. In particular, we investigate the rotations of the base joint of the thumb. This joint is a saddle joint with nontrivial rotational axes and centers, and must be treated with care in such a model. We take advantage of several correlations between joint rotations in the hand to reduce the number of degrees of freedom in the model and to provide a simple, natural, and interactive interface for American Sign Language handshape transcription.

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The pandemic and its disruption of social dynamics, including school dynamics, necessitates a review of both the proposals for education in situations of confinement and the research that must be carried out to account for exceptional educational situations. It is likely that this pandemic is only the first circumstance that has highlighted the need to investigate more decisively areas that have not been previously considered or have been put aside. This document presents the case of three Latin American countries, Mexico, Colombia, and Chile, in relation to educational difficulties generated by the pandemic, with respect to regional actions on the educational problems that have been revealed, and proposes regional research agendas for the Mathematics Education research community.

Translating from English to American Sign Language (ASL) requires an avatar to display synthesized ASL. Essential to the language are nonmanual signals that appear on the face. Previous avatars were hampered by an inability to portray emotion and facial nonmanual signals that occur at the same time. A new animation system addresses this challenge. Animations produced by the new system were tested with 40 members of the Deaf community in the United States. For each animation, participants were able to identify both nonmanual signals and emotional states. Co-occurring question nonmanuals and affect information were distinguishable, which is particularly striking because the two processes can move an avatar's brows in opposing directions.