-----ABOUT SignStream® is a software tool designed to facilitate the linguistic annotation of video language data. Copyright © 2017-2023 Trustees of Boston University; distributed by the American Sign Language Linguistic Research Project (ASLLRP). SignStream® is licensed under the MIT license. See LICENSE.txt in this directory. SignStream® users must be aware that all external files distributed by the American Sign Language Linguistic Project (ASLLRP) (including Collection, video, and Sign Bank files) may have their own distinct end-user license agreements, which may put additional restrictions on SignStream's usage. External Libraries Used: --- Java AdoptOpenJDK https://adoptopenjdk.net/index.html --- GStreamer - Erik Walthinsen https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/ --- GStreamer-Java gst1-java-core https://github.com/gstreamer-java/gst1-java-core --- JTransforms (FFT) https://github.com/wendykierp/JTransforms --- Swingx - Sun Microsystems https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/org.swinglabs/swingx --- For more details, see LICENSES-3RD-PARTY, NOTICES and dep/ -----SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Operating Systems: - macOS Ventura (13), Monterey (12), Big Sur (11), Catalina (10.15), or Mojave (10.14). - SignStream® 3.4.1 may also work on older versions of the MacOS. Hardware: - Mac computer with 64-bit Intel or ARM (Apple Silicon) processor - Note that SignStream® 3.4.1 has not yet been extensively tested with the new ARM hardware. There may be some differences in how the program works with this hardware. - If you decide to use SignStream® 3.4.1 with the ARM processor: When you double-click on SignStream® for the first time--after following all installation instructions very carefully--you will be asked to install Rosetta (which emulates the Intel instruction set) if it is not already installed. You can then double-click on SignStream again to launch it. - 2 GB of RAM - 250 MB of hard drive space -----INSTALL/USAGE Before launching the SignStream application from the SignStream folder: 1) You will need to allow the launch of the SignStream® 3 application, despite the fact that it is not provided by Apple or certified developers (to get around security features that have been implemented in Mac Operating Systems since OS 10.8). 2) You will also be offered the opportunity to download the latest Sign Bank, which consists of a repertoire of signs, with gloss labels and annotations of other properties, as well as images and video illustration of those signs, to assist in the process of annotating new video files. This Global Sign Bank is not required for use of SignStream®. If you download the Sign Bank, you are agreeing to the terms of use below (which will also be downloaded to your SignStream folder). Open a Finder window, and double-click on the SignStream folder (the folder you downloaded, which includes the application and related files). Do the following, in the order listed: 1) [Required] You will see a file called “DisableQuarantine.command”. Double-click on that. You may get a message asking if you want to open the file even though it is from an unidentified developer. If so, say YES. If you get a message that the file cannot be opened because it is from an unidentified developer: a. Go into System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General b. Under the section "Allow apps downloaded from" click "Open Anyway" for this file. This will open in the Terminal application and run immediately, then close itself when finished. 2) [Optional] If you wish to download the ASLLRP Global Sign Bank, double-click on "GetSignBank.command". You will be asked whether you wish to download the Sign Bank and agree to abide by the terms of use. If you click ‘yes’, the download of the ASLLRP Sign Bank materials (and of the Sign Bank terms of use) will commence. Close the Terminal window. You will then be ready to launch SignStream® by double-clicking on the "SignStream3.app" file. Do not move this file out of its enclosing folder. The first time you click on the SignStream® application on ARM hardware, you will be asked to install Rosetta (which emulates the Intel instruction set) if it is not already installed. Click "Install" if asked. Once that is done, double-click again on the SignStream® application to launch it. Opening files last saved with older versions of SignStream: SignStream files that were last saved in a version of SignStream 3 prior to 3.3.0 cannot be opened with the current version of SignStream. To open such files, you will need to first open them with SignStream version 3.3.0 and save them; those saved versions will then be able to be opened with the current version of SignStream. If you do not have SignStream version 3.3.0 installed and need a link to download that version of the software for this purpose, please email Carol Neidle (carol@bu.edu) for a download link. (System requirements for version 3.3.0 will be detailed in the email reply.) -----UPGRADING THE GLOBAL SIGN BANK FILE Upgrading the ASLLRP Global Sign Bank file: When a new version of the Sign Bank becomes available, the next time you open up SignStream, it will automatically begin the file update process for you. Be sure to follow the instructions and questions given. This will download the latest version of the Global Sign Bank (once you have reaffirmed that you agree to abide by the terms of use) and put it in the proper location within the folder from which the command had been launched. If you choose *not* to update the Global Sign Bank file, the previously installed Global Sign Bank file will be deleted. signbank/globalSignBank.xml Aside from these updates, please do not modify any of the files and folders that come with SignStream®. -----FILES/SUBDIRECTORIES The following folders are included with SignStream®. Please do not manipulate these folders or their contents as they will prevent SignStream® from running correctly. newXMLfiles/ This directory stores data about participants, annotators, as well as important information about the structure of utterances, glosses, and nonmanual entries. signbank/ This directory stores the sign banks that contain a large number of different signs used in American Sign Language. SignStreamDatabases/ This directory is where collections created by the user are saved to by default. As SignStream® is a macOS Application, it can be opened like a directory through the terminal or by right-clicking on it and clicking "Show Package Contents". Again, we highly recommend against manipulating the contents of these files and directories, as it will prevent SignStream® from running correctly. -----VIDEO CODECS Video codecs and containers that work with the application; if your video is in a different format, you should first convert it to one of these: * MPEG-4 (.mp4, .mov) * H.264 (.mp4, .mov) * AVC1 (.mp4, .mov) -----KNOWN ISSUES 1) During a search, closing the window displaying an utterance from the search results will quit the program, with no option to open a new search result. 2) Closing the main SignStream window at any point will also quit the program. 3) Adding multiple segment tiers to the utterance view at once, or switching between temporal partitions from the dropdowns, could both cause minor display issues in the dropdowns. 4) It is no longer possible to repeat the same search (as configured) across multiple collections. 5) When two segment tiers are displayed, changing the order of fields in one is not reflected in real time in the field ordering of the display of the other: https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/513 6) In the utterance view, the up/down arrow keys may not correctly move to the previous/next utterance. To activate the arrow key functionality in the left-most utterance index area, click once within the utterance display on the right. 7) In the utterance view, double clicking on a nonmanual field label will temporarily trigger the up/down arrow keys to move the highlighted nonmanual field label instead of moving to the previous/next utterance. 8) In the utterance view, editing a nonmanual field value by double-clicking it to open the field value selection list and selecting a value will result in the utterance preview list incorrectly highlighting only the selected utterance (in blue) while not highlighting the visible utterances (in gray). 9) In the utterance view, when the green slider is near to the end of the video, some visual glitches may occur while the zoom level slider is being actively dragged. After the slider is released, the zoom level will be set correctly. 10) On MacOS 12 with ARM processors: When the user clicks into an utterance for the first time from the database view, the zoom level will pan out to display the entire length of the video. After that, the zoom level will pan out to display just the length of the selected utterance. 11) The green bar location is remembered when opening or creating a collection. When switching collections, the video will start at time zero, but the green line will remain in the middle where it was for a previously opened collection. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/517 12) The green bar location is remembered when removing and adding videos to a collection. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/522 13) The icons for zoom locking/unlocking may be duplicated upon opening a new collection. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/518 14) The icons for zoom locking/unlocking may be duplicated upon switching between Database View and Utterance View. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/526 15) Utterance highlighting is not consistent when multiple segment tiers are showing in Utterance View. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/519 16) Morph-Phon settings for a gloss can visually linger on the dialog window when opening up the Morph-Phon dialog again for a different gloss. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/520 17) Morph Phon window "Enter" button behavior is not consistent in when it is enabled or disabled. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/523 18) The utterance index on the left side of the Utterance View is inconsistent in its text highlighting, sometimes black text on blue background and sometimes white text on blue background. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/524 19) There is an inconsistency in how edits or additions to the local participant list are treated. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/529 20) Issues can arise when any directory on the path to your SignStream installation contains a quote character ( ' ) or a double quote character ( " ), so remove these characters from your directories to avoid any problems. https://github.com/DCS-LCSR/SignStream3/issues/485 21) There are issues opening sufficiently old SignStream collection files. See the section above titled "Opening files last saved with older versions of SignStream." -----FEATURES TO BE IMPLEMENTED 1) Ability to create and have more than one Macro Unit per Collection. 2) Functionality for Display Time Period in the Database View Window. 3) Ability to save searches. -----RELEASE NOTES FOR VERSION 3.4.1 Issues which have been fixed include: * This release now works with MacOS 13. * Text input is validated in many places, to avoid having blank/null values for textual information, and also excluding invalid characters. * Gloss text is validated to allow spaces only between quotes. * It is no longer possible to rename utterances to the same name as others. * The same segment tier can no longer be displayed twice in Utterance View, as the duplication would cause corruption of data. * HTTP calls were replaced globally with HTTPS calls. * Upon re-opening the Morph-Phon window for a sign after the SignStream file had been saved and reopened in SignStream version 3.4.0, settings for "Different" or "Alternating" handshapes on the dom/ndom hands would get incorrectly set to "Same" handshapes. Likewise, settings for different start and end handshapes on either or both hands were incorrectly set to same start and end. This has been solved in this release. * Other issues have also been fixed with the validation process on opening collections. * A bug in the Morph-Phon window, which reverted settings of "Different" or "Alternating" handshapes to "Same," has been fixed. * Handshape/letter selections from previous usages of the Morph-Phon window no longer linger to new usages. * A better message is shown to users when an irrecoverable error occurs.