From the stop sign to the laugh-cry emoji, symbols play a critical and ubiquitous role in everyday life. A forthcoming exhibition at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, “Give Me a Sign: The ...

Give Me a Sign examines the fascinating histories behind many of the symbols that instruct, protect, entertain, empower and connect people. Marking the 50th anniversary of the Symbol Sourcebook, this ...

At the very beginning of the “Symbol Sourcebook: An Authoritative Guide to International Graphic Symbols” (1972), the book’s author and one of the era’s most accomplished industrial designers, Henry ...

Millions of people communicate using sign language, but so far projects to capture its complex gestures and translate them to verbal speech have had limited success. A new advance in real-time hand ...

A student team working with Google has come up with an ingenious way to translate signing into spoken word: electronic wristbands that measure the wearer’s muscle activity, recognizing sign language ...

Like a seasoned schoolteacher, Joe Murray sat perched on the back of a chair and began his lesson. “How are you?” Murray, 17, asked. The words he uttered came slowly and were hard to understand, but ...