It seems as logical as a visual art show for the blind.

But then again, the all-day "Silent World No Longer" technology exposition and musical gala, Saturday, Dec. 1, at Centennial Hall, is all about bridging the gap between worlds.

"We were thinking about how we could make a physical presence in Juneau and we just decided to go straight at things," said Michael Fitzhugh, the head organizer for the Juneau-based Off World Technology.

"We want to use this concert as a get-together to gather deaf people and hearing people in one place to raise the level of awareness," he said.

Run out of a second-floor office off Seward Street in downtown Juneau, Off World is a computer software development company that's trying to create affordable communication tools for the deaf.

Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire   Oliver Bowen, right, talks to his mother April Dominguez by using his voice-recognition software he created.

"I want to help people that have been deaf their whole life, like my mom and dad," Oliver said.

"I encourage everybody to learn sign language," he said. "If everybody knew it, it would be easier for my mom to get around and do what she needs to do."

Bowen has created a free online five-part mini course - www.learnsignlanguagefast.com. Over the span of a week or two, the site sends e-mails with links to text lessons and teaching videos. Almost 2,000 people have signed up, Bowen said.

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   John White Jr. of the Northkut Wolf Pack records lyrics in a studio.

"When you're going to talk to a deaf person, why should you have to go through the hassle of using TTY," Bowen said. "You have to call up a relay service and there's a person being paid by federal funds sitting in a room with 20 people. (Deaf people) don't like the relay, the TTY, its distracting."

"Everything is up-to-date technologically for the rest of us," he said. "The (deaf people) need to be brought up to the (hearing population's) level. We need to bring all these people together in the various niches that they need to survive in life."

Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire   Dominguez, left, speaks with Bowen in his Seward Street office.

A hearing person talks into a computer's speech recognition software, which translates the speech into text and sign language. The deaf person then types their response, and the computer speaks.

"If you just run this program and talk into it, it encourages a more real-time kind of conversation without an interpreter," Bowen said.

Ultimately, Bowen wants to perfect what he calls "gesture recognition technology."

Michael Penn / Juneau Empire   Jeremy Peterson, John White Jr., Sterling Bolima and Elton Willard of the Northkut Wolf Pack.

The project will require a heavy financial investment. But Bowen says he's made connections with former 3-D experts at NASA, who will provide coding for the technology.