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AB -- Web : Active audio browser for visually impaired and blind users
Abstract
The Internet now permits easy access to textual and pictorial material from an exponentially growing number
... A preliminary study done at the University of Geneva has shown that the use of non-speech sound in graphical interfaces, particularly for an Internet browser, can considerably increase the " bandwidth " of computer output [1,2]. This is also shown in the work of Stephen A. Brewster [3,4] which provides guidelines for incorporating earcons into the design of humancomputer interfaces, as well as in the studies of Frankie James [5]. ...
... Those new problems have to be solved with new alternative non-visual display techniques in order to permit blind users to take advantage of new technologies. A preliminary study done at the University of Geneva has shown that the use of non-speech sound in graphical interfaces, particularly for an Internet browser, can considerably increase the " bandwidth " of computer output [1,2]. This is also shown in the work of Stephen A. Brewster [3,4] which provides guidelines for incorporating earcons into the design of humancomputer interfaces, as well as in the studies of Frankie James [5]. ...
... The system would then respond with auditory feedback while the user moves his/her finger (device pointer) around the virtual screen. This approach, as shown by M. Lumbreras et al [7] and in our work [2] validates the hypothesis that a 3D immersive virtual sound environment combined with haptic manipulation of the audio environment can enable blind users to construct a mental representation of the spatial environment (in our case, the spatial layout of HTML documents). @BULLET use of the same augmented visual browser based on the standard Internet Explorer 5.0, by " Internet surfers " (visually impaired and sighted users) as well as by programmers of new behavioral models; @BULLET creation of an add-on tool, the Workspace, allowing to dynamically and visually create new access modalities. ...
The inherent visual nature of Internet browsers makes the Web inaccessible to the visually impaired. Although several nonvisual browsers have been developed, they usually transform the visual content of HTML documents into textual information only, that can be rendered by a text-to-speech converter or a Braille device. The loss of spatial layout and of textual attributes should be avoided since they often bear visually important information. Moreover, typical non-visual Internet browsers do not allow visually impaired and sighted individuals to easily work together using the same environment. This paper presents WebSound, a new generic Web sonification tool and its application to a 3D audio augmented Internet browser (Internet Explorer 5.0) developed by the Computer Vision Group at the University of Geneva.
... If an audio document is designed straight from the author's intentions, it may correspond to the author making an explicit recording the user study presenting voice based html structure in audio: user satisfaction with audio hypertext of the document or pieces of the document. Patrick Roth [19] and his group project aims at providing sight handicapped people with alternative access modalities to pictorial documents. More precisely, our goal is to develop an augmented Internet browser to facilitate blind users access to the World Wide Web. ...
In the modern age everyone needs access to Internet; Visually handicapped are not an exception for that. SPECS (SPEcialized Computer System) is a system developed to give access to the visually handicapped. It has a Braille shell. The user can enter his spoken language. After the selection of the language the user can present his request to the browser through chosen language in Braille. The output generated by the browser is given out as voice message. The effectiveness of this system is measured based on number of requests processed, access speed and precision of the system.
... If an audio document is designed straight from the author's intentions, it may correspond to the author making an explicit recording the user study presenting voice based html structure in audio: user satisfaction with audio hypertext of the document or pieces of the document. Patrick Roth [19] and his group project aims at providing sight handicapped people with alternative access modalities to pictorial documents. More precisely, our goal is to develop an augmented Internet browser to facilitate blind users access to the World Wide Web. ...
In the modern age everyone needs access to Internet; Visually handicapped are not an exception for that. SPECS (SPEcialized Computer System) is a system developed to give access to the visually handicapped. It has a Braille shell. The user can enter his spoken language. After the selection of the language the user can present his request to the browser through chosen language in Braille. The output generated by the browser is given out as voice message. The effectiveness of this system is measured based on number of requests processed, access speed and precision of the system
... Naquela época, sonificação era utilizada para substituir a síntese de fala, recurso este impossibilitado naquele tempo, mas que agora está sendo utilizado em aplicações para deficientes visuais [9]. Atualmente , sonificações têm desempenhado um papel importante em trabalhos de inspeção de ambientes visuais [10] ou para apresentar informações sobre a estrutura de páginas da Internet [11] para cegos. 2) Sistemas de alarme sonoro: A característica principal de um alarme é atrair a atenção de pessoas para situações de urgência ou eventos importantes. ...
Visualização é o processo genérico que utiliza representações visuais e interativas para facilitar a análise e o entendimento de informações de conjunto de dados. A maioria das ferramentas de visualização existentes atualmente utiliza exclusivamente recursos visuais para representar informações e isto tem limitado a capacidade exploratória e a apresentação de dados. Vários estudos têm demonstrado que o uso do som como recurso alternativo para representação de dados (sonificação) pode ser útil na interpretação de informações e também pode apoiar o aumento da dimensionalidade da apresentação visual. A sonificação é o objeto de estudo deste trabalho. Este trabalho implementa o novo módulo de sonificação de um sistema de exploração visual de dados, o Super Spider [1], que foi estendido com a implementação de recursos que auxiliam a exploração de dados por meio de sons. Um novo sistema, chamado Sonar 2D, também foi desenvolvimento de forma integrada ao Super Spider e apresenta uma nova técnica para sonificação de dados. Além disso, são apresentados resultados de testes com usuários aplicados para avaliar e validar os mapeamentos visuais e sonoros utilizados nos sistemas.
... This could dramatically increase efficiency of interfaces for the blind and for devices with limited screen visualization. Similar research in the sense of creating of an immersive environment (3D sound space) into which an HTML document is mapped " AB – Web : Active audio browser " was realized in 1998 [1]. Since that time the topic was almost forgotten. ...
Acoustic Web Navigator (AWN) is a prototype of an application for web browsing where structural, graphical, and text elements of web pages appear as a sound map under user's mouse pointer or tab/arrow keys. It could serve as accessibility tool, as an interface for devices with limited visualization capabilities, for telerobotics, for sonic iconography, for development of other auditory-object interfaces and managers. AWN differs from existing browsers for the blind like WebbIE, WeMedia browser, Homer and other webpage readers, which mainly have verbal interfaces speaking only text to the user. This paper formulates the main directions of the research and proposes an AWN model to be developed as research evaluation. Requirements for the research and evaluation model are combined with various approaches to the problems of: web browser adaptations, accessibility, multimodal interfaces, image recognition, sound objects, sound browsing, immersive sonic environments, aural representation of spatial objects and their recognition. This paper describes a sketch-model of an acoustic navigator demonstrated at KKH spring exhibition. Introduction Humans use several senses simultaneously to explore and experience their environment. Each of the senses supplements and extends the others. For example targeting will be more accurate and easy if both the aural and visual locations of the object are defined. In case of the loss of one sense or with a limiting condition, like darkness, other senses could partly compensate for the limitation. Humans can perceive several sound sources simultaneously and concentrate on each of them by wish or by necessity. Audial experiences provide plenty of specific information for our orientation and operations in everyday life. A certain acoustic code could be extracted from such an experience [3], and if we pronounce sounds in different languages differently, we still hear (or at least identify) sounds in similar way. On these grounds an intuitive sound language could be constructed to be used in computer interfaces, in particular for web browsing with possibilities to represent graphic layout and all graphic elements with an immersive sound environment. Immersive environment can bring simultaneous presentation of many sounds, which allows a user to localize sound object easily and fast. This could dramatically increase efficiency of interfaces for the blind and for devices with limited screen visualization. Similar research in the sense of creating of an immersive environment (3D sound space) into which an HTML document is mapped "AB – Web : Active audio browser" was realized in 1998 [1]. Since that time the topic was almost forgotten. Current research will try to accumulate results of recent studies connected with the theme. It will involve specialists and researchers from different areas.
... Roth et al enable visually impaired users to gain an appreciation of the HTML document structure by interacting with a touch-screen. In response to the touch-screen input coordinates, AB-Web [33] generates earcons [8, 4] in the 3D audio space that correspond to HTML entities. Audio Aura [25] by Mynatt et al uses VRML to position earcons [8, 4] in the 3D audio space to convey periphery auditory awareness cues that do not require active participation by the user. ...
While monochrome unformatted text and richly colored graphical content are both capable of conveying a message, well designed graphical content has the potential for better engaging the human sensory system. It is our contention that the author of an audio presentation should be afforded the benefit of judiciously exploiting the human aural perceptual ability to deliver content in a more compelling, concise and realistic manner. While contemporary streaming media players and voice browsers share the ability to render content non-textually, neither technology is currently capable of rendering three dimensional media. The contributions described in this paper are proposed 3D audio extensions to SMIL and a server-based framework able to receive a request and, on-demand, process such a SMIL file and dynamically create the multiple simultaneous audio objects, spatialize them in 3D space, multiplex them into a single stereo audio and prepare it for transmission over an audio stream to a mobile device. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first reported solution for delivering and rendering on a commercially available wireless handheld device a rich 3D audio listening experience as described by a markup language. Naturally, in addition to mobile devices this solution also works with desktop streaming media players.
... The studies of Lumbreras and al. [6] and our earlier work [8,9] validated the hypothesis that a 3D immersive virtual sound environment combined with haptic manipulation and audio feedback, can enable blind users to construct a mental representation of the spatial environment. Therefore, we use as the haptic device, a graphical tablet that provides a direct positioning of the finger in the auditory plane. ...
This paper describes "From Dots to Shapes" (FDTS), an auditory platform composed by three classic games ("Simon", "Point Connecting" and "concentration game") for blind and visually impaired pupils. Each game was adapted to work on a concept of the Euclidean geometry (e.g. ) The tool, , is based on sonic and haptic interaction, and therefore could be used by special educators as a help for teaching basic planar geometry.
Most existing visualization tools utilize only thevisual channel to represent information. Several studies have demonstrated that sonification, the use of sound as an alternative or additional channel for data representation, can help increase the dimensionality of the visual representation and aid in the interpretation of information. We introduce a new sonification module for a visual data exploration system, the Super Spider. It extends a previously developed interactive visualization tool to support data exploration using sound. We also introduce a new data sonification technique and system, 2D Sonar. We have integrated it into Super Spider. Finally, we present user studies conducted to evaluate and validate the efficacy of visual and auditory mappings devised for these tools, and their results.
The general purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of various psycho-acoustic manipulations for the understanding of specific information (typographic attributes such as bold and italic) which was included in texts by individuals with and without blindness. Thirty blind and thirty sighted students participated and were asked to distinguish a number of controlled conditions of auditory components, as well as to express their preferences and opinions on the prosody of the selected acoustic features (pitch, volume and speed of the synthetic speech). Findings indicated that there were significant interactions between groups and experimental conditions across variables. The outcomes of the present study provided a rough assessment of the auditory means that may be conducive to the understanding of the specific typographic attributes. Based on these findings Text-to-Speech systems can deliver such information with all the appropriate auditory prosody in order to facilitate blind students’ memorization and comprehension and enhance inclusion.
We present an Integrated Multimedia Interface for the VIsually Challenged (IMIVIC), a multimedia data visualization technique
for a web browser that combines a tree structure and XML metadata. We discuss two different approaches to provide an efficient
multimedia interface for the blind people, which turned out to be important in the construction of IMIVIC. The first approach
is the implementation of web contents with a tree structure, which integrates many different web pages into a single page.
The second approach is the creation of external metadata to describe dynamically changing multimedia contents. We demonstrate
our approach in an on-line training website and show how this combined approach helps visually challenged users access multimedia
data on the web, with appropriate test.
Although a large amount of research has been conducted on building interfaces for the visually impaired that allows users to read web pages and generate and access information on computers, little development addresses two problems faced by the blind users. First, sighted users can rapidly browse and select information they find useful, and second, sighted users can make much useful information portable through the recent proliferation of personal digital assistants (PDAs). These possibilities are not currently available for blind users. This paper describes an interface that has been built on a standard PDA and allows its user to browse the information stored on it through a combination of screen touches coupled with auditory feedback. The system also supports the storage and management of personal information so that addresses, music, directions, and other supportive information can be readily created and then accessed anytime and anywhere by the PDA user. The paper describes the system along with the related design choices and design rationale. A user study is also reported.
Despite the heavy dependence upon contemporary teleconferencing systems by the business community, the user experience can be less than adequate. This paper describes a framework called Conferencing3, which leverages 3D audio spatialisation offering greater clarity, improved distinguishability between the individual participants, a personalisable audio listening space and the ability to add indexes with text descriptors into the conference. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first reported mobile solution offering interactive 3D, both audio and graphical, support for conferencing on commercially available wireless devices. In addition, a unique approach is offered for 3D visualisation and browsing of archived sessions.
Media content presented to a vehicle driver is mainly auditory, since visual content is distracting and viewing it increases the risk of an accident. Music and radio are thus commonly listened to while driving. However, these types of content rarely reflect regional characteristics and are therefore not well suited for tourists who want to get information about the region they are visiting. We have developed the Blog Car Radio system that presents blog entries in auditory style using sonification (speech synthesis). Blog entries are obtained from blog search engines, selected by distances from the vehicles current location, and ranked based on their suitability for sonification and relevance to the userspecified category. By using Blog Car Radio, a driver can obtain local information with only a small amount of distraction. In this paper, we particularly discussed the method to rank text contents which is suitable for sonification.
This paper presents our work on the development of a multimodal auditory interface which permits blind users to work more easily and efficiently with GUI browsers. A macro-analysis phase, which can be either passive or active, informs on the global layout of HTML documents. A subsequent active micro-analysis phase allows to explore particular elements of the document. The interface is based on : (1) a mapping of the graphical HTML document into a 3D virtual sound space environment, where non-speech auditory cues differentiate HTML elements; (2) the transcription into sound not only of text, but also of images; (3) the use of a touch-sensitive screen to facilitate user interaction. Moreover, in order to validate the sonification model of the images, we have created an audio "memory game", that can be used as a pedagogical tool to help blind pupils learn spatial exploration cues.
A blind or visually impaired user can get lost in hyperspace on one single W3-page. This paper presents Web Access for Blind users (WAB), a working system which makes web-surfing easier for blind persons. Normally, structure and meta information in HTML documents are displayed visually and are difficult for blind users to recognize. WAB transforms structure and meta information into a form that can be more easily read by visually handicapped people. Titles, links and form elements are described textually. Special navigation aids allow the blind user to navigate through the title hierarchy as well as through the list of links. The implemented system works with any World-Wide-Web-browser and any screen reader. No additional software has to be installed on the user's computer.
In order to enhance the presentation of synthesised speech output within GUI-based screen-readers for blind computer users, a spatial audio processing system, based on head-related transfer function processing technology is used to apply virtual acoustic positioning to synthesised speech. The spatial audio processing system and methods for generating spatial auditory displays are introduced. A procedure for the integration and synchronisation of an external speech synthesiser to the system is described. Finally, some prospects for the use of the enhanced speech output facilities of the system are given.
The development of an alternative medium for displaying information in complex human-machine interfaces is described. The 3-D virtual acoustic display is a means for accurately transferring information to a human operator using the auditory modality; it combines directional and semantic characteristics to form naturalistic representations of dynamic objects and events in remotely sensed or simulated environments. Although the technology can stand alone, it is envisioned as a component of a larger multisensory environment and will no doubt find its greatest utility in that context. The general philosophy in the design of the display has been that the development of advanced computer interfaces should be driven first by an understanding of human perceptual requirements, and later by technological capabilities or constraints. In expanding on this view, current and potential uses are addressed of virtual acoustic displays, such displays are characterized, and recent approaches to their implementation and application are reviewed, the research project at NASA-Ames is described in detail, and finally some critical research issues for the future are outlined.
This paper includes our main findings; for a more detailed discussion, refer to [7].
In summary, there are many specific problems frequently faced by the blind and visually impaired that are amenable to solutions through appropriate applications of electronics and microcomputer technology. This potential is widely recognized by commercial manufacturers, who have been particularly active in the area of computer-access devices. It is expected that future developments will include continued refinement of synthetic speech applications and braille computer-access technology, increased research into the problems and solutions of orientation and mobility, and increased application of electronics to the reduction of educational and employment barriers for the blind and visually impaired.
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