Audiotexts

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Audiotexts

• Dorian Miller

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Power of the written word

• Access when
• Blind
• Weak readers
• Inconvenient to read paper

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Premise for Audiotext

• MP3 player
• Open question what is the ideal interface?
• Academic papers
• Structured documents
• Principles
• Consider how paper is read and written

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Comprehension

• Skim academic paper for overview
• Provide overview (Common writing technique)
• Active listening technique
• Recording for Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD)
• Books on tape

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Audiotext divided into tracks

• Title
• Author information
• Abstract

• 1. Section heading
• .
• N. Section heading

• 1. Section complete text
• .
• N. Section complete text

Full content
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Convey structure

• Structure implicit in page layout
• Annotations
• Keywords
• Voice characteristics
• Beeps between paragraphs

SectionSome people must be provided with
alternative access to the power of the written
word. The blind are unable to read conventional
books. People with dyslexia or other reading
disabilities have trouble efficiently decoding
the written word. Even people without a
disability could benefit from an alternative to
reading material for example, when riding the
bus, instead of reading they could listen to the
text, as an audiotext. A computer system enables
a person to access audiotexts, which give similar
information as from reading conventional books.
  beep Audio versions of text must provide a
literal reading and also convey the texts
structure. Text structure conveys meaning.
Comprehension of writing comes from understanding
a series of independent consecutive points.
Sections or chapters represent different parts of
a documents main idea. Furthermore paragraphs
are sub-points of the idea expressed in a
section. In printed material, the format of
section headings and whitespace between
paragraphs implicitly indicates the transition
between individual ideas. Similar format
information must also be conveyed in audiotexts.
beep
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Structure of formulas

• Aster, TV Raman
• Example subscripts
• sec2-ex5.au

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Reading team

• Separate reading voice for every section
• Continuous feedback about current section

Introduction
Related Work
Experiment
Discussion
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MP3 practical

• Have to pick a device with interface
• Affordable
• Versatile

http//www.nomadworld.com/products/MuVo/
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Design

• Automatically convert text to audio

Python
Input PDF
Output MP3
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Hardest part

• Most difficult is format extraction from flat
  file representation
• Introduction section heading
• Introduction section heading
• Introduction section heading
• Introduction section heading
• Introduction section heading
• Introduction section heading
• Latex strict structure but not widely distributed

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Evaluation

• Objective person comprehend paper
• Compare blind and sighted
• Secondary aid improve comprehension
• Navigation how often make mistakes

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Questions