A B Multimedia Devices - Q and A.
+12: Moving On Up by Isaac Porat. In February last year, E-Access Bulletin reported on development plans for 'SpeakOn', a hardware device aimed at providing access to selected news and entertainment audio web content without the need for high IT skills. The project is being headed by assistive technology charity a-technic ( http://www.a-technic.net ). Planned content included DAISY-formatted books, MP3 music files, internet radio stations, podcasts and other web site content including online newspapers. Since that time, the project has split into two elements: SpeakOn which is a free software product, now available, that anyone can download and run on their PC; and the original concept of a hardware box, now codenamed 'Pipistrelle' and still in development. This month, E-Access Bulletin interviews the creator and developer of SpeakOn, Isaac Porat, and finds out exactly what is planned for this new technology. Q: What is SpeakOn and what can it do? A: SpeakOn is free, self-voicing software for finding, retrieving and listening to media. The E-Access Bulletin news item about SpeakOn in February 2006 talked mainly about a self-contained box, but we subsequently decided to launch SpeakOn first as software for the PC. This software caters for people who are comfortable with computers but are looking for an easy and relaxing way to enjoy media. SpeakOn was launched in June 2006 (almost exactly a year ago) and has had a number of major upgrades since. It now covers pretty well all specialized media services for blind people in the UK, as well as general types of media such as internet radio and podcasts. Much work has been done to improve the user interface for ease of use and more features in handling general formats and media types have been added. In its most recent feature release last month, support is provided to browse and listen directly to the latest audio narrated streaming service provided by the talking newspaper organisation ( TNAUK - http://www.tnauk.org.uk/ ). It also closes some gaps in SpeakOn's media cover by handling CDs of MP3 books such as those supplied by Calibre and support for audio CDs. The album and track names are spoken to the user if available on the internet repository. Although SpeakOn is free for use, it is not open source. This is because we want to maintain control over its development path. Q: What first triggered the development of SpeakOn? A: SpeakOn was born out of my own frustrations as a blind person in finding, retrieving and playing media such as music, books, newspapers and magazines using conventional PC access technology. I was tired of memorising endless shortcut keys for different applications and wanted a more relaxing way of listening to media rather than having to sit upright in front of my computer. I started to develop SpeakOn essentially for myself to address these issues. Q: What unique features does SpeakOn offer that differentiate it from other products and tools already on the market? A: Currently, SpeakOn contains two applications; the first one, the 'Media Centre' covers a range of general purpose and special media services for the blind. All these media can be accessed by conventional means, but SpeakOn offers a uniform approach and therefore ease of use and speed for finding, retrieving and playing the media it supports. The second application includes a player for the popular 'Last.FM' internet music service. The players available already for this service are to my knowledge essentially not accessible for blind users. Q: What has been most challenging about developing the SpeakOn software? A: SpeakOn is all about using the same interface, regardless of the media used. In the real world, the various media are available in different locations remotely and on the user's computer. These media come in different text and audio formats, and a great challenge has always been for the software to do as much work as possible 'under the hood' so that to the user it all appears the same. Q: How have you overcome these challenges? A: I started with the basic interface model and a range of supported media. Feedback from users started to arrive after the launch of SpeakOn in late June 2006. There are a number of enthusiastic fans who are prepared to stay in touch on a regular basis and test new features of the program, giving advice and suggestions; this proved invaluable and I am grateful to them. Over the past year, the user interface has been gradually improved and more features based on user feedback added. I realise that as SpeakOn grows, more help will be needed from the community in providing links to media resources, documentation and just spreading the word. Q: How many people use SpeakOn? A: There have been over 1,000 public downloads so far. Now that the features and support for specialised media are generally complete, I feel that SpeakOn is ready for a bigger audience. Q: Is SpeakOn a type of screen reader? A: Most blind people know about screen readers or magnifiers and their use in a Windows-type system. Screen readers try to enable access to conventional programs designed for sighted users with a varying degree of success, depending on how the mainstream software is written. SpeakOn is different in its interface and approach in that it has no visual interface. It is designed from the ground up for input by a limited number of keys and speech is built in for communicating with the user. The interface is optimised for easy media access. SpeakOn is not competing against screen readers as screen readers are an essential tool for everyday use in accessing mainstream software. SpeakOn just addresses a specific problem in providing a quick and relaxing way to access media from the comfort of your armchair. Because of its unconventional approach, it may not suit everybody. Q: Can SpeakOn be used by organisations as well as by individuals? A: The SpeakOn licence does not distinguish between use by individuals or organisations, and any organisation is welcome to train users to access media using SpeakOn if they wish. We are currently collaborating with screenreader.net, the distributor of the Thunder screen reader, to provide free computer access for the broadest user-base possible. We recognise that we both are providing products that complement each other. We are also collaborating with organisations that provide specialized online content, notably TNAUK and the Seeing Ear Library. Other online content such as the Soundings magazine and ACB radio for example can be accessed using SpeakOn with its standard interfaces. DAISY and MP3 books distributed by various organisations can also be easily played, and we are in discussion with various other organisations in the UK and the US about possible further developments and provision of content. Q: What is planned for the future of SpeakOn? A: SpeakOn so far has been aimed at people who are reasonably comfortable using computers. This version of SpeakOn will always be there and will be developed further to include more media and possibly applications beyond media as well. However, I am currently developing a version of SpeakOn specifically for people who have limited knowledge of computers. This version will be offered to the public in the next few months for the Windows operating system. It is recognised that some people will never use computers and to that end we at a-technic would like to offer the 'easy' version of SpeakOn or similar, operating in its own box. Together with my a-technic colleagues, Chris Mairs and John Batty, I have started to work on this project, codenamed Pipistrelle. SpeakOn already runs under the Linux operating system but more work needs to be done to make this a practical proposition. Linux is free and can be tailored to do specifically what SpeakOn requires for its functionality running on a dedicated hardware. In its own box, Pipistrelle like the existing SpeakOn software running on a standard laptop, will communicate through WiFi and broadband, using a simple numerical keypad or a similar device for input and will connect to standard speakers and HiFi. For this stage in the development, specific hardware will be required and we will need to form partnerships with companies and organisations that will help us by manufacturing, distributing and supporting the product. NOTE: For more information about SpeakOn and to download the software and view the manual, see: http://www.a-technic.net/speakon.htm . Isaac Porat is a professor of materials science at the University of Manchester. He is also a trustee of TNAUK and a-technic. SpeakOn was developed as a labour of love in his spare time. Isaac can be contacted at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Download prohibited? No problem. CHAT from any browser, without download. Go to http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php/ To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
