Hello Steeve, I just red your posting about the talking ipodder. I've always wanted an eyepodder, but I didn't thank that it would work for me because of the fact that I'm blind. If they pull this earpodder off, I will be the first in line at Cirket City to get one. I hope this talking eye/earpodder will be avillable soon. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Pattison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Access-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "PC Audio" <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org> Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 9:34 PM Subject: Fwd: Article: Audio Menus for iPods
> >>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>From: David Andrews [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > I thought this was very interesting ... > > Dave > > Technology Review > Tuesday, May 08, 2007 > > Audio Menus for iPods > > By Kate Greene > > Download an MP3 version of this story > http://www.audiodizer.com/technologyreview/infotech/download.aspx?id=18 > > 703 Researchers are testing ways to let people listen to gadget menu > options > instead of looking at them. > > Clicking through the menu on your iPod demands a significant > amount of > visual attention, which can be a hassle (while jogging) and even > dangerous > (while driving). But engineers at the University of Toronto and > Microsoft > Research are working on software that could make it possible to > navigate > the menus of gadgets that use circular touch pads, like the iPod, > without > looking at them--only audio cues would be used. > > The researchers have designed an auditory menu technique--called > earPod--that provides audio feedback when a person drags his or > her finger > around the touch pad. Although it's not ready to replace the > expansive > menus on real iPods, the results are encouraging, says Patrick > Baudisch, a > research scientist at Microsoft Research, in Seattle, who worked > on the > project. > > LINK: > http://www.patrickbaudisch.com/ > > Within 30 minutes of beginning to use the technology, people can > navigate > two levels of earPod menus faster than traditional visual menus, > and just > as accurately. > > "Requiring constant visual attention while using a PC is > reasonable," > says > Baudisch, "but if you're using an iPod on the road, [constant > visual > attention] is unreasonable." In addition to giving people back > their eyes, > he says, audio menus could help gadgets save battery life by not > wasting > energy on a screen, and they could add functions to the > screen-free > devices such as the iPod shuffle. > > The idea of using audio menus isn't new. Auditory interfaces can, > after > all, be found in touch-tone phone menus and in various assisted > technologies for seeing-impaired users. But historically, handheld > > consumer gadgets haven't widely used audio menus. There are a few > reasons > for this, says Bruce Walker, professor in the school of psychology > and > college of computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. > > LINK: > http://sonify.psych.gatech.edu/~walkerb/ > > One reason, he says, is that audio hardware and software have > been > resource intensive, requiring significant amounts of computation > and > energy. In addition, audio software has been difficult to > program. > > But computing power is becoming cheaper, and there is an > increasing > need > to find different ways to interact with handheld devices, says > Walker. > Within the past 10 years, he says, the ubiquity of mobile devices > with > small displays "has made us all visually impaired." Currently > there are > only a handful of researchers who are systematically looking at > ways to > make better audio interfaces for various devices, but Walker > expects the > ranks to grow in the coming years. > > This first earPod prototype has a two-level menu hierarchy with 8 > items > per category, for a total of 64 items. To test how well people use > the > system, the researchers assigned to the first menu level a random > > assortment of categories: "clothing," "fish," "instrument," > "color," and > four others. The next level contained eight examples of these > items. The > iPod analogy would be found in the opening menu, which includes > "music," > "extras," "settings," and then lower menus that include > "playlists," > "artists," and "albums," for instance. The earPod approach could > be > extended to read off a limited number of names of artists and > songs as > well. > > EarPod was designed specifically for gadgets with circular touch > pads, > says Baudisch. The circular touch pad is evenly divided into eight > > sectors: it's cut like pieces of a pie, with each menu item > associated > with each piece. When a person touches the dial of an > earPod-equipped > gadget, the audio menu responds with a prerecorded human voice. If > a > person puts his or her finger at 12 o'clock on the touch pad, the > voice > might say "Color," indicating that the finger is on the color > sector. When > the finger crosses one of these invisible sector lines, the user > hears a > clicking sound. As a finger moves, a new menu item is announced. > To select > an item and go to the next menu level, the user lifts his or her > finger > and hears a "camera-shutter" sound, which indicates that an item > has been > chosen. > > Because the touch pad is divided into portions, says Baudisch, > people > can > easily learn where menu items are and quickly jump to certain > items > without having to scroll through a list, as with an iPod. Another > feature > of earPod, he says, is that a user doesn't need to wait until a > menu item > is read before moving on to another. When a finger moves to a new > sector, > the audio is interrupted and the new item is announced. > > In the earPod usability study, conducted by Shengdong Zhao, a > doctoral > student at the University of Toronto, and project lead, the > researchers > found that people who had no experience using either an iPod or an > > earPod-equipped device used the devices with equal accuracy. > EarPod was > 92.1 percent accurate, while the visual system was 93.9 percent > accurate, > but the difference was not statistically significant. It took > people > longer to grow accustomed to earPod, but with experience, users' > performance on the audio menu became faster. After 30 minutes of > training > on both devices, subjects could navigate two levels of menu with > earPod in > 2.1 seconds as opposed to 2.5 seconds with the visual menu. > > Georgia Tech's Walker is impressed with the earPod approach and > results. > "My overall impression is that this is great ... It was > inevitable: trying > to look at how to take an interface that is purely visual on the > iPod and > turn it into an interface that's purely auditory, because, after > all, the > iPod's an auditory device. Why should a person have to pull their > player > out while they're jogging to look at it?" > > Currently, however, earPod could not be a complete replacement for > an > iPod > menu, Walker notes. One reason is that earPod doesn't lend itself > to menu > flexibility. Once a person learns the position of the menu items, > he or > she might become frustrated if those positions need to change due > to a > software update or added playlist. In particular, the approach > would not > work well for menus such as mobile-phone address books, Walker > says. > > In addition, adds Baudisch, because the circular track pad is > divided > into > sectors, there are a limited number of menu items that a person > can > access. If there are 8 sectors, each with 8 menu items, then there > are > only 64 total items accessible on the device, and this wouldn't be > good > enough for iPods that hold hundreds of playlists and thousands of > songs. > However, Baudisch suspects that future prototypes will provide > ways to get > around the problem. He and his team are exploring how people > respond to > faster audio output (speeding up the recorded voice) and how > people use > audio and visual cues simultaneously. Developing an > all-encompassing > interface for eyes-free operations on auditory devices is still a > future > project, he says. > > http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18703/ > > > Regards Steve > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Skype: steve1963 > MSN Messenger: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.467 / Virus Database: 269.7.0/803 - Release Date: 5/13/2007 > 12:17 PM > > Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
