SAMI Closed Captions are now available for your review (fwd)

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1998 04:10:28 -0500
From: David Bolnick <davebo@MICROSOFT.com>
Reply-To: uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu
To: Multiple recipients of list <uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu>
Subject: SAMI Closed Captions are now available for your review

SAMI Article #1:

With the recent release of Windows Media Player came SAMI captions. SAMI,
Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange, is a single authoring format for
captions and audio descriptions.  This article and set of demos focus on
captioning. There will be subsequent articles on audio description (see list
below).

SAMI Overview article: http://microsoft.com/enable/products/multimedia.htm
<http://microsoft.com/enable/products/multimedia.htm> 

******* Please review the following before you download any SAMI
demos********

SAMI Format article: http://microsoft.com/enable/products/sami.htm
<http://microsoft.com/enable/products/sami.htm> 

There has been much confusion about the role of SAMI vs. the role of SMIL.
The two are quite different though they use similar techniques to accomplish
their goals. SMIL is a set of XML based elements used for presenting and
positioning synchronized components of a multimedia presentation. On the
other hand, SAMI is an authoring format solely designed to deliver
synchronized captions and audio description. SAMI has been designed to
provide multiple language and style support. The latter is critical for
accessibility. That is, if the user is unable to read the captions due to a
visual impairment then we can question whether we have provided captions to
that user. Thus, SAMI supports multiple styles so the caption author can
provide, in addition to a standard font, several varieties of large print or
color combinations for the user to select from. Furthermore, SAMI introduces
an optional Source ID line that continuously displays the source of the
sound. This is valuable for many dyslexics and people with short-term memory
loss (those, like myself, over 40). 

Future articles:
* Using SAMI for Closed Captions on the Web (mid September)
* SAMI Support of Audio Description (mid October)
* SAMI as an authoring format for EIA608, EIA708, DVD, and Web encoding -
full SAMI spec (mid November)
* SAMI Caption Authoring Tool (mid December)

Note:
We are currently working on version 2 of Windows Media Player's SAMI
support. Please send your suggestions directly to me. 

David.

David A. Bolnick
Accessibility Program Manager: Multimedia, Telecommunications
Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA  98052
E-mail:  <mailto:davebo@microsoft.com> davebo@microsoft.com     Web:
<http://microsoft.com/enable> http://microsoft.com/enable

Received on Friday, 21 August 1998 07:16:47 UTC