- From: Al Gilman <asgilman@iamdigex.net>
- Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 14:10:08 -0400
- To: David Poehlman <poehlman@clark.net>
- Cc: "meijer@natlab.research.philips.com" <meijer@natlab.research.philips.com>, WAI Interest Group <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
At 09:45 AM 5/17/99 -0400, David Poehlman wrote: >al, You are quite correct, but there is a new lexicon emerging and >that is a lexicon of direct image to sound conversion. It will allow >for a limitless aray of application matching sounds with images never >before heard. Of course you are right. The expanding possibilities are more important that one arguable example. I was impressed with the ability of first-time users to grasp simple shapes from their vOICe sonification when we played with this at CSUN. I wonder if there aren't also exciting, world-expanding possibilities to be explored for communication between people with different disabilities if a lexicographer were to catalog the multimedia cliches that are widely recognized today and hence already work as code because the cross-medium associations are present and consistent for many people. Al > >Al Gilman wrote: >> >> At 02:18 PM 5/16/99 +0200, Peter Meijer wrote: >> >Technically this should be quite feasible. For instance, >> >if an image of the American flag is showing with something >> >like Alt="Stars and stripes" in the HTML IMG tag, a blind >> >user might at the same time hear a "wav tag" of "wave file >> >as alt tag" like (88K file size) >> > >> > http://www.seeingwithsound.com/extra/usflag.wav >> > >> >which is the sound generated from and corresponding to the >> >usflag.bmp example image that can be downloaded from >> > >> >> Yes, technically, the sound that is attached to the flag icon could be the >> sonification of the image. But this would be a triumph of technology over >> communication. >> >> In popular culture this image already has an associated sound. The sound >> for the image of a waving stars and stripes is that of Arthur Fiedler >> conducting the Boston Pops in Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" on the >> Esplanade on the Fourth of July. >> >> For inclusion of the reading-impaired, it is important to honor the >> associations of sight, sound and text that already exist as cliches in the >> lexicon of popular culture. >> >> Al >> >> > http://www.seeingwithsound.com/extra/usflag.zip >> > >> >For bandwidth efficiency, for guaranteeing mutual consistency >> >between image and sound, and to avoid adding a burden on any >> >website developer, one would want this sound rendering done >> >automatically on the client computer, based on the original >> >image that the IMG tag was referring to. >> > >> >Linking a browser to a third-party add-on for the image based >> >sound rendering would do the job. The browser would only have >> >to pass on the image data when the user indicates he/she wants >> >to analyze the audible counterpart of an image, perhaps zoom >> >into it, hear it in inverse video, hear it line by line, apply >> >OCR, or whatever else may help with understanding the content >> >of the image through sound. All the necessary ingredients except >> >for the browser link are already available. >> > >> >Best wishes, >> > >> >Peter Meijer >> > >> > >> >Soundscapes from The vOICe - Seeing with your Ears! >> >http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/ >> > > >-- >Hands-On Technolog(eye)s >Touching The Internet: >mailto:poehlman@clark.net >Voice: 301.949.7599 >ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/poehlman >http://poehlman.clark.net >Dynamic Solutions Inc. >Best of service >for your small business >network needs! >http://www.dnsolutions.com > >---sig off--- >
Received on Monday, 17 May 1999 14:05:39 UTC