Suggested Video Functions in Daisy
From zedwiki
DAISY AS A TOOL FOR SIGN LANGUAGE
The Swedish Institute for Special Needs Education
INTRODUCTION
Many deaf and hard of hearing with Sign Language as their first language are dependent on getting information in their first language, Sign Language. Available play back tools for Sign Language are mainly video and DVD. Some web and multi media productions are also available.
Sign Language is demanding for the listener. A person who is reading a text is more free to pause, search and move through the contents than a person watching a film.
Deaf people are often helped by illustrations but also by text for navigation. Illustrations should remain as information carriers and the text should be synchronized with Sign Language.
Today there is no universal e-book format for Sign Language that is flexible, easy to use and can be used for production. This is very unfortunate.
By adding video functions in Daisy, new opportunities are created for those who are dependent on getting information in Sign Language.
In 2001, the Swedish Institution for Special Needs Education produced a program called Link-it www.sit.se/direkt/link-it together with (Labyrinten) Dolphine. In Link-it it is possible to connect text to video and play this back in various ways. Link-it was created to be used for deaf students’ bilingual education. It was inspired by i.e. Daisy.
The experiences we gained from working with the program Link-it underlie this suggestion to include functions in Daisy to introduce the possibility of Sign Language.
In our opinion, Daisy has great possibilities to become a good e-book format for Sign Language. Daisy has the potential to become a text availability tool used for translating existing texts as well as a competent production tool for developing educational material and information created from scratch which is aimed directly at the target group deaf people with Sign Language as their first language.
The video functions described below also create opportunities for those who need visualisations as video for:
- Lip-reading support. This applies to those who are hard of hearing and because of their age, or other reasons, cannot profit from the text.
- People who needs visualizations such as film sequences for better understanding.
This document describes the required functionality based on how a play-back program may function. We cannot assess the changes required in the DAISY format to enable this.
Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_language
http://www.spsm.se/Startpage/Educational-materials/Deaf-and-Hard-of-Hearing/Products/Link-it/
1. USER CONTROLLED FUNCTIONS
1.1 Play video by clicking the text
Clicking text that contains a link (a connection) to a video sequence plays the linked video sequence. The video sequence is a part of a complete video file. Only the selected link is played.
1.1.2 Navigation by clicking a button that plays one link at the time
With this button you manually move one link at the time (forward or back). The linked video sequence is played and the corresponding text is high lighted.
Only the selected link is played.
1.2 Play back via Play button
By clicking the Play button, the video is played. The video will start from where the video currently has been paused. “Play” plays the current links as described in the setting for ”Play back methods”.
1.2.1 Play back method 1: ”Play video show links”
If this play back method has been selected when you click Play: The complete video is played. When the video passes a link in the video the linked text is automatically high lighted. If there are several video files, the video file which contains the following links will start playing when the previous video has finished.
1.2.2 Play back method 2: ”Play only video”
If this play back method has been selected when you click play: The complete video is played without high lighting any of the current text. If there are several video files, the video file which contains the following links will start playing when the previous video has finished.
1.2.3 Play back method 3: ”Play only links”
If this play back method has been selected when clicking Play: Only the sequences in the video that are linked to the passages in the text will be played. The parts in the video that has not been linked will be skipped. The video sequences will be played in the order that the links occur in the text regardless from which video file they origin.
1.3 Speed setting
This is a setting that controls the play back speed of the video. This is defined in percentage. The scale ranges from 1 to 200% where default is 100%. The selected speed affects both play and link clicks. This setting applies until you exit the program. The user shall be able to get the video to play back with faster or slower speed. The purpose is to increase the possibility to understand. A reset button shall be available that resets to 100%.
1.4 Delay time after clicking the text
This is a setting that controls the delay between clicking the text and starting the video. The scale rages from -3 to +5. +5 corresponds to approx. 1.5 secs delay. The selected delay applies until you exit the program. The user is able to set the video to start with a delay after a link in the text has been clicked. The appropriate speed depends on how near the area where you click is to the video on the screen, the size of the video and the user’s ability. This is why it is good to leave this setting to user.
Play back of video is not affected by this function. Note! The default value for this should be 0 but this does probably need to be programmed to 0.5 sec for it to be user friendly and comfortable to use.
1.5.1 Placing the video, ”In the text” (default)
If this setting has been selected when you click links in the text: The video linked to the text is displayed in the text window. When the link has finished playing the window disappears. The video is placed in the top right hand corner of the text window in the size defined in the”video size” setting.
If the user moves the video window this video will stay there until the program is closed.
1.5.1.1 Video size
The user can choose between 7 different view sizes when the video is displayed in the text window.
- 256x192,
- 320x240, (Default)
- 384x288,
- 480x360,
- 640x480
- 1:1 = the original video size
- Full screen video
By changing the video size you can adjust to viewing situation and the need of the target group, e.g. viewing for a group or for someone with reduced sight ability.
The selected size is 320x240 pixels unless the producer has defined something else. In full screen video there should be a button or instruction on how to cancel the full screen mode.
1.5.2 Placing the video. ”Next to the text”
This view mode means that text window will be high and narrow and that the video is displayed next to the text window in a neutral area. The video will not disappear but will stay there also after a link has finished playing.
1.5.3 Audio in video on/off
If there is any audio in the video file this can be turned on and off. Sometimes there is audio in the video file. The user should be able to turn this on and off.
The producer can state whether audio should be on or off when the Daisy book is created.
1.5.4 Separate play back of audio in parallell with play back of video.
Daisy should be able to play back a separate audio file connected to the text in parallell with the play back of the video file connected to the same passage in the text.
Note! This only applies to clicking links in the text. For click on Play button there will be a problem with synchronization between speech and Sign Language if Sign Language and Audio are in separate files. The problem is that Sign Language and speech don’t take the same amount of time. A spoken sentence can be both longer and shorter than the corresponding sentence in Sign Language. The language that finished first will then have to wait for the other. This can be confusing for a deaf user who doesn’t hear that the sound continues when the video stops to wait for the audio.
1.5.5 Video control
The video should be controlled with the following :
- Video slider
- Play/pause (toggling)
- Fast Forward
- Fast Reverse
- Slow Forward
- Slow Reverse
The video slider makes allowance for larger movements but gives the user an idea on how long the video is. Pressing down the Fast and Slow buttons results in a continuous movement. (The speed for fast and slow needs to be tried out.) The fast forward should not be so fast that you cannot read the Sign Language.
2. PRODUCER FUNCTIONS
2.1 Video format
Import of video. Conventional easily produced video formats shall be supported. Others shall be possible to convert.
2.2 Several video files
You should be able to use more than one video file.
2.3 Create Links. Insert and exit points in the video
When you create a link to a sequence in the video you should easily be able to:
- Create an insert point for a video link
- Create an exit point for a video link
- Go to insert point for video link
- Go to exit point for video link
- Test play the linked sequence
By using the video buttons you can place the video where you want it to be an insert or exit point. You should also be able to enter the coordinates of where you want it in numbers.
2.4 Correct links
You should be able to correct a previously created link. You should be to change text, video file and insert and exit points.
2.5 Audio in video only when clicking links
With this setting you can block audio that has been built into the video file at play back via clicking the text. However, the sound in the video file is still being played back when you click Play (unless audio hasn’t been turned off in “audio on/off”.
Speech and Sign Language often have different grammar and syntax which will result in unsynchronized audio in the video file. If there is speech in the video file it will be unsynchronized at word level. In passages it often works better.
The producer should be able to select that audio included in the video file shall be blocked when clicking the text but audible at Play.
2.6 Over view of video Links in the text
It shall be possible to make links visible in the text. The producer should be able to get an over view of where links are created in the text.
It is no always all text is linked to Sign Language. Sometimes the purpose and target group of the product means that only some concepts are linked. The user should be able to get an over view of what is clickable or not in the text.
2.7 Information about the product
The producer should somewhere be able to state purpose, target group and contributors of the product. This shall be displayed in Sign Language.
2.8 Select opening mode When saving, the producer should be able to configure the following for the user when the program is started:
- Where the video is placed
- Video size
- Which video file should be loaded first (only applies if the video is displayed next to the text.
- Method of play back
- Audio in video on/off
- Audio in video when clicking in text on/off
- Visible links
