I pass this along for what it is worth. Certainly an interesting idea.
How interesting, only time will tell?
David Andrews
>Posted-Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 10:21:08 -0600 (CST)
>From: meijer@natlab.research.philips.com
>Subject: Seeing with your ears
>To: jfw@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au
>Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 17:13:56 +0100 (MET)
>X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24]
>Sender: owner-jfw@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au
>Reply-To: jfw@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au
>
>
>Dear Jaws user,
>
>It is now possible to complement your favourite screen
>reader with a PC camera to access visual information
>beyond your computer screen! The vOICe Learning Edition
>software translates video to audio in a very general
>way.
>
>The software grabs video images from the PC camera
>and generates corresponding "soundscapes" that contain
>much of the visual information of the camera images.
>Because there is normally a lot of information in
>each image, it uses a scanning approach: images are
>scanned from left to right, each scan lasting about
>one second. During such a one-second scan, the stereo
>sound pans from left to right as well, to ease the
>perception of each scan. Furthermore, visual height
>is translated into pitch: the higher an object, the
>higher the pitch. The brighter an object, the louder
>its sound. A bright, diagonal line stretching upward
>to the right just produces a loud "ooiieep" rising-pitch
>sound and another stretching downward to the right makes
>the opposite sound, "eeiioop". With two lines you will
>hear two tones, and so forth.
>
>The software was recently covered in a Wired News
>article at the web page
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/16454.html
>
>and is currently available for free from the web page
>
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winvoice.htm
>
>It includes zoom, slow and fast motion, negative video,
>color identification, image file and screen sonification,
>auditory function plots, an exercise mode, and many
>other advanced features. Recognized colors in the color
>identification mode include red, green, blue, cyan, yellow,
>orange and magenta, as well as combination colors. The
>color identification mode is activated by pressing function
>key F10, and the color name will be spoken by a human voice.
>
>The software requires a PC camera to run, or else you will
>only get a spoken error message saying "I'm sorry, The vOICe
>cannot find your webcam". PC cameras nowadays typically cost
>less than $100. The software download is less than 600K in
>size, and is provided at no charge and no obligations whatsoever.
>I only request the favour of receiving e-mail with feedback
>about your experiences with the software. Many improvements
>have been implemented in recent months, with valuable feedback
>from an expert blind Jaws user. Development is still ongoing,
>in particular in trying to further improve compatibility with
>popular screen readers such as Jaws for Windows.
>
>The vOICe Learning Edition software has been tested to
>work well with the factory default settings of Jaws for
>Windows, using Jaws to navigate the menus and dialogs
>of The vOICe Learning Edition. The only thing you have
>to take care of is releasing the audio device to Jaws
>by pressing Ctrl+F2 in The vOICe Learning Edition software,
>or else Jaws cannot speak because of the continuously
>updated soundscapes. Vice versa, you can return to the
>soundscapes by pressing the Ctrl+F2 toggle a second time.
>If an audio device conflict occurs, you may have to pause
>Jaws output via Ctrl+P before you can reactivate The vOICe
>Learning Edition soundscapes via its Ctrl+F2 muting toggle.
>
>Although the video to audio translation rules are both
>simple and general, learning to understand the complicated
>soundscapes of real-life images can be very hard and will
>require extensive training: vision itself happens to be
>complicated. So the disadvantage of providing full access
>to vision is now that you are exposed to the full complexity
>of vision, through your ears. Currently it is not known if
>blind users can learn to handle complicated visual information
>provided through their ears. It will definitely require a lot
>of endurance in training, and the final level of performance
>is unknown. Technically, the preservation of a lot of visual
>information in the soundscapes has been proven, so you need
>not worry about that, but it is the human factors that we
>know much less about. This is the greatest challenge that we
>are currently facing. However, The vOICe technology offers
>by far the most affordable means for general access to visual
>information.
>
>Some example sounds that you can listen to are provided in
>WAV sound format on the web page
>
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/voiswall.htm
>
>giving the sound of a bright wall with a gate, and the web page
>
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/voiscope.htm
>
>demonstrating the sound of two oscilloscope screen images.
>
>If you have an MP3 sound player, you can also try the MP3
>sound samples at
>
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winoandm.htm
>
>File size is only 16K per MP3 sample here. Make sure that
>your MP3 player runs in autorepeat mode, or the soundscapes
>will be over before you realize it. The sixteen MP3 samples
>correspond to a panoramic overview with photographs of
>buildings, trees and other visual things converted into
>sound using The vOICe Learning Edition software.
>
>Most of the information about software installation and
>usage can be found at the three web pages
>
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winvoice.htm
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winvoic2.htm
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winvfaq.htm
>
>Happy New Year, and have fun!
>
>Peter Meijer
>
>
>E-mail: meijer@natlab.research.philips.com
>Soundscapes from The vOICe - Seeing with your Ears!
>http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/
>-
>To unsubscribe, see the home page
>http://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/~nallan/jfw
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