>
>Students to Design Talking Book Machine
>NLS/BPH Press Release
>Students to Design Talking Book Machine
>Issued
>June 22, 2001
>For Immediate Release
>Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and the National Library
>Service for
>the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, are
>challenging
>student
>designers to create the next generation of digital talking book playback
>machines.
>The student design competition, scheduled to begin Jan 1, 2002, could
>result in a
>unique product that will help thousands of visually impaired and
>otherwise
>disabled
>people enjoy books and magazines each year. Close to a million new
>machines
>will
>be produced in the first ten years after their introduction.
>Current playback machines are the same analog cassette players that made
>their appearance
>in the 1970s. "The analog machines have served us well, but they are
>starting to
>move toward obsolescence," said Frank Kurt Cylke, director of the
>National
>Library
>Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Users have started, he
>said, to
>expect their talking book playback machines to have some of the
>navigation
>features
>they find in CD and DVD players and computers, such as the ability to
>skip
>sections
>or return to a "bookmark." And as it becomes more scarce, cassette
>technology will
>become too expensive. "We need to move on to digital audio to take
>advantage of improved
>user features and lower costs," said Cylke.
>So why not use existing digital devices? Here's the twist. Both the
>recordings and
>the equipment are mailed free to any U.S. citizen who qualifies. NLS is
>permitted
>to do this under U.S. copyright law, but the law also requires that the
>materials
>NLS circulates be unusable by the general public. For this reason, the
>current talking
>book machines and cassettes are different from the conventional cassette
>players
>and tapes.
>When NLS decided to adopt digital technology, the agency also decided to
>take advantage
>of the conversion time to address the total design of the playback
>machines. "The
>analog machines were designed by engineers and were built to be
>functional
>and durable,
>" said Cylke. The agency had a chance to design machines that are
>aesthetically pleasing,
>light and compact, but with speakers that could be directed for the
>hearing
>impaired.
>When the idea of a competition was suggested, Cylke said he assigned his
>reference
>department the task of finding an appropriate organization to manage the
>competition.
>IDSA had just completed the Motorola student competition to design a
>wireless device
>for universal access.
>"It seemed like a very nice fit. We wanted creativity and unique ideas
>and
>the concept
>of a student competition was even more exciting," said Cylke. He has
>been
>working
>on the competition with Gigi Thompson, IDSA's senior manager of
>communication and
>has met several times with Jim Mueller, IDSA, who chairs the Society's
>Universal
>Design Professional Interest Section.
>Cylke explained that the students will be designing for the future, when
>baby boomers
>will be aging. "Many of our users are older people who were avid readers
>and now
>can't read. They have to be able to operate these devices," he said.
>Although the
>digital devices the students design will be specifically tailored to the
>disabled,
>they must also adhere to the principles of universal design, including
>being simple
>and intuitive to use, having a tolerance for error and requiring low
>physical effort.
>NLS has approximately 730,000 cassette talking book playback machines in
>use worldwide
>today and maintains an inventory of more than 23 million copies of audio
>books and
>magazines. "The upgrade to digital versions of not only the talking book
>playback
>machines but also the vast audio collection is the greatest challenge
>NLS
>has ever
>faced," said director Cylke.
>One student designer has the opportunity to inspire the development of a
>product
>that will solve a government mandate and benefit thousands of needy
>citizens.
>The competition begins January 1, 2002. IDSA will offer information on
>the
>competition
>on the IDSA Web site, in its publications, at the National Conference
>and
>the National
>Education Conference in August in Boston, MA, and will distribute
>competition information
>kits to all 54 IDSA-affiliated schools. A jury assembled by NLS and IDSA
>will convene
>in June 2002 and awards will be presented during the IDSA National
>Conference, July
>20 23, 2002. Watch www.idsa.org this fall for more details.
>For additional information, contact:
>Robert E. Fistick
>Head, Publications and Media Section
>National Library Service for the Blind
>and Physically Handicapped
>The Library of Congress
>Washington, DC 20542
>Telephone: (202) 707-9279
>E-mail:
>rfis@loc.gov
>
>--
>
>Janina Sajka, Director
>Technology Research and Development
>Governmental Relations Group
>American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
>
>Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175
>
>Chair, Accessibility SIG
>Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
>http://www.openebook.org
>
>Will electronic books surpass print books? Read our white paper,
>Surpassing Gutenberg, at http://www.afb.org/ebook.asp
>
>Download a free sample Digital Talking Book edition of Martin Luther
>King Jr's inspiring "I Have A Dream" speech at
>http://www.afb.org/mlkweb.asp
>
>Learn how to make accessible software at
>http://www.afb.org/accessapp.asp
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Speakup mailing list
>Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
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