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Hiroshi Kawamura
Director
Information Center
Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with
Disabilities
1-22-1, Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162 JAPAN
FAX: +81-3-5273-1523
Phone: +81-3-5273-0601
Email: hkawa@ibm.net
The Japanese Society for
Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (JSRPD) has been one
of the leading organizations of Digital Audio-based Information
System (DAISY) developments. With Sigtuna Project, JSRPD
develops DAISY compliant free of charge software tools in support
of the print-disabled readers in the world including developing
countries. Sigtuna Digital Audio Recorder, Sigtuna Browser and
Sigtuna Telephone Browser will be demonstrated in the
presentation.
Needs for DAISY in developing countries will be addressed with
special reference to the DAISY Consortium collaboration for Thai
DAISY Pilot Project.
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1. DAISY
DAISY, Digital
Audio-based Information System, has been developed as the next
generation digital talking book open standard by the DAISY
Consortium consisting of major talking book producers and
suppliers in the world. DAISY provides print-disabled consumers
with equal opportunities for information access such as handling
of a table of contents, pages and other indexes just like the
sighted peers. DAISY allows versatile distribution methods of
talking books including books on CD-ROM and Internet
distribution. With DAISY, talking books will be preserved
virtually forever. Being an open standard based around existing
W3C standards, DAISY is rapidly getting industry support which
ensures stable availability across the world at reasonable cost
and reliability.
In addition, while the DAISY playback systems promise to keep
backward compatibility for old specifications, the Consortium is
working to update the DAISY specifications in order to meet the
users needs and rapid change of technological infrastructures.
Since DAISY supports synchronized text, audio and images, DAISY
compliant multimedia materials will probably be the best example
of the universal design concept of information dissemination,
which is accessible by everybody.
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2. DAISY Consortium
The DAISY Consortium was established in May 1996 in Stockholm followed by the World Field Testing of DAISY/Plextalk system in 32 countries including 5 continents. This trial funded by the Japanese Government was successfully closed with unanimous support for the DAISY talking book concept and its development process to include user participation.
In May 1997 in Sigtuna, Sweden, the Consortium organized an open forum on the file format of DAISY to seek for an agreement on file format with major organizations remaining outside of the Consortium. Participants could agree upon the direction of further development of the DAISY specifications.
With an anticipation of
a successful result of the forum, JSRPD requested three DAISY
concerned manufacturers, Labyrinten, Shinanokenshi and
Productivityworks, and two renowned researchers, George Kerscher
and Jun Ishikawa, to join a project meeting to be held
immediately after the forum at the same venue, Sigtuna. As a
result of this meeting, three companies and two researchers
joined the Sigtuna Project of JSRPD to contribute to a new W3C
standard, Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL),
and the revision of the DAISY Specifications in line with the
consensus among the forum participants.
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3. Sigtuna Project
Sigtuna Project develops
three software products; recorder, browser and telephone browser.
Sigtuna Project allows the developer to release commercial
version of the products to reduce the maintenance cost. Therefore
the products are free of charge for organizations entitled, but
at the same time they may be available on the market for
organizations and individuals other than the DAISY Consortium
members. In developing countries and Japan, All Sigtuna
software tools are bi-lingual and designed to be easily localized
for different languages.
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3.1. Sigtuna Digital Audio Recorder
Sigtuna Digital Audio
Recorder, Sigtuna DAR in short, is a software system which
provides sufficient capabilities for the creation, editing and
production of DAISY Talking Books which is compliant to DAISY
Specifications. There are two series of recorders; Sigtuna DAR
version 2.X and Sigtuna DAR3 version 2.X. The most current
version of Sigtuna DAR as of 5th October 1999 is 2.017, and the
version 2.0.3 is the most current version of the Sigtuna DAR3.
The Sigtuna DAR3 will be updated to follow XML based DAISY Spec.
3.0.
With Sigtuna DAR, you may easily create a DAISY compliant
synchronized multimedia materials including audio, text and
images, or modify the existing DAISY Talking Books to create
multimedia materials. Sigtuna DAR may support enhanced web
contents accessible for all.
[ Key Features ]
Original recording,
editing, importing WAV files, and analog to digital
conversion
Teleprompting of text for direct recording and
synchronization
Adding synchronized text utility (DAR3 only)
Automatic phrase recognition on recording
HTML or XML files support
W3C SMIL synchronization support
Playback function for checking recording
Recorded materials playable by DAISY compliant playback
equipment and software
Multiple Standard Windows CODECS including MP3 supported
DBCS supported
[ Hardware and Software Recommendations ]
Windows 95, 98 or
Windows NT
Sound Card (Soundblaster compatible)
Pentium 200 with 64 megabytes of main memory and 10 Gigabytes of
disk space
[ Availability ]
In developing countries
and Japan:
JSRPD may provide license to non-profit organizations which
provide information services to print-disabled free of charge.
Licensee doesn't have any rights to request support and
redistribution although JSRPD will to provide internet e-mail
based support services.
Contact for license applications: Hiroshi Kawamura; e-mail: hkawa@dinf.ne.jp
In industrialized
countries other than Japan:
The DAISY Consortium member organizations may apply for a
license to JSRPD.
LpStudioPlus, a commercial version of Sigtuna DAR3 will be
available from software vendors.
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3.2. Sigtuna Browser
Sigtuna Browser reads web pages by voice synthesizer and plays DAISY Talking Books too. Local language implementation utility is available. Free of charge available by downloading from JSRPD web site.
[ Key Features ]
Navigation by text,
headings, links, tables, forms or user defined elements
Reading by page, element, or word, including spelling of
words
Support for synthesizers - SoftVoice, DECTalk Access 32,
Microsoft Speech SDK, and SAPI compliant speech
synthesizers
DAISY playback engine is integrated
DBCS supported
[ Hardware and Software Recommendations ]
Windows 95, 98 or
Windows NT
Sound Card (Soundblaster compatible)
A supported speech synthesizer
Pentium 200 with 64 megabytes of main memory and 10 megabytes of
disk space
[ Availability ]
Free of charge. Users are allowed to use Sigtuna Browser for non-profit purpose only. Redistribution is not permitted. Users have no rights to request support. There will be a BBS support by JSRPD for users.| Top |
3.3.Sigtuna Telephone Browser
Sigtuna Telephone Browser enables the telephone user to navigate the WWW and listen to the DAISY Talking Books. This system is designed for easiest access to the JSRPD servers (http://www.dinf.ne.jp, http://www.normanet.ne.jp) including DAISY streaming audio files.
[ Key Features ]
Simple navigation using
the telephone key pad
Access to text as well as audio including the DAISY Talking
Books
Installable on PCs under Windows 95, 98 and NT
Access to local, Intranet, and Internet information.
[ Hardware and Software Recommendations ]
Windows 95, 98 or
Windows NT
Telephony Card and sound card that supports TAPI
Link for Internet or Intranet Access (if such access if is
required)
A SAPI compliant synthesizers is required.
Pentium 200 with 64 megabytes of main memory and 10 megabytes of
disk space.
[ Availability ]
The software is
currently being beta tested. When it is released, further
information will be available at http://www.dinf.ne.jp
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4. JSRPD work plan
With the completion of
JSRPD project of nation wide DAISY implementation, more than 500
recording units will be working for production of CD-ROM based
DAISY Talking Book. In year 2000, nearly 10,000 titles per year
will be produced at more than 100 production sites. The most
critical issues on DAISY production in Japan is
coordination.
Since the JSRPD has implemented infrastructure on which
libraries for the blind may establish a nation-wide network of
DAISY production/distribution by themselves, JSRPD will start
focusing on Sigtuna software development to meet the variety of
needs of print-disabled people including dyslexics and the
intellectually disabled. Integration of DAISY into universal
accessibility of WWW or electronic publishing will more be
focused by JSRPD.
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5. Thai DAISY Pilot Project
Another focus of JSRPD
with its expertise will be international cooperation for
developing countries. Sigtuna software tools will be updated and
distributed free of charge to promote the DAISY in developing
countries.
In cooperation with the Royal National Institute for the Blind,
UK, and the DAISY Consortium, the JSRPD is working in support of
Thai DAISY initiatives.
Thailand National Committee on DAISY Production and Services
(TNCD) consisting of an alliance of six organizations of and for
blind people in Thailand aims at:
(1) Obtain and allocate
necessary hardware and software setup for DAISY Talking Book
production at each partner organization;
(2) Introduce a new promising information access technology to
blind people , including professionals, experts and all agencies
related to the blindness field in Thailand through
- training workshops on DAISY Talking Book production,
- Seminars and demonstration of DAISY Talking Book products and
ongoing technological development periodically;
(3) Conduct both short-term and long-term research and
development activities to set a proper standard for the future
Talking book productions in Thailand taking advantage of the fact
that TNCD has both consumers and professionals who are widely
recognized in the blindness field;
(4) Find appropriate ways of obtaining and distributing DAISY
hardware and software units to end-users in Thailand particularly
those who are in need of them, but may not be able to afford
them.
(5) Promote public awareness concerning blind people's
fundamental rights to information access.
In addition to the
commitment to Thai project, JSRPD extends its reach to developing
countries through cooperation with United Nations, NGO networking
in Asia and the Pacific for the ESCAP Decade of Disabled Persons,
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and the Government
of Japan.
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