DCS Summer 2012 Research Awards — Project Description

Accessible, Large-print Listening and Talking (ALLT) e-book

Faculty name: Ronald Baecker
Research area: Human-computer interaction
Campus address: Bahen 7228
Campus phone: 416-978-6983
Email address: ron [at] taglab.ca
Number of students: 1
Skills required:
  • Demonstrated ability as a system designer and programmer
  • Speed of learning new systems and software
  • Experience with IOS programming an asset
  • Reliability
  • Ability to work independently
  • Willingness to ask for help when needed
  • Communication skills: written, oral, interpersonal

Brief project description:

Despite the exponential growth of the e-book marketplace, there is no technology explicitly designed to aid reading by individuals who are blind, or have severe vision loss, or cannot hold a book, or cannot turn pages, or have cognitive challenges, or who are reading text in English as a second language. We have begun development of a technology designed for such individuals who cannot read standard e-books.

The summer student will join the ALLT research team; will design, prototype, debug, test, and document several new features for ALLT, likely dealing with its robustness as a client e-book communicating with a central server, and as an interface supporting rich modes of multimedia and multimodal interaction; and will participate in ongoing work testing the technology’s usefulness and usability by real users. He or she will work under the direct guidance and mentorship of a Ph.D. student or research associate.

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