2 Nov
2005
2 Nov
'05
6:25 a.m.
On Tue, Nov 01, 2005 at 02:10:29PM +0000, james(a)dis-dot-dat.net wrote:
I don't think it needs to be *that* difficult. At
least for a basic
editor for cutting, pasting, applying fades, etc.
I agree, but others have
identified the challenging aspect - how to identify
with sufficient accuracy the point at which to apply an
insertion/deletion/block/cut/copy operation, and how to navigate through the
file with appropriate feedback. Audio feedback might be possible, but there
would have to be some provision for scaling the timing by different factors to
allow the desired moment to be pinpointed.
After reading this post, I quickly posted the idea to my final year
students as a possible honours project for them. Some haven't yet
decided, and I thought this would be a good one. I was thinking of a
kind of "audio shell", with python-like slicing, but with
understanding of audio. This way, you could make the text very big
for people with reduced sight, or pipe output to a speech engine for
people with no sight. Or both.
The latter part is handled by projects such as
Speakup, Yasr and BRLTTY which
provide, respectively, speech and braille display access at the console level.
There are also several screen magnification projects on offer, including the
Gnopernicus magnifier.
I hope someone takes the project, because even though I don't think it
would necessarily be the big ground-breaking interface redesign you
thought it would require, it will give us something to work from -
usability data, and such.
If someone does take the project I'de be interested
in discussing it further
and trying out whatever is developed.