[CEUD-ICT] Accessible Digital TV

[Joshue O Connor]

Hi y'all,

Just in case you missed this (via Tony Scanlon) on the VICs list,
re:Accessible Digital TV.

Cheers

Josh


Hi All
This post appeared on the Access UK list today from RNIB
hello, I do hope people will welcome the new settop box and some of you
will come
and see it at Sight Village along with several other innovative new
products from RNIB. It doesn't all stop with the Penfriend you know!
I thought it might be helpful to give you now as much of the background
to the development of the settop box as I can.  So I apologise for the
length of this post.

There are three elements to our work on accessible TV.
First, RNIB has developed a chipset which can be used in any TV, settop
box, entertainment centre, DAB radio etc to make it speak. This chipset
is now available in the electronics industry and those of you who have
picked up the promotion from Ocean Blue can see an early example of
companies taking up our technology. Our intention, quite simply, is to
take away any barriers, actual or perceived, which put manufacturers off
designing speech output into new devices. By using our chipset they can,
if they choose, make all new TVs and boxes talk. Like all commercial
companies they will do this if either government legislation makes them
do it or if they believe there is a commercial opportunity.
The second element was for us to get our own box designed and built and
made available right now. Making the chipset available to manufacturers
doesn't actually guarantee that anybody will make a box. So we've done
it ourselves with Goodmans. The box will be available in the high street
as well as from RNIB. We provide accessible instructions of course and
we suspect that many high street stores won't want the administrative
hassle of dealing with VAT exemption forms. But it's just up to you
where you want to buy it! It's your choice.
 We hope that it will also feature in the government Help scheme for the
digital switchover.  And, of course, if manufacturers do start to pick
up on accessibility in the mainstream there will be new products at
lower prices and with better functionality round the corner so, just
like everybody else, it will be almost impossible to know when will be
the right time to buy a box because the day after you take the plunge
somebody will advertise one twice as good for half the price. but that's
just life!

The third element was to make technology which manufacturers and
broadcast distributors (like Sky and Virgin) could use to make an add-on
box to make their existing set top boxes talk without having to roll out
whole new boxes. . Again it is up to those companies to decide just how
they implement their own solutions. What we have done is make it
possible for them and other manufacturers to offer accessible products
at very low additional cost.
So we will continue to work with and apply pressure to companies to
bring out more accessible products as soon as possible. However nothing
works better than individual blind people contacting companies and
saying clearly why accessibility is so important.
We will also be developing a PVR with recording capabilities ourselves
which we intend will also be able to recieve our magazines, newspapers
and books for download too. But I can't right now give you an accurate
date for that to be ready.
As you may imagine it is difficult to get it right when it comes to
sharing information about things in development. It is so easy to raise
expectations only to disappoint customers because something has slipped
in the schedule or problems that weren't anticipated have come up.
So I am being as open about what we are doing and why as I think makes
most sense now. I won't put a blow by blow account on this list to
monitor progress over the next few months. I just hope that based on the
information above and on you seeing developments like the Penfriend that
you will trust the folks here in RNIB Products are definitely on your
side and working as hard as we can to remove barriers and make life that
bit more accessible for us all. We're just as mad as the rest of you
that sometimes things which seem so straightforward and obvious take so
long to become real.
With good wishes,
John Godber
Head of Products and Publications

-----Original Message-----
From: vicsireland-bounce at freelists.org
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce at freelists.org] On Behalf Of Scanlon, Tony
Sent: 30 June 2010 11:38
To: vicsireland at freelists.org
Subject: [vicsireland] Re: World's first talking TV now a reality

Another item discussed on the UK list but at present of no use to us as
it is our old friend Freview but as Goodmans are a mainstream set top
box manufacturer we hopefully will see Sky or Freesat or FTA boxes
appearing soon now that the software is on the market.

Goodmans Smart Talk® TV set top box





This TV set top box announces all on-screen information, including
programme guides and menus, using synthetic speech. Designed and
developed in conjunction with RNIB to provide full access to Freeview®
digital TV and radio services for blind and partially sighted people.

*                 fully talking Electronic Programme Guide (EPG)

*                 access programmes with audio description (AD). With
Audio Description turned on, significant visual information such as
scenery, action, facial expression and body language is described
between dialogue. Please read our Audio Description pages
<http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/tvradiofilm/television/adtv/Pages/audio_description_tv.aspx>
 or call 08456 01 01 81 for more information

*                 talking menus enable you to customise all settings

*                 easy-to-see menus and programme guides

*                 ergonomic remote control with raised and well spaced
buttons

*                 remote control button presses are spoken to confirm
your choice dedicated button to stop the speech once you have the
information you need

*                 easy to set up with your existing TV with the supplied
SCART cable.

*                 supplied with SCART cable, RF (aerial) cable, remote
control, two AA batteries and mains adaptor.

TV04 - Goodmans Smart Talk TV set top box

Price: £85.10 (Ex. VAT)  £99.99 (Inc. VAT)





-----Original Message-----
From: vicsireland-bounce at freelists.org
[mailto:vicsireland-bounce at freelists.org] On Behalf Of Scanlon, Tony
Sent: 29 June 2010 14:01
To: vicsireland at freelists.org
Subject: [vicsireland] World's first talking TV now a reality



Hi All

Here is a link to the demo video of this product on the Ocean Blue

website, it asks you to fill in a form and them the video should open.

http://www.oceanbluesoftware.com/talkingtv-video-form.shtml

With thanks to Flor who posted this item on the vibistro mailing list,

also check out the RNIBs website on next Thursday, think there may be

more on this there.

Tony

June 8th, 2010 - 13:36 UTC

by Andy Sennitt.



TVs that can talk to their owners are now a reality thanks to British

high-tech company, Ocean Blue Software. Expected in UK stores by the

end of the summer, the company's low cost text-to-speech technology,

dubbed "Talk at TV", is being built into set top boxes from Korean

company, Arion Technology, which will be branded and distributed by

major retailers in the UK from August.



The new set top boxes are like regular Freeview or satellite boxes,

but will be able to talk to their blind or partially-sighted owners -

advising, via speech technology, the TV programming schedule, for

example what's on and when. Owners will be able to adjust the speed

and verbosity of the voice to suit their needs, choose to enlarge or

reduce font sizes and change background and text colours. A

re-designed and easy to use remote control will also be included.



The technology has been developed in partnership with digital TV chip

giant, STMicroelectronics, whose processors lie at the heart of most

TVs and set top boxes. Phase two of the development will introduce

voice activation technology to allow owners to talk back to their TV

sets - "channel up", "channel down", "volume up".



"The digital switchover has multiplied the number of channels to 40

plus, for UK consumers, making navigation very difficult for the

visually impaired," said Ken Helps, CEO of Ocean Blue Software. "This

technology is a step forward to making digital TV accessible to all

sectors of the community".



Ocean Blue's Talk at TV will be available in different languages and

dialects; the UK version supports both the Scottish Gaelic and Welsh

language for example. The technology behind Talk at TV is a derivative of

the pioneering work and development between the Royal National

Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and Ocean Blue over the last three

years. The development won an IABM Award for Excellence in Design and

Innovation, was nominated for a Royal Television Society award and

shortlisted for an IMS TV Innovation award in the USA.



The Arion Talking set top box will be available in a number of UK

retailers.



(Source: Ocean Blue Software/Arion Technology



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This e-mail and any attached files are from FAS and are confidential.
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This e-mail and any attached files are from FAS and are confidential.
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