Converting SVG images to text and speech

• Tipo: Artigo em Livro de Atas de Conferência Internacional
• Data: 2015

Autores

Vítor Carvalho (Autor) FEUP; Diamantino Freitas (Autor) FEUP

Ata de Conferência Internacional

Título: ICEAPVI

Páginas: 1-9

International Conference on Enabling Access for Persons with Visual Impairment

Atenas, Grécia, 12 a 14 de Fevereiro

Classificação Científica

FOS: Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias > Engenharia electrotécnica, electrónica e informática

Outras Informações

Abstract (EN): There are contents with a strong visual component, e.g., in the engineering field, such as technical drawings, charts, diagrams, etc., virtually inaccessible for people with visual disabilities (blind, visually impaired, etc.). These contents are mostly vector based and can generally be found on the Web in various formats, but the recommended one is SVG. The authors created an online application to convert SVG images (containing simple geometric figures of various sizes, filling colours and thickness and colour filling contours) in textual and spoken description by a speech synthesizer, client side based, without browser plugins. This application also allows the user to navigate with efficiency through the image description using four levels of detail and keyboard commands. In this paper, the authors propose a novel method for image description based on the Gestalt theory, considering the cognitive load and, for the first time, providing users with visual impairments access to the full content of SVG images. Application tests were carried out with 11 users (eight normally sighted, two blind and one amblyopic), comparing descriptions made by the application and by humans. The authors concluded that, for all users, there were improvements of 9%, using the application. Considering only the visually impaired, this figure rises to 18%.

Idioma: Inglês

Tipo (Avaliação Docente): Científica

Nº de páginas: 9