An alternative audio web browsing solution: viewing web documents through a tree structural approach

This thesis examines methods to aid in the non-visual browsing of web based documcnts, primarily using synthetic speech output. The serial nature of speech ensures that it is a difficult medium in which to browse documents. Much of the structure implied in the visual appearance of the content is not available through specch. Only a narrow region in the content is perceivable at any given time, and it can bc difficult to navigate to the important segments of the document. This is in contrast to visual interaction, where cues such as changcs in font or colour establish contextual changes in the content and guide the user accordingly. A number of browsing/navigation strategies are presented to offset these problems. These are implemented through WebTree. This is a highly customisable web browser which rcnders documents through a dynamically expandable tree structural view. This mirrors the arrangement of mark-up elements in the source file. Contextual information about each element is provided as appropriate. By expanding and collapsing individual tree elements, thc user decides how much of the content is rendered at any given time. The user can also dctermine whether a certain element is automatically expanded in the rendcring when cncountercd, or whether it appcars in the rendering at all, effectively allowing for the easy gencration of alternative document views. To speed up navigation the user can move through the document based on the element of their choice. Specialiscd element search functions are also available. Additional navigational functionality is provided to deal with the specific requirements of or elements. The thesis reviews different methods previously employed to offset problems with auditory interfaces and compares these with WebTree. Initial user tests and evaluations of WebTrec are prescnted, which show that the approaches taken provide a viable solution, particularly for thc browsing of large or complex wcb-bascd documcnts, by blind users

Visual collaging of music in a digital library

This article explores the role visual browsing can play within a digital music library. The context to the work is provided through a review of related techniques drawn from the fields of digital libraries and human computer interaction. Implemented within the open source digital library toolkit Greenstone, a prototype system is described that combines images located through textual metadata with a visualisation technique known as collaging to provide a leisurely, undirected interaction with a music collection. Emphasis in the article is given to the augmentations of the basic technique to work in the musical domain

Digital library access for illiterate users

The problems that illiteracy poses in accessing information are gaining attention from the research community. Issues currently being explored include developing an understanding of the barriers to information acquisition experienced by different groups of illiterate information seekers; creating technology, such as software interfaces, that support illiterate users effectively; and tailoring content to increase its accessibility. We have taken a formative evaluation approach to developing and evaluating a digital library interface for illiterate users. We discuss modifications to the Greenstone platform, describe user studies and outline resulting design implications

How people find videos

At present very little is known about how people locate and view videos 'in the wild'. This study draws a rich picture of everyday video seeking strategies and video information needs, based on an ethnographic study of New Zealand university students. These insights into the participants' activities and motivations suggest potentially useful facilities for a video digital library

Finding video on the web

At present very little is known about how people locate and view videos. This study draws a rich picture of everyday video seeking strategies and video information needs, based on an ethnographic study of New Zealand university students. These insights into the participants’ activities and motivations suggest potentially useful facilities for a video digital library

Video browsing interfaces and applications: a review

We present a comprehensive review of the state of the art in video browsing and retrieval systems, with special emphasis on interfaces and applications. There has been a significant increase in activity (e.g., storage, retrieval, and sharing) employing video data in the past decade, both for personal and professional use. The ever-growing amount of video content available for human consumption and the inherent characteristics of video data—which, if presented in its raw format, is rather unwieldy and costly—have become driving forces for the development of more effective solutions to present video contents and allow rich user interaction. As a result, there are many contemporary research efforts toward developing better video browsing solutions, which we summarize. We review more than 40 different video browsing and retrieval interfaces and classify them into three groups: applications that use video-player-like interaction, video retrieval applications, and browsing solutions based on video surrogates. For each category, we present a summary of existing work, highlight the technical aspects of each solution, and compare them against each other

Digital libraries for creative communities

Digital library technologies have a great deal to offer to creative, design communities. They can enable large collections of text, images, music, video and other information objects to be organised and accessed in interesting and diverse ways. Ordinary people—people not traditionally viewed as 'creators' or 'designers'—can now conceive, assemble, build, and disseminate new information collections. This paper explores the development rationale behind the Greenstone digital library technology. We also examine three examples of creative new techniques for accessing and presenting information in digital libraries and stress the importance of tailoring information access to support the requirements of the users and application area