ViaScribe Lecture Delivery System Includes Automatic
Captioning
Editor: You may know that IBM previously had a speech recognition
product called ViaVoice. I don't think they're continuing development of
that product, but now have something called ViaScribe, which is a
automated lecture captioning system. Here's a press release from a
university that just joined the consortium to develop this product.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charles Darwin University has joined an international consortium
developing technology that will enable the instant delivery of
voice-activated lecture material.
The new voice-activated computer technology allows students to follow
their lecturer's material on a screen as it is delivered - an innovation
with enormous potential not only for deaf students and students with
physical and intellectual disabilities but for the entire student
population.
CDU recently signed on with Liberated Learning, a consortium based at
St Mary's University in Nova Scotia, Canada that now has links with 16
institutions in eight countries.
A research group based at St Mary's has been developing the
voice-activated computer software for the past seven years in
partnership with computer giant IBM, which has developed a software
program called ViaScribe.
The lecture-captioning system has been adopted in universities across
the world, including the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland
and The Australian National University in Canberra.
Liberated Learning's international manager Keith Bain visited the
Casuarina campus of Charles Darwin University to demonstrate the
captioning system and hold talks with Support and Equity Services as to
the way forward for the new partnership.
Mr Bain says the consortium is committed to working with universities
and other partners to further develop the Liberated Learning system and
meet the challenges of providing new learning systems for the disabled
or disadvantaged.
He adds, however, that Liberated Learning's research and development
has proven beneficial to all students.
'We've found that the automatic captioning system also leads to the
improvement in lecture delivery by teachers,' said Mr Bain.
He says the aim of the St Mary's University consortium is to create a
living laboratory, working from scratch with its partners to build new
technology.
'In our partnership with CDU, we want to learn more about how the
university wants to use the technology,' he says.
'There are a number of equity factors at CDU to be addressed, such as
the high number of students with disabilities or disadvantage,
non-English speaking background students, rural and remote students and
the under-representation of women in non-traditional fields of study.'
Elizabeth Macdonald, the director of CDU's Support and Equity
Services, said: 'We're excited to be part of the consortium, which is
about sharing information and being involved in a global project working
on the evolution of speech-recognition software.
'We see the potential for wide application of this technology for
students at CDU studying both on and off campus.'
