Re: HFOSS Proposal: Dots

[Bryen <suserocks bryen com>]

Many thanks Eitan.  I also have Flavio's MouseTrap proposal.  I'm going
to gather them all up this evening and forward to Stormy as a single
document to make it easier for her.

And many thanks Stormy for giving us this opportunity.

Bryen

On Sun, 2009-03-01 at 17:30 +0200, Eitan Isaacson wrote:
> Dots – A Braille Transcribing Application
> =========================================
> 
> Summary
> -------
> GNOME today provides a compelling non-visual interface using the
> Orca[1] screen reader. This combination competes with non-free
> alternatives and provide an affordable computing platform for the
> visually impaired user. A braille transcription application for GNOME
> would provide further appeal by providing a tactile desktop publishing
> solution.
> 
> Background
> ----------
> Modern braille transcription requires a combination of automated
> machine translation and human interaction and decision making to
> remove ambiguities in the transcribed output[2]. Liblouisxml[3] is a
> library and set of tools that provides easy conversion from XML
> documents to literary and Nemeth braille. While liblouisxml is a
> powerful translator, it lacks a user interface that would make it's
> many features discoverable.
> 
> Proposal
> --------
> Develop an intuitive application that would be a one stop shop for
> translating, transcribing, reading and embossing tactile documents in
> GNOME.
> 
> Current Status
> --------------
> Dots[4] has been developed to a proof of concept stage in which it can
> import a Word document and transcribe it using any table that liblouis
> provides. Dots provides an import wizard[5] that exposes some
> liblouisxml options, such as table choice, cells per line, lines per
> page and page numbering options.
> 
> Further Work
> ------------
> For Dots to become usable, progress must be made on several fronts:
> - The accepted document import formats should be expanded to more
> options with a priority to ODF and other free formats.
> - Provide a six dot braille “chording” input mode.
> - Toggle format options on the fly, for example line width, page size,
> numbering, etc.
> - Provide a toggleable view between ASCII and braille fonts.
> - Provide a line-by-line translation view.
> 
> 1. http://live.gnome.org/Orca
> 2. http://www.dotlessbraille.org/transcribing.htm
> 3. http://code.google.com/p/liblouisxml/
> 4. https://github.com/eeejay/dots/tree
> 5. http://www.getdropbox.com/gallery/280491/1/dots_screenshot?h=58a0fd
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-- 
Bryen Yunashko
openSUSE Board Member
openSUSE-GNOME Team Member
GNOME-A11y Team Member