[ID3 Dev] ID3v2 extensions to support the visually impaired

[Chris Newell]

Colleagues,

I would like to propose a new task for the group - to provide support within ID3v2 for the visually impaired. This is an important issue for broadcasters and may also be of concern to audio book providers.

The idea would be to provide an audible alternative to existing ID3v2 frames, allowing a listener to navigate through the menus and listings of an audio player by sound alone. Although primarily intended for the visually impaired, this feature might also be popular with other users and useful for media players with no visual display.

Although computer generated speech is a possible approach, I think this would probably require too much processing power to be implemented within a typical MP3 player. A more practical approach would be to provide audio clips within ID3v2 frames which the player can play to accompany the presentation of the equivalent textual metadata.

The audible metadata clips could be obtained in several ways:
- they could be added by the publisher
- they could be downloaded from third party databases
- they could be added by a computer generated speech system running on the PC used to upload content to the audio player

I've started work on a technical proposal for a "Audio Text" frame based on the following requirements:
- must be able to provide an audible alternative for any existing type of text frame.
- must not preclude the provision of more than one language.
- must be backwards-compatible with existing v2.3 and v2.4 specifications.
- there should not be a requirement to provide an audible equivalent for every frame in a tag.

I would be very interested to hear whether you think the work would be worthwhile and any ideas or requirements you have.

Best regards,

Chris

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Newell
Senior Research & Development Engineer
Digital Media Group, BBC Research & Development
Kingswood Warren, Woodland Way, Tadworth, Surrey 
KT20 6NP  UK
mailto:chris.newell at rd.bbc.co.uk       http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd
Tel:   +44 (0)1737 839659
Switchboard:   +44 1737 839500
Fax:  +44 (0)1737 839665
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: id3v2-unsubscribe at id3.org
For additional commands, e-mail: id3v2-help at id3.org