Automated DAISY Book Production System

Principal researcher

Project details

Start date: 01/10/2005
End date: 31/02/2006

Description: Digital Talking Books represent a substantial improvement over old cassette-based audio books for all people with print disabilities (including those with visual impairments and learning disabilities). The DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) standard makes talking books both accessible and easily navigable. Though aided by some production software, DAISY book production is still a labor-intensive process. In particular, the process of synchronizing the audio and text is left as a manual process in current production tools – making the production process a tedious and time-consuming one. The result is long production times, and low-resolution synchronization. This project applies an automated audio synchronization technology to the automation of DAISY book production, thereby significantly lowering production costs and turnaround times. This process also enables very high-resolution synchronization, allowing DAISY users to realize the full potential of Digital Talking Books. The project develops a proof-of-concept prototype that offers automated DAISY production to audio book producers, and enables them to inexpensively produce fully synchronized text and audio books.

Other organisations involved in this project

Funded by NIDRR.

Last updated: 18/04/2008