TTS-based DAISY content creation system: Implementation and evaluation of DaisyRings™

Abstract

Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) content is expected to gain popularity gradually among the visually impaired according to the prevalence of e-book reading devices and the development of text-to-speech (TTS) technology. However, the development of DAISY-formatted e-books, which is undertaken by volunteers, is a time-consuming process, making it difficult to meet end user requirements. In this report, we propose a content transliteration system that can convert plain text to DAISY content including formatted HTML and audio data via automatic TTS technology. Furthermore, using the graphic user interface of the proposed system, users can correct text and accent information by inputting ruby-type data. Through this functionality, we aim to target support for transliteration workers such as volunteers, teachers, and parents to make and edit contents easily and quickly for the visually impaired. Finally, we present the results of a preliminary evaluation using the proposed method in order to compare it with the conventional method. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.