[Promotion-technology] Fwd: Accessible HD Radio

[David Andrews]

> From Radio World, a trade paper for radio industry:




><http://rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t.p0001.html>Digital Radio
>
>Accessible Radio Project Grows
>Towson, NPR and Harris Launch Center for Accessible Radio Technology
>
>by Leslie Stimson, 2.13.2008    <mailto:lstimson at imaspub.com>
>[]
>
>Leslie Stimson is the News Editor and Washington Bureau Chief for Radio World.
>
>
>LAS VEGAS
>Dr. Ellyn Sheffield, Towson University professor and NPR Labs 
>researcher, plans to spend the next six months asking people in the 
>visually-impaired, hard of hearing and geriatric communities what 
>features they'd like to see in an HD Radio.
>
>That's important, said Bill Pasco, director of Sun Sounds of 
>Arizona, a radio reading service, who spoke at a press conference 
>describing the joint project on accessible radios involving Harris 
>Corp., NPR Labs and the Maryland university.
>
>Reading services, said Pasco, are human. "It's your neighbors 
>reading to you." He's excited by the promise of reading services 
>being received on mainstream digital radios rather than specialized 
>SCA receivers that are served via FM subcarriers.
>
>However, Pasco cautioned, that promise won't mean anything if the HD 
>Radios are not accessible, noting that the trend in consumer 
>electronics these days is to make devices with tiny buttons for 
>those who are young and have good vision.
>
>"Older people, people with low or no vision, a rapidly growing 
>group, are getting really tired of being handed just one more box 
>which excludes them from the mainstream."
>
>While NPR Labs and Harris have worked on trying to develop 
>accessible features for HD Radios for 18 months, January's CES 
>convention marked the launch of the International Center for 
>Accessible Radio Technology.
>
>ICART will be headquartered at Towson, with the university housing 
>the primary administrative and academic research offices. NPR Labs 
>is providing technology R&D and software development, Harris 
>Broadcast supplies transmission and research support.
>
><http://rwonline.com/pages/s.0049/t11223.html#>
>[]
>
>(click thumbnail)
>ICART co-director Dr. Ellyn Sheffield shows the accessible radio 
>interface on a Delphi dashboard screen. Behind her are Harris 
>CEO/Chairman/President Howard Lance; Towson University Dean of the 
>College of Liberal Arts Terry Cooney; Executive Director of the No. 
>Va. Resource Center for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons Cheryl 
>Heppner; and Sun Sounds of Arizona Director Bill Pasco. Not pictured 
>are NPR VP of Engineering Mike Starling, and CEO Ken Stern.
>The launch kicked off with a live, low-power demonstration. An HD 
>Radio broadcast was translated into text to show how the display of 
>an accessible HD-R receiver would look in the dash.
>
>Sheffield, assistant professor of psychology at Towson and 
>co-director of ICART, stressed the split-screen feature, noting that 
>the passenger, not the driver, would be reading the large text.
>
>The demo demonstrated how visually impaired people can "see" live 
>radio content on special receivers by applying a TV 
>closed-captioning process to radio. The technology also will provide 
>audio cues and voice prompts, as well as advanced radio reading services.
>
>Initially, closed captioning text would be created by live, 
>court-reporting-type captioners at individual stations and networks. 
>Ultimately, the organizers hopes to use advanced speech-to-text 
>translation software applications to expand the captioning across 
>the radio dial.
>
>To preserve the copyright exemption for reading services, the HD-R 
>signal would be encrypted using conditional access, the technology 
>from NDS giving a station the ability to permit or deny the receiver 
>the ability to decode the signal.
>
>HD-R chipsets containing conditional access capability are to be 
>released to receiver makers later this year.
>
>Harris will provide $50,000 in seed money over two years towards the effort.
>
>Organizers of the group called for the establishment of an 
>international consortium of equipment manufacturers, broadcasters 
>and other organizations to foster adoption of global accessible 
>radio technology.
>
>Delphi and Radiosophy have expressed an interest in making prototype 
>receivers. The group was meeting with receiver makers at CES, 
>looking for firm commitments
>
>"Beyond developing the technology, this initiative will ensure the 
>accessibility of these radio services at minimal costs," said NPR 
>Vice President/Chief Technology Officer Mike Starling, co-director 
>of the project.
>
>The HD Radio signal has the ability to "wake up" the radio and 
>provide emergency alerts, said Radiosophy co-founder and VP 
>Technical Bill Billings. Audible alerts could be provided for the 
>visually impaired as well as "bed shaker" support for the hard of 
>hearing, he said.
>
>Cheryl Heppner, executive director of the Northern Virginia Resource 
>Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, said, "Beyond 
>having crucial emergency information, captioned radio could also 
>open up a world I've never had, because I lost my hearing just 
>before my seventh birthday."
>
>The initiative has more than a dozen members. In addition to 
>founding members NPR, Harris and Towson University, supporting 
>organizations include Ibiquity, Delphi, NDS, Radiosophy, Helen 
>Keller Institute, Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for 
>Accessible Media at WGBH(NCAM), Northern Virginia Resource Center 
>for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Persons, and the G3ict, an advocacy 
>initiative of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development.
>

David Andrews and white cane Harry.
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