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Started March 16th, 2010 · 7 replies · Latest reply by Easier 14 years, 1 month ago
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and that every picture tells a story. But this is all meaningless to my blind from birth 10 year old granddaughter Tabitha.
I am looking for sounds that describe an animal, person, or object, similar to a photo of the subject.
An example would be not a just simple picture of say a cat. But of a cat, being chased by a dog, in the rain, through a tunnel, with a street busker in the background. Or on board a boat, with the wind blowing, the VHF radio on, passing a bell bhoy, in the fog. Or of a circus clown, juggling whooshing flaming batons, with horses circling the ring, the crowd clapping, don't forget the circus style music. Or the winning goal at a hockey game. Or just look at any photograph and see how much of the detail can be translated into sound.
I think the these sound pictures need only be about 15 seconds long at the most. Also they should have a tag 'BlindPic' attached to them so they can easily be found by the blind community in general.
There is nothing wrong with Tabitha's ears, in fact she has amazing discrimination when listening to audio sounds and music. So is this going to work for her? Can I promise some amazing sound pictures?
Thanks, -Easier
You may be interested in this seeing with sound thing ...
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0lmSYP7OcM (2007)
Now the inventor offers free software for a mobile phone which converts the phonecamera image into sounds.
The sounds produced are like that made by image-to-sound software: weird bleeps and noises, not audio descriptions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_with_your_ears#The_vOICe
Thank you Timbre for your interesting information and links. Tabitha does not use this vOICe technology for her everday awareness of what's around her, rather she uses the old fashioned echo location method where she taps her cane, or does a mouth click, or claps her hands, listening for echos then building a mental image of her surroundings.
So, as you say, the weird bleeps and noises that come from vOICe technology would not help her with her proposed SoundPic album.
Thanks Microscopia for your post. You are correct in that there are plenty of soundscape postings on FreeSound. These are fine and Tabitha enjoys listening to them, but unless they are short and concise do not offer the same feel as a sighted kid browsing a photo album. I'm sure Tabitha is as sophisticated as any 10 year old regarding what certain sounds may represent, this is part of my challenge to you is that any soundpics have to be directed towards a youngster.
I guess it's my lack of technical knowhow that prevents me from giving a 'Sound' example of what I'm looking for other than the descriptive text I made in the start of this thread.
If I could ask you to produce a ten second SoundPic (soundscape) of a rooster, similar to the two second Rooster1.wav available on this site, but with some background details of the hen house, weather, farmyard, other chickens, farmer, and so on just as a sighted person would see in a regular child's book I would be obliged.
My next step after the album has been started is to go on to the Technical Forum looking for suggestions as to how she and her family can take SoundPic's with their cell phones and post them to one of the social network sites her peers use like facebook.
So simply put, you want the sound of "the subject" put in an everyday context - and potentially lots of different contexts.
Now the problem is that the list of 'subjects' could be endless not to mention the variety of possible contexts. Do you have specific subjects/contexts in mind else this is a rather large (endless) and very general request.
Cheers
David
Easier
My next step after the album has been started is to go on to the Technical Forum looking for suggestions as to how she and her family can take SoundPic's with their cell phones and post them to one of the social network sites her peers use like facebook.
Thanks Timbre for solving my SoundPic file sharing problem. It appears DROPIO will work great, (just got to get them to label their image style buttons so Tabitha's screen reader will see them!)
You are correct David (higginsdj) my request for SoundPics is probably too broad. So let's limit the request to document and record what is going on in Tabitha's life at the moment.
1. Last weeks visit to the Paralympic sledge hockey. Any 10 second SoundPic from an ice hockey stadium that will have her recall the game.
2. Visit to Vancouver maritime museum. Any SoundPic of a large ships bridge operation, or the sound and feel of being inside a pirate sailing boat
3. Braille reading of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Any 10 sec SoundPic that will bring a particular scene to life.
4. Big fan of Hannah Montana. How can we show her a SoundPic of this star? may be a montage of some of her songs? or?
5. Swimming lessons. SoundPics of an echoee indoor pool with a diving board at one end and people jumping in and splashing.
6. School. SoundPics of the lunchroom, recess playground, gym, and so on
Regards,