Analysis and Design of a Subtitling System for Ambient Intelligence Environments
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Analysis and Design of a Subtitling System for Ambient Intelligence Environments Aitor Rodriguez-Alsina, Guillermo Talavera, Pilar Orero, Jordi Carrabina Qc-2090D. Escola d’Enginyeries. Campus UAB 08193 Bellaterra, Spain {Aitor.Rodriguez, Guillermo.Talavera, Pilar.Orero, Jordi.Carrabina}@uab.cat Abstract — The development of ubiquitous applications for enabling adaptation to the user (or application) accessibility ambient intelligence environments needs to also take into requirements. Most subtitles distributed on the Internet are account some usability and accessibility issues in order to described in text files that follow the SubRip (.SRT) format, ensure a proper user experience and to overcome the existing considered "perhaps the most basic of all subtitle content access barriers. A proper access to video subtitles, for formats"[4]. Figure 1. shows an example of an .SRT file. instance, is not always available due to the technical limitations of traditional video packaging, transmission and presentation. Each subtitle entry consists of the subtitle number, the time New Web standards enable more featured applications with the subtitle should appear on the screen, the subtitle itself, better multi-platform definition, so they are suitable for and a blank line to indicate the end. building ubiquitous applications for ambient intelligence 1 environments. This work presents a video subtitling system 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,400 that enables the customization and adaptation of subtitles. The Altocumulus clouds occur between six thousand benefits of Web applications compared with device-specific native applications for building the solution as well as its 2 current platform support are analyzed. Finally, three different 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,800 application use cases are presented. and twenty thousand feet above ground level. Keywords - Multimedia Synchronization; Subtitles; Ambient Figure 1. Example of subtitles defined using the SubRip (.SRT) format. Intelligence; Accessibility; TV; HTML5; SVG; SMIL While the standardization of subtitles as part of HTML5 I. INTRODUCTION video and audio components is still under discussion, novel In Ambient Intelligence (AmI) environments, as with approaches for video subtitling in web-based environments any multimedia context, one of the key elements to ensuring are required for the exploration of video accessibility in proper access to video content is the service of subtitling ambient intelligence environments. This paper presents an and captioning. Subtitles are a multifunction service since alternative design strategy for implementing customizable they allow the breaking down of many barriers such as those subtitle systems in a variety of platforms and devices. It related to language and audio content for groups such as takes advantage of the native support to Scalable Vector disabled people, the elderly, immigrants, foreign language Graphics (SVG) and the Synchronized Multimedia students and children. They can also be a powerful teaching Integration Language (SMIL) [5] within HTML5 documents tool. Subtitle services enrich multimedia content, but the for presenting synchronized subtitles on any web-capable mechanisms for their presentation (as well as other device with the appropriate browser. The current platform accessibility data like audio-descriptions and sign language) support for the proposed solution is also analyzed for both do not yet conform to the accessibility requirements of desktop environments and for mobile and TV. Furthermore, specific groups of users. In ubiquitous home environments, in order to demonstrate the viability and support for the where users share and interact with a variety of smart proposed solution, three application use cases for video devices (e.g. TV, mobile, tablet, PC, laptop, console), in subtitling have been constructed: (1) a web widget for order to get video content the underlying technological desktop applications, which extends the functionality of an differences between connected devices can be overcome HTML5 video component to enable user modifications to through the use of Web technologies. This enables the the language and format of subtitles; (2) a TV application implementation of more ubiquitous systems by the that improves subtitle readability when the user interface widespread support of web applications over the variety of combines video with other interactive content; and (3) a proprietary runtime environments that are provided by mobile application that extends the screen of the media device manufacturers. However, most of the web video center in a home environment (as an example of AmI content consumed does not include selectable subtitles, and environment) to receive the TV subtitles on a mobile device. non-standard embedded video players do not allow The rest of the paper is structured as follows: Section 2 independent management of subtitles with the aim of analyzes the pros and cons of deploying Web applications compared with native applications. Section 3 presents a new approach to synchronizing web-based video subtitles using delivery and installed on the device when a user requests SVG and SMIL. Section 4 analyzes the current platform them. Updates also require the same review and approval, support for the proposed approach and Section 5 outlines the and they must be done specifically for each different paper’s conclusions and takes a look at the future. platform. Web applications on non-desktop devices are accessed II. WEB APPLICATIONS VS. NATIVE APPLICATIONS in a variety of ways depending on the target platform. The With the explosion in the popularity of smart devices and so called “smart devices” (i.e. smart phones and smart TV application markets on the one hand, and on the other the devices), as well as mobile phones, allow free searching and enhancement of Web technologies led by HTML5, it seems access to any site available on the Internet. In contrast, natural to analyze the pros and cons of building native some other interactive TV experiences only allow the access applications versus the development and maintenance of to the Web applications included in standard markets. Web sites. This section compares the two, and justifies our However, hybrid solutions are also possible, such as the choice for building the presented subtitling system. placement of Web applications (for both mobile and TV) A. Platform support inside native applications which are then sold through the Native applications need to be specifically built for every common application stores. Web applications do not need to target platform. Thus, application providers must take into be reviewed and approved by the managers of any account the number and types of target platforms in order to application market, and they are updated simply by address the application to the individual needs of each of modifying the Web application on the server side. All the them. It is not only a matter of the application environments platforms then receive the updated version without (e.g. desktop, mobile, interactive TV) or brands (e.g. iPhone, modifications on the client system. Android, BlackBerry), but also a question of the platform versions (e.g. Android experiences a cloud of versions with C. User experience different features depending on the device manufacturer). Native applications are usually faster because they reside When the application needs to be supported by a new within the device platform and can take advantage of the platform, it must be written again using its native system UI functions. These functions also enable a set of programming language and its native look and feel functions. visual effects that are shared by the rest of the system By contrast, Web applications are based on Web applications. This results in a better user experience by standards and are deployed on a Web browser, which acts as facilitating the application usability on small screens. a bind between an application written using shared standards With the arrival of HTML5, Web applications can be and the specific runtime environment of each target platform. more integrated within the system (especially on mobile This enables Web applications to be deployed on any devices), their structure can be semantic and more browser-capable platform regardless of the application functional, and JavaScript functions can effectively meet the environment of the specific device. However, differences requirements of most applications. While some device still exist when using the same platform with different functions such as accelerometer, video and audio are now browsers due to different feature implementation in the browser engine (e.g. individual browsers support a different supported in HTML5, other device specific features are still HTML5 set of features, and this may also depend on the under discussion. Two examples of this are the access to browser version). Moreover, the universal support of Web phone services (e.g., contacts, agenda, etc) and the applications can be limited when using special device management of device-associated interfaces (e.g. webcams, features such as the accelerometer for mobile devices and the microphones, USB devices) through the <device> tag. This tuner for TV platforms. Although HTML5 provides support can be sufficient for most applications, but the rest still need for accessing some of these features (e.g. geolocation) to be natively implemented, especially for non-mobile through specific Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), devices. HTML5 is still