Christophe Strobbe, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)

1. odt2braille:
Generating Braille from
OpenOffice.org
Christophe Strobbe
K.U.Leuven, Belgium
christophe.strobbe@esat.kuleuven.be
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

2. Overview
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odt2daisy
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odt2braille
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Motivation & Problem Area
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Objectives
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Methodology
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Results
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Conclusion & Outlook
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Demonstration
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

3. odt2daisy
Produce DAISY from OpenOffice.org
Writer
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In most European languages
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In a free and open-source office suite
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Support:
– DAISY 3 (with or without audio)
– DAISY 2.02 (for older players)
– Multilingual content
– Mathematical Markup Language
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

4. odt2daisy Components
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odt2daisy extension, which uses
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OpenOffice.org UNO API
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Java, XSLT & XPath
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DAISY Pipeline Lite (speech synthesis)
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Operating system’s text-to-speech
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Includes templates
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Templates with custom styles for DAISY
production
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

5. How to Get odt2daisy
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Version 2.1 released April 2010
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http://odt2daisy.sf.net/
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Available for Windows, Mac, Linux
(no 64-bit operating systems)
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Localised in English, French, Dutch,
Spanish and Hungarian
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LGPL 3 or later
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Being used in DAISY Pipeline and
Dedicon’s altText conversion portal
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

6. Support for ODT Features
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Heading, List, Table, Images, Captions,
Notes, Foot/Rear notes, Math, TOC,
Section, Frame, Bookmark,
Metadata, ...
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Page numbering (1,i,I,a,A; advanced)
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Front / body / rear matter
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“Complex text layout” and East-Asian
languages not supported
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

7. odt2braille:
Generating Braille from
OpenOffice.org
Christophe Strobbe
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

8. Motivation & Problem Area (1)
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Braille
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faces competition from TTS and digital
talking books
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important for functional literacy
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only reading method for deafblind
persons
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

9. Motivation & Problem Area (2)
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Braille production: current methods:
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RoboBraille: e-mail based Braille translation
agent
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AutoBraille & NorBraille: multi-volume Braille
books based on DAISY
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Dots: open-source Braille transcriber for
GNOME (relies on liblouisxml)
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Tiger Software Suite (TSS), Braille Maker,
WinBraille: embossing from MS Word and
other Microsoft applications
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

10. odt2braille Objectives
Enable end-users to produce Braille
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In a free, open-source and cross-
platform office suite
=> OpenOffice.org as Braille authoring
environment
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Reduce or eliminate the need for editing
Braille codes after export
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Emboss directly or just export
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

11. Methodology
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Build OpenOffice.org extension
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Reuse existing tools:
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liblouisxml: open-source library for
Braille transcription of XML docs
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liblouis: Braille translation engine
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pef2text (DAISY Pipeline): converts
Portable Embosser Format to generic or
embosser-specific format
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library from odt2daisy
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

12. odt2braille Components
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

13. Results
Alpha 0.02 released 30 August 2010:
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OpenDocument Text (ODT) can be embossed
on small list of embossers (Interpoint, Index,
Braillo)
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Export to “Braille Formatted files” (.brf; .bra)
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Export to Portable Embosser Format (PEF):
embosser-independent; uses XML and Unicode
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User preferences stored as metadata
Next release(s):
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Bug fixes, localisation, Mac OS & Linux, ...
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

14. Screenshot: Settings - General
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

15. Screenshot: Emboss
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

16. Conclusion and Outlook
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Ideally not just Writer but also Calc
(spreadsheets) and Impress
(presentations)
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Support for larger set of embossers
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Availability on non-Windows platforms
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Possibly support for other formats such
as Universal Tactile Document (UTD)
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Accessibility check to be run before
(Braille/DAISY/PDF) export
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010

17. Contact Information
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odt2daisy (LGPL 3 or later):
http://odt2daisy.sf.net/
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odt2braille (LGPL 3 or later):
http://odt2braille.sf.net/
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Use the software, submit bugs,
contribute to localisation, ...
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Christophe Strobbe:
christophe.strobbe@esat.kuleuven.be
AEGIS 1st Conference, Sevilla, Spain, 7-8 October 2010