#accessibility technology

[darklylocker]

Solving SSL Before Press

Chasing a Phantom SSL Certificate Before the Interview Earlier today, I met with a reporter who came to interview both the director of the Stone Branch Center for the Arts and me about the Restoring the Signal phone exhibit. Before the interview, I had spent days ensuring the website and supporting subdomains worked correctly, without certificate warnings or browser security alerts that might…

Solving SSL Before Press

[darklylocker]

Restoring the Signal

Sometimes projects begin because of nostalgia. Other times, they begin because someone casually says, “Wouldn’t it be neat if…” The phone exhibit at Stone Branch Center for the Arts started with one of those moments. Figure 1. Exhibit Table of Phones and TTY Machine One day, the director and I sat down talking about ideas for interactive exhibits. She mentioned something she had been imagining…

Restoring the Signal

[darklylocker]

Inside a Vintage Phone Revival

Bringing the Phones Back to Life (TTYs, Rotary Phones, and a Magneto Autopsy) Today was one of those days where a small project turned into a full-blown exploration of old telephone technology. By the end of it, I had a working TTY printer again, organized wiring across my phone network, ringing bells that hadn’t rung in decades, and grease all over my hands from dismantling a century-old…

Inside a Vintage Phone Revival

[kbvresearch]

The Future Sounds Artificial: Exploring AI Voice Cloning

Voice cloning has taken the world by storm, thanks to the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). Imagine being able to replicate any voice, from your favourite celebrities to your own, with astonishing accuracy. In this blog, we will dive deep into the fascinating world of AI voice cloning, exploring its technology, applications, and the ethical considerations that come with…

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[filth-thezine]

I went to see this film at a festival that had "described video," which is an accessibility aid I've never experienced before. Someone will occasionally speak over the film to describe the scene or the actions or expressions of people. I appreciate the effort, but it was so distracting for me. Next time I'll just bring earplugs and follow along with the closed captioning. But I also wonder if it might not be possible to do this in a different way. Why not produce the audio track like a radio play. Introduce the scene and add in sound effects. You could even still have interjections from the narrator, but I would 1) have them speak in an engaging way, not like the robot they had reading for this film I saw and 2) insert it in a way such that it doesn't speak over the extant dialogue. Some of the time, I couldn't hear what the people in the film were saying. This could have the effect of desyncyronizing the video and audio, meaning the lips might not match the words. But I've watched enough shitty streamed tv in my day that this is no longer a deterrent. And if you produce the movie with the intent in the beginning that there will be a separate audio track for described video, then it could be made in a way that would allow for pauses to describe the scene.