Jared Evans Global Microbrand

I can’t imagine the prep work and the time/energy involved in creating this video clip:

“A wolf loves pork” is a mind-boggling stop-motion animation piece created from hundreds, if not thousands, of printed photographs that traverse the walls and furniture of a one-room apartment. [via Pink Tentacle]

I see this as one of the evolutionary steps towards automatically created voice-to-text transcripts that will eventually offer great benefit for both Deaf people and search engines.

Last month, Google Research included the voice-to-text capability on the “You Choose ‘08” page on the U.S. presidential race. On the “You Choose ‘08″ page, scroll down a bit to “What did the candidates say?” and you can search for a keyword in transcripts of what the candidates said inside video clips. If you move your mouse over the yellow markers on the video timeline, you’ll see a short text summary with the keyword.

Google Research admits that the automatic transcripts aren’t perfected yet, still I would like to be able to click a link to read the whole transcript. I would imagine that the next step in this evolution would be timecoding the transcript and offer an option to view the the subtitles directly near the bottom of the video clip as it’s being played.

Jacqueline Emigh of Beta News helps to answer the question “When can copyrighted content be used in online videos?” This can be a thorny issue for an amateur vlogger to deal with, especially with video content that takes a long time and hard work to produce and has stronger financial implications, good or bad.

The article has great tips to follow if you want to use some copyrighted video content in your vlogs. The suggestions pretty much follows in the same line of thought while quoting text from copyrighted articles, books, etc.

Starting with this post, I’m using the new blog commenting system from Disqus.

Several reasons why I tossed out the WordPress comments in favor of Disqus comments:

• Offers both text and video comments. Video comments are hosted by Seesmic which has more clear and smooth video than Riffly. I can accept comments in either English or American Sign Language.
• If you have your Disqus account, your login identity will work across all blogs using Disqus for comments. No need to have to fill out those form fields over and over again to post a comment.
• Your Gravatar picture icon (if you have already signed up for one), will automatically show up next to your comment. This helps to ensure to others that you are the same person making the comment and reduce the chance of identity abuse by anonymous commenters.
• You can have threaded comments instead of flat comments. You can even set how deep the threads can go. I set mine to a depth of one.
• Disqus works with FriendFeed, so any comments that you make will automatically show up at your FriendFeed.

Nouvelle Star is the French version of “American Idol.” This link will take you to a video clip where Magali, a Deaf woman, who was fortunate enough to get an audition on the show and performed a song in LSF (French Sign Language). My minuscule knowledge of LSF didn’t allow me to be able to catch everything she said. While it turns out that she didn’t win during this round, she touched the hearts of the judges. Magali was obviously happy to get the chance to do perform on national TV, even if the show was audiologically biased. This is yet more excellent exposure to signed language in other countries.

Y at-il quelqu’un qui sait LSF et peut faire une traduction dans les commentaires ci-dessous?
(Is there anyone out there who know LSF and can put a translation in the comments below?)

Thanks to BLOGVISUALSEÑASEXTREMEÑA for leading me to the video!

I have been waiting with great anticipation for the day when hulu.com would open their doors to the hordes who wanted to watch TV shows on the web. Their grand opening was today!

So far, I’m pretty impressed with the collection of TV shows that have been made available for viewing on Hulu.com. I could see myself watching a TV show on hulu.com if there was nothing good on TV.

Of course, the big question on my mind: Are the TV shows subtitled or not? As a Deaf person, I’m often frustrated by many media sites when the subtitling of video clips is not included in their workflow for the conversion from the original format into a format suitable for web consumption. Media companies, a note for you all: Subtitling a video clip is not difficult task to accomplish!

So far, Hulu.com has been a mixed blessing. I jumped across several shows until I came upon one of my favorite TV shows, The Simpsons. What did I see? A “CC” icon! I was able to watch an entire Simpsons episode online with subtitles! Hulu.com has taken several promising steps toward the subtitling of the video clips. I’m glad that they at least displayed a few clips with subtitles so we know they have already developed the capability. The next step for Hulu.com is to put up a guarantee that their conversion process will always include subtitles for all TV shows where available.

Here’s a captioned Simpson episode for you to watch! [move your mouse over the video, you'll see the CC icon and select 'English']

http://www.hulu.com/watch/9603/the-simpsons-love-springfieldian-style

My take on the Viable VPAD

Also, Jed Barish of DeafNation TV went to CES 2008 and has the best in-depth video coverage on Viable VPAD:
DeafNation TV at CES: Viable VPAD

If you are interested in getting more information about the Viable VPAD: Visit Viable Website or call Viable Customer Support.

Transcript of vlog:

Hi everyone!

The proverbial cat is out of the bag now.  Last Saturday, the Viable VPAD was announced to the world at CES in Las Vegas.  CES is the most famous and largest computer show where many latest gadgets are shown to the world.

For me and everyone else on the Viable team, last Saturday was a huge step forward for the company.  Many of us worked many hours late into the night to get ready for this milestone.  I consider myself very lucky to be working with the brilliant and motivated people at Viable, the majority which are Deaf.

Because Viable is essentially a Deaf company, we were able to design a device that is very Deaf-friendly.  When I saw the first test VRS call on the VPAD, the video quality was superb and smooth.

Viable VPAD is the first of wireless videophones that are sure to follow from other VRS companies.  Don’t you think it’s about time that the Deaf are finally able to cut the network wires from the videophone and use it anywhere? I think so!  It’s time that the bar is raised for videophones!

Really, if you look at it, there’s nothing revolutionary about the VPAD.  It is wireless but WiFi has been around for years.  There have been many other devices in the past with touchscreens.  Even the smallest cellphones today have webcams.  It’s how all these technologies are blended into one specialized device that is easy to use by anyone. That is the whole point of a wireless videophone.

Still, I look at the VPAD as the iPhone of videophones because of its flat touchscreen and stylish GUI.  It feels like the future is here now.  It will be a great tool to bridge the communication gap between the Deaf and hearing people and for you to stay in touch with your friends and family.  I am thrilled to be part of Viable Team as we push into the future.

With a new year upon us, I want to share a new technological improvement that may benefit some vloggers in 2008.  I found a better way to display high quality video with clear subtitles that are easily readable. 

Caution: this post is intended for the few pro-amateur or professional vloggers who host their own video clips so they can have full control of their video clips.  This post is not for those who depend upon youTube or other similar video hosting sites.  For youTubers, please visit Overstream which accomplishes the same thing that I will be covering in this post.

AutoGK: less than optimal way of creating subtitled video
My original method of creating subtitled video with AutoGK involved the time-consuming step of re-encoding a video clip with subtitles burnt into the video.  Because the subtitles encoding requires another round of compression of the video clip, there is always a degradation in the quality of the video.  This is an example of how blurry the subtitled video can become as result of this method.  The subtitles are readable, but just barely!

JW Mediaplayer: the ideal approach for subtitled video on the web
My dream was to have an online video player that could load the the original high quality video footage that is specially compressed for web and also load a separate text file of the subtitles then displaying both the video and the subtitles at the same time.  I found an online video player, JW mediaplayer which does exactly this!

There are several benefits to using JW mediaplayer: 

1. The additional step of re-encoding the video for hard subtitles becomes unnecessary, which cuts down on the time required to produce the subtitled video and get it up on the Internet for distribution.
2. In addition to the time saved by avoiding the re-encoding, the video stays at its original quality level because no further compression is needed.
3. If there is a mistake in the subtitles, it’s easy to make a correction in the subtitles text file which is kept separate from the video.
4. The online video player will render the subtitles in a crispy and easy to read font, no matter the viewing screen size.

I have created a short vlog using the JW mediaplayer method so you can get an idea of how clear subtitles can appear on an online video clip.  Be sure to click the full-screen icon (next to the T icon) to see how easily readable the subtitles are, despite the bigger video screen size.

CNN, Netflix, and other professional media companies, are you listening?  The fact that there is open source software that makes it so easy to plaster the subtitles on top of your not-yet-subtitled media content effectively removes all technical barriers and there are no more excuses.  The only thing left is for you all to get your butts moving on making the video sections on your website more accessible for the rest of us who want the subtitled version.

List of useful software if you want to create similar subtitled video:

JW mediaplayer: The flash-based movie player which is capable of loading a FLV (Flash) movie and subtitles file in the SRT format. (helpful tip: make sure mediaplayer.swf is hosted on the same domain as your subtitles files!)

FFmpeg: The open source (free) program to convert a video from several formats into FLV (flash).  Expensive video editing programs such as Adobe Premiere, Sorenson Squeeze, or Final Cut Pro can save a video clip as a FLV movie.

URUSoft’s Subtitle Workshop: The awesome subtitling program (for PCs) to create the SRT formatted subtitles file.  I love this program because you can first create a text file with all the subtitles without worrying about the time coding.  You can then fire up Subtitle Workshop, load the incomplete subtitle file and start playing the video in a small window.  You can just focus on setting the start/end time of each subtitles, which makes the subtitling fast to do.

SubRiP and SCC: For professional media companies, they can use SubRip (for English Subtitles) or SCC (for Line 21 captioning) to automatically convert the subtitles/captioning off their original TV or DVD content into SRT formatted subtitles for the online version.

It’s All About the Pentiums by Weird Al.

This is a funny music video that will probably be more appreciated by computer geeks. :-)

Powered by ScribeFire.

In the very first vlog that I created (July 2006), I was lamenting about the lack of captioned video clips at many prominent media websites.  Among the companies I named in the vlog was CNET.  CNET is one of the best product reviewing websites.  CNET is often the first stop I go to when I want to read reviews about a product that I’m thinking about purchasing.

I was heartened by their announcement about captioning their video clips from now on!  They have blazed a trail by being the first large scale website (that I know of) to provide captioning of all their video clips.  Other media companies are sure to take notice and follow in their footsteps.  All serious media companies should automatically have the captioning tasks in their workflow when producing clips for online distribution.

Thank you CNET for taking the initiative on captioning your video clips so that ALL of us are able to enjoy your website to the fullest!

CNN, Microsoft, Sony, and whomever else,  are you next to follow??

Powered by ScribeFire.

There’s another well done and very funny vlog by Tom Neville.

In this one, he’s a Deaf lawyer in one of those TV lawyer info-commercials.  Asking if you need to sue based on, what else, injuries caused by mobile pagers!

[This is in WMV format]

Deaf Lawyer video clip

*** Update 6/14/07  I have posted a follow-up to this post***

AVT/CI is starting their v/blog propaganda attack via cochlearimplant.net.  If you look at the same domain in the Wayback Machine, you’ll see that it used to be a plain vanilla website.  It has not changed much over the years which leads me to believe that this is a thinly-veiled PR ploy by CI corporations.  The website claims to be maintained by a family who have two children who underwent CI implantation and AVT.

A short while ago, the people behind the website decided to revise the site so that it adopts the look of modern blog/vlog.  I have this nagging feeling that the CI/AVT people there have been worried sick with the successful rise of ASL vlogs and seeing how we are starting to come together.  It is very likely in the near future that the Deaf will finally arrive at effective strategies to reclaim what Deaf people have lost over the years and be able fight back against CI/AVT.  CI corporations are trying to adopt similar tactics in hopes of dulling the efforts of ASL blogs/vlogs.

I would like to believe that the numbers favor the ASL vloggers but CI/AVT has money on their side.  Money can trump numbers.  Has the centuries-old war between ASL and Oralism moved onto the new battlefield of v/blogs?  Vlogs and blogs have the potential to reshape the view/thinking of many people by spreading easily-discoverable information to the world.

This is my 8 minutes vlog response to everyone who commented about my previous blog post: “How do you decide which vlogs to watch?“

Download

I try to put my tips/suggestions in the light of the dynamics of behavior patterns of ASL vloggers and the audience who make up the majority of people who view the vlogs. I also explain why we should be thinking about how we should pay close attention to how we create our vlogs and how it is important to be flexible to the idea of adapting ahead of time for whatever the future may bring us.

The vlog above is in response to these responses:

http://welchsasl.blogspot.com/2007/05/response-to-jared.html
http://drmzz.blogspot.com/2007/05/another-response-to-jared.html
http://www.terisentelle.com/vlog/?p=150
http://www.terisentelle.com/vlog/?p=151
http://deafphilosophy.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/how-do-i-decide-which-vlog-to-watch/
http://deaf-tea-time.blogspot.com/2007/05/vloggers-amateurs-versus-professionals.html

It turns out that my post also spawned a separate thread of “Worst ASL Vlogs” possible:

http://deaf-tea-time.blogspot.com/2007/05/worst-asl-vlog.html
http://johnlestina.blogspot.com/2007/05/worst-asl-vlog.html
http://banjosworld.blogspot.com/2007/05/worst-asl-vlog-ever.html
http://oscartheobserver.blogspot.com/2007/05/worst-asl-vlog.html
http://squ65.blogspot.com/2007/05/i-am-expert-deaf-asl-vlogger-in-whole.html
http://www.seekgeo.com/?p=164
http://wwwblogdeafreadcomshrimpy.blogspot.com/2007/05/worst-asl-vlog_12.html
http://deafpundit.wordpress.com/2007/05/12/worst-asl-vlog/
http://judgesanything.blogspot.com/2007/05/worst-asl-vlog.html
http://blueapplefilms.com/blog/2007/05/13/worst-deaf-song-i-love-deafread/
http://pany.wordpress.com/2007/05/13/darn-am-i-too-late-for-the-worst-asl-vlog/

Before releasing my last vlog into the wild, I asked a few friends to pre-screen the video clip.  I was interested in seeing if they caught the sublime messages behind the baton-passing scene.  They understood why it was there but upon further analysis there was more than met their eyes.

I wanted to type up a short post to clarify several subtle visual conceptualizations I used to mark this important transition from Veditz and modern-day vloggers.

Immediately after the Veditz scene about using the films to preserve and protect ASL:

the video clip dips to a completely black screen for a slightly prolonged time:

The complete black screen represents the dark age of the Deaf when Oralism was pervasive and the living standards of the Deaf were devastated.

The next thing that you see is a screen that is in Black/White with two hands and a baton.

At this point, the viewer isn’t yet sure what is happening, but something IS happening.  It’s no longer completely black (dead) and is grey (coming to life but still fragile).  It’s the dawn of something that is new and offers some kind of hope.

The hands continue to come closer and the baton is starting to be passed forward.

At this point, you can see that there is a slow transition from B/W to full color.  This signifies the jump from the past to the present.  This is the moment when the preservation of ASL switches from signing films to modern-day vlogs.  While signing films and vlogs are the same at their core, there is a world of difference in the method of creation and distribution.

As you can see, on the left hand, a suit coat with white long-sleeved shirt is worn which resembles what Veditz was wearing in his old film.

The right hand, which belongs to, not a man but a woman. This shows that the baton has been passed on to a group that is not made up of all white males but a modern group of Deaf people with more diversity.

The red shirt is a bold color that makes a powerful statement:  we are not afraid to draw attention to ourselves and engage everyone else.

The full color transition is complete and the baton has been passed forward!  The break is clean and it’s now up to us to keep on preserving and promoting ASL.  With ASL vlogs a reality now, ASL is here to stay!