Designing Immersive Audio Experiences for News and Information in the Internet of Things using Text-to-Speech Objects

The use of personal Internet-enabled objects is on the rise. The use of voice interactions and audio-based delivery of content are the preferred approach for these screen-less objects. In terms of the news industry, Text-To-Speech (TTS) is an obvious choice for repurposing readily available written articles of text for such platforms. Currently through flash briefing skills on services such as Amazon Echo, news publishers are seeking innovative new ways to distribute their content to new audiences. This paper continues the research of NewsThings and uses one of its prototypes, RadioThing, to evidence the problems that are currently present in TTS, how these challenges affect publishers and outlines seven recommendations when designing TTS objects for news and information content. These recommendations are suggested to improve the authenticity, immersion and production of audio-based journalism. Consequently, prompting the use of TTS as a viable form of media for local and regional news organisations.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Mark Lochrie

Robin De-Neef

John Mills

Jack Davenport

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

[0001]Media Innovation Studio

University of Central Lancashire

PR1 2HE

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.90

SO-VID: aeab22f9-a27c-42a3-ad81-b682f2a9ec2a

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 32

Conference location: Belfast, UK

Conference date: 4 - 6 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.90

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

BBC NewsLab. 2016a Alto – A Multilingual Journalism Tool http://bbcnewslabs.co.uk/projects/alto/ 16 April 2018
BBC NewsLab 2016b Online Content Toolkit http://bbcnewslabs.co.uk/projects/octo/ 16 April 2018
BBC, R&D. 2017 Object Based Media http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/object-based-media 16 April 2018
M. Ciobanu 2018 Slides and audio – Virtual voiceover translation in news production http://www.newsrewired.com/2016/03/18/slides-and-audio-virtual-voiceover-translation-in-news-production/ 16 April 2018
H. Cooke 2017 The Inspection Chamber http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2017-09-voice-ui-inspection-chamber-audio-drama 16 April 2018
Edison 2017 The Smart Audio Report http://nationalpublicmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The-Smart-Audio-Report-from-NPR-and-Edison-Research-2017.pdf 11 May 2018
A, L. Gabay 2018a The benefits of using voice-controlled devices for news distribution http://www.newsrewired.com/2018/03/07/benefits-using-voice-controlled-devices-news-distribution/ 16 April 2018
A, L. Gabay 2018b „Look for the sweet spot between news and context‟ – How to make your live streams more engaging http://www.newsrewired.com/2018/03/07/create-engaging-live-videos-peter-stewart/ 16 April 2018
I. LopatovskaK. RinkI. KnightK. RainesK. CosenzaH. WilliamsP. SorscheD. HirschQ. LiA. Martinez 2018 Talk to me: Exploring user interactions with the Amazon Alexa Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 0961000618759414
J. MillsM. LochrieT. MetcalfeP. Bennett 2018 NewsThings: Exploring Interdisciplinary IoT News Media Opportunities via User-Centred Design Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’18) ACM, New York, NY, USA 49 56 http://doi.org/10.1145/3173225.3173267
Y. MoonK.J. KimD.H. Shin 2016 July Voices of the internet of things: An exploration of multiple voice effects in smart homes In International Conference on Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions 270 278). Springer Cham
NASA Ames Research Centre 1986 Task Load Index
A. Norton 2017 From speech to text: four applications of automated transcription in the newsroom http://medium.com/bbc-news-labs/from-speech-to-text-5fff6abf4df1 16 April 2018
R, G. Picard “Twilight or new dawn of journalism? Evidence from the changing news ecosystem” Digital Journalism 2.3 2014 273 283
Scribblelive. 2018 http://embed.scribblelive.com/Embed/v7.aspx?Id=2754615&ThemeId 16 April 2018
N. Thurman “Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media” New media & society 10.1 2008 139 157

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] BBC NewsLab. 2016a Alto – A Multilingual Journalism Tool http://bbcnewslabs.co.uk/projects/alto/ 16 April 2018

[2] BBC NewsLab 2016b Online Content Toolkit http://bbcnewslabs.co.uk/projects/octo/ 16 April 2018

[3] BBC, R&D. 2017 Object Based Media http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/object-based-media 16 April 2018

[4] M. Ciobanu 2018 Slides and audio – Virtual voiceover translation in news production http://www.newsrewired.com/2016/03/18/slides-and-audio-virtual-voiceover-translation-in-news-production/ 16 April 2018

[5] H. Cooke 2017 The Inspection Chamber http://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/blog/2017-09-voice-ui-inspection-chamber-audio-drama 16 April 2018

[6] Edison 2017 The Smart Audio Report http://nationalpublicmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The-Smart-Audio-Report-from-NPR-and-Edison-Research-2017.pdf 11 May 2018

[7] A, L. Gabay 2018a The benefits of using voice-controlled devices for news distribution http://www.newsrewired.com/2018/03/07/benefits-using-voice-controlled-devices-news-distribution/ 16 April 2018

[8] A, L. Gabay 2018b „Look for the sweet spot between news and context‟ – How to make your live streams more engaging http://www.newsrewired.com/2018/03/07/create-engaging-live-videos-peter-stewart/ 16 April 2018

[9] I. LopatovskaK. RinkI. KnightK. RainesK. CosenzaH. WilliamsP. SorscheD. HirschQ. LiA. Martinez 2018 Talk to me: Exploring user interactions with the Amazon Alexa Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 0961000618759414

[10] J. MillsM. LochrieT. MetcalfeP. Bennett 2018 NewsThings: Exploring Interdisciplinary IoT News Media Opportunities via User-Centred Design Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI ’18) ACM, New York, NY, USA 49 56 http://doi.org/10.1145/3173225.3173267

[11] Y. MoonK.J. KimD.H. Shin 2016 July Voices of the internet of things: An exploration of multiple voice effects in smart homes In International Conference on Distributed, Ambient, and Pervasive Interactions 270 278). Springer Cham

[12] NASA Ames Research Centre 1986 Task Load Index

[13] A. Norton 2017 From speech to text: four applications of automated transcription in the newsroom http://medium.com/bbc-news-labs/from-speech-to-text-5fff6abf4df1 16 April 2018

[14] R, G. Picard “Twilight or new dawn of journalism? Evidence from the changing news ecosystem” Digital Journalism 2.3 2014 273 283

[15] Scribblelive. 2018 http://embed.scribblelive.com/Embed/v7.aspx?Id=2754615&ThemeId 16 April 2018

[16] N. Thurman “Forums for citizen journalists? Adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news media” New media & society 10.1 2008 139 157

Celebrating 65 years of The Computer Journal - free-to-read perspectives - bcs.org/tcj65