Article from Foundation of California Community Colleges

The CPC-500 Realtime Captioning System

A better way to meet the classroom needs of hard-of-hearing students...

Most speech-to-text classroom note taking systems display text on a screen in front of the student. When reading the text, the student is unable to watch the instructor without taking their eyes off the screen. This setup is a far from ideal, and clearly puts the student at a disadvantage.

Numerous studies have shown that visual perception plays a big part in a student's ability to learn new material. The CPC-500 allows the student to see the instructor and any demonstration they may be conducting via a video monitor while simultaneously reading the text of what is being spoken. The text produced from the instructor's speech is automatically displayed as traditional captions overlaying the video.

See how easy it is to set up the CPC-500...

View the actual manual of the CPC-500 to see how fast and easy the setup is. Complete with photographs of all the components included in a CPC-500 system. You may view it in any one of the following ways:
» Flash
» Microsoft Word
» Acrobat pdf (Click here to download Acrobat Reader, if needed)

Features:

Automatically converts speech into open or closed captions.
The student sees both the instructor and the text of what the instructor is saying on the same screen. This allows the student to read the text while viewing the instructor in the same manner they are accustomed to when watching captioned television.
Allows the hard-of-hearing student to ask questions in the classroom.
The student simply types a question on the notebook computer keyboard. The system automatically turns the typing into captions, which the instructor can read. Additionally, optional speech synthesis software can translate the typed speech into spoken words.
Speech is saved as a text file on the computer, and can be immediately e-mailed or printed out.
This is advantageous for hearing and non-hearing impaired students alike. For example, the instructor can simply provide the student who misses a class with the transcript of the lecture.
A captioned videotape of the class is made automatically, in real time.
A captioned videotape of the class is made by simply hooking up an inexpensive VCR to the system. This provides an invaluable study aid to both hard-of hearing students and others.
Speech recognition software makes the system cost effective.
The system is affordable to use since it eliminates the high recurring cost of a court stenographer or sign language interpreter. (Note that the IBM ViaVoice® software typically used it is not as accurate as a stenographer or sign language interpreter. However, it is a viable and cost effective solution).
Multiple uses, multiple solutions.
Caption student theater productions, commencements, emergency announcements… the sky is the limit. Because the system is so inexpensive and easy to operate, you can caption almost anything. Use your imagination!
Text is simultaneously displayed on the computer screen in a large font for students with both hearing and visual impairments.
Because the size, shape and color of the text (i.e. the font on the computer screen) are controllable, visually impaired students can also benefit by making the text large.
Creates a text file from the captions of videos that have been previously closed captioned.
Simply play a captioned video through the Hubcap character generator/decoder while it is connected to a computer, and the Hubcap will capture the captions from the video and store them on your computer as a text file. The video can be a live broadcast or a tape.
Sets up and breaks down in minutes.
All connections are color-coded. It is practical and realistic to set up and break down the system several times a day as the system follows a hard-of-hearing student to their classes in different rooms around the campus. Special computer or audio/video personnel are not needed.

System Diagram:

Note - There are many options. For example, the video with open captions from the Hubcap character generator can go to a VCR, and the output of the VCR can then go to the video monitor on the hard-of-hearing students desk. This setup will give you a captioned videotape at the end of the class.

How it works:

The instructor or shadow speaker (the person that repeats all that is said into a mask microphone) first trains the IBM ViaVoice speech recognition software to recognize their speech. This takes a few hours, and only needs to be done once.

In the classroom, either the instructor wears a microphone, or the shadow speaker repeats everything said into a mask microphone. In any case, the microphone is attached to the notebook computer running IBM’s ViaVoice speech recognition software, which translates their speech into text. The text is then automatically fed into to the CPC-500 CaptionMaker software which transforms the text into caption format.

This caption formatted text is then sent to the Hubcap caption character generator via a standard serial cable.

Simultaneously, video of the instructor (from the video camera) is sent to the Hubcap caption character generator. The Hubcap then physically places the captions onto the video in real time. The video out of the Hubcap (which contains the captioned video) is sent (via a standard video cable) to a television monitor which the hard-of-hearing student watches, and to a VCR (to make a captioned copy of the class).

Caption system includes:

CPC-500 CaptionMaker® Software, IBM ViaVoice® speech recognition software, two microphones (conventional microphone for use by the instructor and mask microphone for use by a shadow speaker), Hubcap caption character generator, notebook computer, video camera, VCR, video monitor, all cables, and a carrying case for all components.

System Requirements:

IBM Computer with Windows 98/XP/ME/2000 running at 1.5GHz with 256 MB of memory (Recommended)
(Notebook computer exceeding these specs. Included in kit)
IBM Computer with Windows 98/XP/ME/2000 running at 800MHz with 256MB of memory (Minimum).

System Price:

View Complete System and Prices in Microsoft Word format
Please note that the system listed is only a recommended system. Some components can be removed or changed.

Contact the Project Manager:

Sid Hoffman (1-800-977-6678) or e-mail (shoffman@cpcweb.com).
Sid’s credentials include: an M.A. in Audiology, and an M.S. in Computer Systems. Sid is also a licensed teacher of the Speech and Hearing Handicapped (Permanent New York State teacher certification). Sid has 16 years of experience working in the captioning field.