This study was conducted to investigate the effect of meaning-focused versus form-focused input-oriented and output-oriented task-based instruction on elementary level Iranian EFL Learners’ vocabulary comprehension and recall. For this purpose, a sample of 120 male students from a private school in Tehran was selected through convenience sampling and based on availability. The participants were...

An adaptive speech rate control technology for ultra fast listening that is equivalent to skimming is described. Nowadays, listening to audio books on mobile devices is quite common. People read books at various levels of detail from close reading to skimming. Although a similar feature to skimming is required to efficiently obtain information from audio sources, there is no tool equivalent to ...

The Vero4DRT (MHI-TM2000) is capable of performing X-ray image-based tracking (X-ray Tracking) that directly tracks the target or fiducial markers under continuous kV X-ray imaging. Previously, we have shown that irregular respiratory patterns increased X-ray Tracking errors. Thus, we assumed that audio instruction, which generally improves the periodicity of respiration, should reduce tracking...

Vision impairment is a latent problem that affects numerous people across the globe. Technological advancements, particularly rise of computer processing abilities like Deep Learning (DL) models and emergence wearables pave way for assisting visually-impaired persons. The developed earlier specifically work effectually on single object detection in unconstrained environment. But, real-time scen...

CAPTCHAs are widely used by web applications for the purpose of security and privacy. However, traditional text-based not suitable sighted users much less with visual impairments. To address issue, this paper proposes a new mechanism CAPTCHA called HearAct, which is real-time audio-based that enables easy access The user listens to sound something (the “sound-maker”), he/she must identify what ...

Using a configurable microprocessor to implement low-bit-rate audio applications by tailoring the instruction set reduces algorithm complexity and implementation cost. As an example, this paper describes a Dolby Digital (AC-3) decoder implementation that uses a commercially-available configurable microprocessor to achieve 32bit floating-point precision while minimizing the required processor cl...

This paper details the design of an audio interface for a multi-modal content-aware web plug-in. The system aims to provide spatial and navigational information to visually impaired Internet users through speech and non-speech audio with haptic feedback. The web plug-in and audio interface are presented and discussed, along with recommendations for future system development.