ITU-EBU Joint Workshop on Accessibility to
Broadcasting and IPTV ACCESS for ALL
(In cooperation with the EU project DTV4All)
Geneva, 23 – 24 November 2010
Activities to Improve Accessibility to
Broadcasting in Japan
Takayuki ITO,
Executive Research Engineer
NHK
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and
IPTV ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
International
Telecommunication
Union
Situation in Japan
 Digitalization of broadcasting(DB)
 More pressure for better accessibility
to broadcasting
DB receiver has 4 audio, 2 closed caption
 Government set a target of services
100 % programs for closed caption
10 % programs for audio description
by the end of 2017
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
2
Stats of Closed captioning
Target of Gov.
NHK CH1
Off-line cap.
100% programs
by the end of 2017
Drama, documentary, etc.
50%
Without caption
Live
30%
With caption
10%
10%
Stenograph
Part of new programs,
Some live shows
Re-speak captioning
using speech rec.
Re-speaker
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Sport programs, some live
shows
Committed to connecting the world
3
News captioning system with
speech recognition
Recognize speech of announcer and reporter
Recognize re-soken speech for interview
Captioning accuracy : 98 % for short news
Accuracy and operating efficiency increase
Spontaneous speech is an issue to solve

Direct
Announcer
Reporter
Speech rec.
Captioning
correction
text
Voice
Re-speak
Operator 1~2
Interview
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
4
Japanese-to-Sign machine
translation with CG avatar

Deaf people claim sign language service
rather than captioning but …
Sing language interpreter is not easy to find.
Closed service is preferable.
Program
Text-to-sign
translation
broadcast
station
Sign CG
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
home
Broadcast/
Internet
Committed to connecting the world
5
Audio description service for
visually impaired people
 Audio description service (AD)
7.6%(2009)  10%(2017)
 AD is a kind of radio drama and
man-power consuming to create.
 Assist system for writing script of AD
detects silent spaces, estimates word count,
and adjusts length by speech rate conv.
proposes candidate phrases if electronic
script of original program is available.
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
6
3D shape/
tactile
2D
shape
Text
Access to
digital
broadcasting
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Force
feedback
display
Tactile broadcasting
Information barrier-free for
the visually impaired
Tactile display
for GUI,
shape, graph,
etc
Committed to connecting the world
7
Speech rate conv. for elderly
Triggered by a letter “Announcers’ speech
is too fast to understand.”
Commercialized as TV, radio sets, and
interenet service
Evaluation experiment
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
8
Fast read-out for visually
impaired people
 Needs for “fast hearing” of electronic
text (internet, e-mail, e-book)
 Developing a faster (2~4x) and more
understandable conversion method
 Daisy machine and software
Evaluation experiment
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Experiment in Austria
Committed to connecting the world
9
Needs to convey various
information to the home
 To fulfill personal needs requires more
bandwidth than digital broadcasting.
HybridCast is a new system that convey
supplemental information through
communication channel to enrich
broadcasting programs.
Multi-lingual closed caption and closed
sign service are typical examples.
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
10
Hybridcast: concept and technology
TV-centric hybrid system of broadcast and
communication to enrich programs
Broadcasting
(broadcast, quality, reliability)
program
Hybridcast receiver
Communication
（meet personal request）
Broadcast
station
Network
(cloud)
Content control/ delivery
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Additional
information
CGM,
SNS
Synchronization
Committed to connecting the world
11
Hybridcast: slow speech service
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
Hybridcast:
Multi-lingual captioning
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
Conclusion
 Technologies of commercializing level

Need a bridge over “the death valley”, a
gap between R&D and commercialization.
Overcome the principle of economics
Reduce the operating cost
Technologies of basic research level
Need efficient research
Sharing the results and research
collaboration is important.
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
14
For more info.
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
Current status of NHK service
 Closed caption service: 52.8%
 Audio description service: 7.6%
 Sign language programs: 1~2%
ITU/EBU Workshop Accessibility to Broadcasting and IPTV
ACCESS for ALL,
23 – 24 November 2010
Committed to connecting the world
16