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Our products
The School has developed a number of products through its research and is seeking to commercially exploit these products.
Simple Media-Integrating Resource Kreator (SMIRK)
SMIRK is a tool for capturing, producing and then sending audio-visual presentations over the internet.
SMIRK enables anybody to produce accessible presentations that can be streamed over the web. The presentations are produced by the user at their desktop without any technician support.
Audio, graphics and captioning are the basic building blocks but other elements such as Flash movies, video and links (internal and external) are easy to include. SMIRK is available for download.
SpeakView
A prototype system which shows the presenter’s spoken words as captions in conjunction with any PowerPoint presentation, or freestanding text without Powerpoint.
The SpeakView system aims to benefit people:
- with a hearing impairment
- those whose first language is not that of the speaker
- and some people with learning disabilities who have difficulty in following spoken text.
Predecessor systems to speak view have been used by the BBC and ITV for real-time sub-titling.
NaviGuide
The NaviGuide programme addresses the problem of information overload on web sites through the process of "naviguidance" – using search results to guide users through the existing structure of a web site.
The NaviGuide approach has the general advantages of:
- focussing on how visitors interpret the choices available – the area where they need most help
- mixing searching and browsing - creating sticky sites that encourage users to explore the best choices available
- working with any type of search - enhancing rather than replacing existing investments in other search tools
Ferret
Ferret is a copy detection tool that is capable of identifying cases of copying in a variety of types of document (e.g. program source code, technical reports and essays) and a variety of different languages.
A current research project, funded by The Royal Society, includes the implementation and evaluation of Ferret to detect copying in Chinese documents. The application of Ferret to copy detection in software source code and in music files is currently being undertaken.