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Community
Members: Ethiopia Senegal UCAD Sudan Uganda Mozambique Zimbabwe Kenya Nairobi
University |
August
2006 What’s
been Happening It
has been over a month since our last News and Views”.
Many thanks to those that came back with an update on their
activities, which are included below. Others have been quiet, which we
hope is a sign that you were happy with the first News and Views.
We know from those that have fed back that things are going on,
we appreciate that all of us have other things to do – and it is great
that some are continuing in between. Interactive3d
Learning Object – web repository We’ve
been busy at this end, creating a series of web pages to host all our
i3dlo’s. Obviously this will be an on-going process, but the start of the
public pages are up and running. Have a look, from our web site (www.naledi3d.com) click on the I3DLO
Home link. The
repository is being separated into two distinct
areas:
If
you have any suggestions for additions, please don’t hesitate to let us
know… Finally,
as part of this project, we are also tidying up the PC Literacy work which
will also be added to the site soon; and are also planning to do a new
version of our old Nakaseke basic hygiene model – to turn it into an “Interactive3d
Learning Object” – watch this
space… News
from St Henry’s College, Kitovo,
Uganda Hi. Over the last few months,
I have tried to localise some parts of the models but I have two major
hurdles - one relating to software for editing and recording sound; and
the other being time. I am also working on a Masters in Information
Technology, which has also taken a bigger chunk of my spare time than I
planned, thus slowing down most of the programs I was working on. I
am 2/3 way through the course though and I hope to gain speed. I am
planning to have an allocation of time specifically for translation
shortly - after my end of quarter exams in September. Lawrence is also coming up
with solutions as well. He is planning to use the Windows sound recording
tools, until something better is found. As regards finding time to
localise Interactive3d Learning Objects, at the school, he has a group of
23 students who are being taught hardware maintenance and innovative
software applications. “Currently we have
been teaching Photoshop - using the materials from Naledi3d by
coincidence - and the number of students will increase to 50 next
term. I am going to include as part of the course the translation of
I3DLO’s . I will definitely have to have the kids do sound recording
and editing as well. The good thing is that we have students from several
areas of Uganda and they will definitely enjoy making input in their
various languages. We also have a few Tanzanians and also one Kenyan
student. I am now putting together an activities schedule for the
translation work when the kids return in September” Best regards to all on the team…
Lawrence
Lawrence
has also written another, longer article covering some of his
thoughts of VR as
a catalyst to Ugandan development which has also been stored in the i3dlo
repository – under Articles.
News
from Addis Ababa I believe the training
workshop in Pretoria has helped us understand more the significance of
Virtual Reality, and the potential it has in supporting the education
process in Africa. We have looked at the different tools used the
production of VR materials, and this helps us, the participants, in the
process of localization of already developed Interactive3d Learning
Objects for domestic (local) use. After the workshop, I have
been developing the Amharic version of the “PC Literacy” VR material. I
believe this technology can be a great tool in the teaching learning
process, and Naledi3d is playing a great roll in promoting the technology
in Africa. (Ed.
Thanks Henok, but it is also a team
effort…) Henok
Workye News
from Nairobi Wanjiku
says that she has been away for a while, but she has had a chance to
install the pit-latrine model and ha played around with it. She has also
been talking to other potential translators for 3 additional Kenyan
languages. Brilliant
stuff. However,
she has hit a snag in that she is not sure how to use Gimp or Photoshop.
We are in the process of seeing what would be the best way forward for
her. News
from Harare Last
but not least… Stewart Chipato in Harare has been busy with the Pit
Latrine and Dam localization (thanks for the great feedback and good work
Stewart!). He has translated the text files and both i3dlo’s are now
running well in Shona; and he is now working on the audio recordings.
Stewart has shared an interesting problem with us that a number of you may
also be encountering. The Shona text is longer than the English so it’s
difficult to slot it into the available text box. We know this can be
quite irritating at times, but the only solution we can currently offer
you is to decrease the font size to make the text fit. Not the greatest
solution agreed, and we are looking for a better way to address this one.
We’ll keep you posted! Stewart
also raised another important audio related issue. He’s discovered that
the audio files load faster but still sound good when you compress them
without changing the wave format. Audio recording (incl. audio
compression) is such an important issue that we’ve devoted the rest of the
newsletter to this, so read on. So,
there we have it. Some good progress being made and we are now starting to
see what the stumbling blocks are in various areas. This is great, once we
understand them; we can find ways around them!
In
that vein, it looks like a few people ere having issues around recording;
so let’s close by looking at the recording of good audio files. We will
also add this article to the archive in the i3dlo
repository. News
from Maputo The Mozambican Team have
already finished the Portuguese version of the last material that we
downloaded from the Naledi3d FTP as well as the Pit Latrine. We are now
also in a process to find an expert in languages who is capable of
translating Portuguese to Shangaan for the next version.
Tips
& Tricks: How to Record Good Audio
Files An
important aim of this newsletter is to share technical expertise with you
to help you with problems and improve your skills. In this issue we’ll be
giving you professional tips on how to prepare great audio clips for your
i3dlo’s. One
of the customizable and replaceable parts of an interactive 3D learning
object (i3dlo) is a voice recording or sound effect. However, you must
ensure that the overall quality of the learning object is not compromised
by replacing the existing audio file with one of lesser quality.
Consistent audio quality can be achieved by taking the following into
account:
Let’s
have a brief look at each of these aspects related to the quality of an
audio file. Recording
environment Generally-speaking,
the noise level of a recording is primarily influenced by the environment
WHERE the recording is made, as well as the EQUIPMENT used to do the
recording. This means that recordings should ideally be done in a
recording studio where soundproofed walls and doors eliminate most
external sounds. However, often a studio is not available or the costs
involved are too high, so you may want to attempt this yourself. In such a
case use a small room with no telephone or cell phone present and close
all the windows. Recording late at night or early in the morning when
outside noises are at a minimum is a good idea, and doing so in an
environment that is normally quiet (like a quiet suburb) should go a long
way in eliminating any background noise. It goes without saying that the
door should be closed when recording and that the pc used for recording
must have a quiet power supply and CPU fan. Chairs and furniture that
don’t make a noise when sitting or leaning on them will also reduce the
noise, but be careful to have a completely empty room as this will
increase echo and amplify any sound. (Furniture and other objects absorb
sound, thereby reducing most echo or amplification effects.) Finally,
children should not be present or playing outside and no conversations
should take place outside the room during the recording process. Papers
with recording scripts should ideally be held upright on a stand instead
of the recording artist holding them in front of them on the table.
Watch out for other hidden
“white or ambient noise” over and above CPU fans - such as
air-conditioning units, fluorescent lights etc. (In a future edition, we
will also discuss the art of voice recording in terms of the role of the
voice artist.) Equipment The
type and standard of equipment also determines the audio quality. One
normally doesn’t have a large budget available for such equipment and so
you have to manage with what you have. As a minimum though, the pc should
at least be a Pentium 3 with a sound card (not onboard sound) capable of
128kps audio rendering. Onboard sound circuits are normally more exposed
to interference from the other motherboard circuitry as well as
susceptible to the heat generated by the motherboard, which affects the
circuitry. Sound cards, such as the Creative or Turtle Beach cards also
often have better filtering circuits than those included on motherboards.
Your hard drive should preferably be a 7200 rpm version and if possible,
be a SCSI or SATA type. The microphone should be a close proximity
microphone with low loss and a good profile across the whole frequency
range. Editing Editing
of the recorded audio will be addressed during a future article as this
involves a number of software filters which can be applied to improve and
smooth the quality of recording and will, therefore, not receive further
attention here apart from the fact that whatever editing suite you use,
you may want to experiment first with various settings and filters before
editing your recording. Also remember to never edit the original, but
rather a copy of it which is saved locally on the hard drive, keeping the
original in a separate directory where no accidental editing, replacement
or deletion can occur. Compression At
the Naledi3d Factory we create a .WAV file at 44kHz, 16 bit and stereo,
with MPEG layer 3 compression for inclusion into the i3dlo. This gives
good quality, low file size and most pc’s will probably have this standard
Microsoft codec as part of the Windows installation, assuming you use
Microsoft Windows of course. A good example of this is
the file size of the original Pit
Latrine learning object, which was 5.5Mb, but after translation resulted
in a Portuguese version of 24.5Mb file size and a French version of 17.7Mb
file size. In a
future article we can also spend some more time on the software that compresses and
decompresses audio streams (codecs).
Let us know whether you want to know more about codecs and bear in mind
that codecs are also highly relevant to the video that you might want to
include in your learning object. Conclusion If
you follow the guidelines described above, you should be able to achieve
decent quality audio recordings. Although it is not always possible to
record under ideal circumstances, especially if you do not have access to
your own recording studio, you can go a long way in building a final audio
file that will enhance the quality of your learning object and, therefore,
enhance the user’s experience of your
i3dlo’s. Send
us some of your experiences and challenges in creating audio files so that
we can include it in the next edition of our
newsletter. That’s
it for this edition. We’ll be back next month with more news,
Tips & Tricks, etc. Please let
us know what you’re doing. This is your newsletter and we want to share
your experiences, successes, problems (you name it) with the rest of the
i3dlo community! |
