Development and Evaluation of UniTalker, an Application for Simultaneous Presentation of Subtitles from Multiple Speakers

Abstract

This research is a development study of a subtitle presentation user interface that is effective in situations where multiple speakers speak at the same time, such as meetings and workshops. In situations where multiple speakers speak at the same time, such as group work and meetings, the hearing impaired cannot obtain sufficient information only with sign language and subtitles. For this reason, such considerations as presenting materials in advance, having multiple speakers not speak at the same time, and having the moderator coordinate the speakers are taken into account. However, these considerations are not always taken into account. To solve this problem, measures that differ from conventional support and consideration are needed. In this study, we developed UniTalker, an application for real-time subtitling and presentation of audio in situations where multiple speakers speak simultaneously, such as meetings and group work in which a small number of hearing-impaired people participate among mainly hearing people. This presentation describes the development process and validation of UniTalker.