On Thursday 25 November 2010 18:28:35 Mariano Iumiento wrote:
Hello everybody. First of all, sorry in advance for the long mail...
As part of the promotion activities I do for openSUSE, there is one event that I do not miss since a few years now: the Rome based Linux Day.
As it often happens after the event, I get requests about support on doing stuff related to openSUSE.
This year I've been contacted also for a special support for which I'm trying to get all the required info but for which I forward the request in this list because it is a little bit out of my competences for two main items: - Multimedia; - Accessibility;
The situation is: I've been invited to the National Institute for Deaf People in Rome (http://www.istitutosordiroma.it/index-en.asp) by a couple of openSUSE enthusiastic deaf guys that work there into the Visual Multimedia Department (http://www.istitutosordiroma.it/mediateca-en.asp).
They are working on a project related to the accessibility for deaf people to be able to go alone to arts and cultural sites (museums, churches, etc.) without depending on people that know the 'sign language'.
To do this, they are trying to get technologies helping them... They have tried a few netbooks with openSUSE installed and have played with some multimedia software coming from available solutions where they are trying to put recorded videos in 'sign language' that they can launch when in front of something they want more details about.
At the moment, the best solution they have found is XBMC (xbmc.org), but it is not yet enough adeguate for them.
So, the questions I forward to this list is: - Is there any other combined solution made of touch_screen_hardware-openSUSE-multimedia_add_on_software that anybody knows as to be perfect for this? The requirement is to be able to have a touch-screen hardware with an easy interface for EVERYBODY where users can quickly find the recording for what they are looking for (example: I'm at the San Peter Church, in the first room in the basements, and there is statue of a man sleeping. To reach the recording, there should be icons like Country, City, Type_of_site_as_church_or_museum, Name_of_site, Floor, Type_of_item, etc. etc. They are working themselves to generate the videos, but they should be easy to find by tags or something similar). - If there are no available solutions, they have asked me at least a hand on finding somebody that could be able to make some changes to xbmc code (changes related to menu layout, icons, etc.). Anybody? - Are there any touch-tablets/netbooks/nettops that you know is working with openSUSE? Is meego a better solution? - Is there anybody available in helping me to help them in finding the right combination?
What I can do from my side, as part of my personal time that I spend for promoting openSUSE, I've already shared with them that: - I can be their counterpart with the community and/or developers that will provide availability; - I can help them in developing openSUSE courses for internal pc users; - I can chair basic courses to them with the help of persons knowing 'sign languages'; - I can help them finding the best combination of 'tablet-like-pc' with touch functionallities by trying them and trying to fix problems that will arise;
I do not have competences in multimedia solutions, neither on accessibility. Any help is appreciated.
Bryen, a11y is your thing (considering you need it), maybe you can help Maruano?
Thank you very much. Regards.
--- Mariano Iumiento