Photonote evaluation: aiding students with disabilities in a lecture environment

Visual material presented in lectures can be enhanced for students with disabilities by using high-resolution digital-still cameras. The Photonote system uses a digital-still camera to capture visual information, a digital-video camera to capture a lecturer and a second digital-video camera to capture a sign-language interpreter, if necessary. The visual information is enhanced using computer-vision algorithms and presented alongside the recorded video and audio to provide an accurate representation of a lecture which can be used by students with disabilities for review purposes. This paper presents the Photonote system and a user study evaluating its effectiveness at aiding students with disabilities in a lecture environment.