Quilldriver

THL Toolbox > THL Technologies > Desktop Software > QuillDriver

QuillDriver: Interactive Audio-Video Transcriptional Software

Contributor(s): Roger Andersen, Edward Garrett, David Germano, Michel Jacobson, Travis McCauley, Andres Montano, Rinchen Norbu, Yutso.

Overview of Quilldriver

THL uses its own home-grown software to transcribe and timecode audio and video recordings - QuillDriver. Transcription means writing down the words of speech in a recording, while time-coding entails formally marking the start and stop time of clauses, sentences, or other sections of a text. This then allows users to (i) play back an audio-video recording and see the spoken words (in original language or translation) scroll in synchronization with the speech, and (ii) search the transcript to find segments of recordings that you are interested in.

QuillDriver is a program to view and create interactive transcripts of audio-video recordings. The program consists of two windows – one showing the transcript and one showing the audio-video recording. Such transcripts scroll up and down as the media plays to show you the current line, while clicking on a line in the transcript will immediately play that part of the recording. The transcription may also be translated into another language, as well as annotated with notes. You can then choose which language(s) you want to view, as well as view annotations if available. The THL Transcription Mode allows you to create interactive transcripts, while the THL Read-only Mode allows you to view and use the transcripts.

The software is free and open source, and we offer several convenient ways to install it on your computer (see the chart below with various options and the download links). In addition, THL's Audio-Video Collection offers many original audio-video recordings of Tibetan culture with QuillDriver interactive transcripts for free download. In order to use them within QuillDriver, you first have to install QuillDriver on your computer, and then download media with corresponding transcripts onto your computer to use within QuillDriver. There are currently two versions of QuillDriver: a special version for use of Tibetan script, and a generic version for all other scripts. Please note that QuillDriver is Unicode-based, the world standard for computer use of various scripts. However, Tibetan Unicode is temporarily not viable, so that we need to use a special solution to represent Tibetan script in QuillDriver. Thus QuillDriver temporarily uses the non-Unicode Tibet Machine Web font, which THL provides free of charge to users.

QuillDriver’s current release is generally stable for “THL Transcription” mode, which allows videos to be transcribed in Tibetan, translated into English, annotated with notes, and time-coded. Other modes such as “THL Text Markup” may be unstable. For now, QuillDriver also offers a view-only mode, which is currently the only way for end-users to view the transcripts created by QuillDriver (as of July 8, 2004).

Installation

In order to support the various needs of different users, we offer six modes of installation for QuillDriver, each with different advantages and disadvantages. The following table summarizes them:

Target Operating Systems	Prerequisites	Version	Recommended to
Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003.	No pre-installed software required. Internet is needed to run QuillDriver for the first time.	Full Installer with Automatic Updates (36 MB). Download and run.	Windows users.
Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003.	1. Sun's JRE v. 1.5 or higher; 2. Tibetan Machine Web fonts; 3. QuickTime 7.0.3 or higher	Basic Installer with Automatic Updates (454 KB).Download and run.	Windows users who have the required software and prefer a smaller download.
Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003, Solaris (SPARC and Intel), Linux/i486, OS X.	1. Sun's JRE v. 1.5 or higher; 2. Tibetan Machine Web fonts; 3. QuickTime 7.0.3 or higher	Java Web Start Application (2 KB). Simply click. Automatically keeps up-to-date.	Mac and Linux users.
Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003.	No pre-installed software required.	Full Installer without Automatic Updates (40 MB). Download and run.	Windows users without internet access.
Windows 98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP/ 2003.	1. Sun's JRE v. 1.5 or higher; 2. Tibetan Machine Web fonts; 3. QuickTime 7.0.3 or higher	Basic Installer without Automatic Updates (5 MB). Download and run.	Windows users who do not have internet access, have required software, and prefer a smaller download.
Any platform supporting Sun's JRE 1.5 or higher.	1. Sun's JRE v. 1.5 or higher; 2. Tibetan Machine Web fonts; 3. QuickTime 7.0.3 or higher	Stand-alone application (7 MB). Download and install according to documentation.	Users working on systems other than Windows, Mac, and Linux which support JRE 1.5 or higher.

"Full" means that the Installer installs not only the QuillDriver software, but also the necessary fonts, video player and Java support; "basic" only installs the QuillDriver software and presumes you either have the other items, or will manually install them yourself. "Automatic updates" means that after installation, your QuillDriver software will be automatically updated whenever you are online and open the software (your computer must be on the Internet when you run QuillDriver for the first time); without automatic updates, you will need to manually update the software periodically by returning to this Web site to download updates. Automatic updates use a technology called "Java Network Launching Protocol" (JNLP). It is important to realize no matter how the software is installed, it will run locally on your computer after installation and in no way requires an Internet connection to run. Another issue is that both full and basic Installers also make it possible to click on a QuillDriver Transcript and have it automatically open up in QuillDriver with the right audio-video file. This is very useful if you want to make a CD, for example, with prepared content so that users can click on a thumbnail and have the corresponding video recording and transcript automatically open up in QuillDriver. The Java Webstart Application and the Stand-alone Application do not do this, and require you to manually associate the QuillDriver extension with QuillDriver software.

We recommend the Full Installer with Automatic Updates. It simplifies the needs to prepare your computer in other ways since it installs the necessary Tibetan fonts, Quicktime Video player, Java support, and the actual software and it ensures that you will always have to most up-to-date version running on your computer. The downside to this is that the actual file is large, and thus slow to download. Hence you may be blocked from using it if your connection is too slow.

The basic Installers require more user work, since you have to prepare your computer separately with the QuillDriver software, fonts, player and Java. However, if Internet connection speed is a problem, it may be the way to go since individual downloads are smaller size and hence faster.

The Full Installer without Automatic Updates is primarily intended for use in areas that lack an Internet connection, such as in rural Asia. This allows users to run an installer off of a CD without any Internet connection at all.

Finally, there are different Installers for the generic version and the Tibetan version of QuillDriver respectively. QuillDriver is Unicode-based, the world standard for computer use of various scripts. However, Tibetan Unicode is temporarily not viable, so that we need to use a special solution to represent Tibetan script in QuillDriver. Thus for the time being we are hosting QuillDriver Tibetan for those who need Tibetan script in particular. For information and download of QuillDriver Generic for general use please consult the Eastern Michigan University Web site.

(I) FULL INSTALLER WITH AUTOMATIC UPDATES

This installer is designed for people running Windows-based computers. The first step is download a large Installer file and then run the installation program from your hard drive. When you run the installation program after download, you do not need to be online. However, when you run QuillDriver for the first time after installation, you will need to be online for the installation to be completed. After that, you will not need to be online ever again. The version installed will also be a JNLP version, so that your software will be automatically updated in the future whenever you start it up while online.

This installer was developed using the open source product NSIS. It supports all Windows based operating systems (98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, and 2003) and is multilingual, currently supporting English and Chinese. NSIS uses MBCS and does not support Unicode languages, because Windows 9x/ME don't support Unicode. If you choose Chinese for the installation language, in order for the script to display correctly check that you have installed the Windows support for Chinese, and check that Chinese is the default language for non-Unicode programs. You can check or set it in "Control Panel" -> "Regional and Language Options". Under the "Languages" tab and make sure "Install files for East Asian languages" is enabled. Under the "Advanced" tab, make sure that "Chinese (PRC)" is selected as the language for non-Unicode programs.

Click here to download now the Full Installer With Automatic Updates.

Because the installer contain the fonts, video player, and the Java Runtime Environment (all needed for QuillDriver to operate correctly), it may take up to 90 minutes or longer to download on an ordinary modem connection (it is 36 MB in size). If this is too difficult, consider following the instructions for the basic installer with updates which involve smaller individual downloads. You could also write us at <a class="safe-contact" href="javascript:linkTo_UnCryptMailto('nbjmup;uimAdpmmbc/jud/wjshjojb/fev');"><img src="/global/images/contact/contact-thl.gif" /></a> and we can send you a CD for a nominal fee.

(II) BASIC INSTALLER WITH AUTOMATIC UPDATES

This installer is designed for people running Windows-based computers with a slow Internet connection. Because the basic installer does not include the fonts, video player, and the Java Runtime Environment found in the full installer, it is significantly smaller (454 KB), so you should not have problems downloading it even on an ordinary modem connection. Nevertheless, it does involve a few steps you have to follow to prepare your computer, which are done automatically by the full installer. Hence, if it is viable to download the larger installer (36MB) from your internet connection, for ease of installation consider the full installer with automatic updates.

You have four steps:

Java
Quicktime for Java
(Optional!) Java Media Framework (JMF): For optimum performance, choose to download the ‘Windows Performance Pack.’ (THL users are advised not to install JMF, since most THL videos only play with Quicktime, and having both installed forces Windows users into the extra step of switching their preference from JMF to Quicktime before being able to open a video.)
If you want Tibetan script, you must also install Tibetan Machine Web fonts.

Once your computer is prepared, you simply download and run the installation program from your hard drive. When you run the installation program after download, you do not need to be online. However, when you run QuillDriver for the first time after installation, you will need to be online for the installation to be completed. After that, you will not need to be online ever again. The version installed will also be a JNLP version, so that your software will be automatically updated in the future whenever you start it up while online.

Click external link: here to download now the Basic Installer With Automatic Updates.

It is important to note that you must install Java BEFORE you install QuickTime. Otherwise you will get an error message when trying to play a video in QuillDriver, “Please install a support media player.” If you get that message, please uninstall QuickTime and then reinstall. This should solve the problem.

(III) JAVA WEB START APPLICATION

This installer is designed for people running on non-windows computers that fully support Java such as Solaris (SPARC and Intel), Linux/i486, and OS X+.

You first have to prepare your computer with a few simple steps. If you are running OS X+, you can skip the first three steps.

You have four steps:

Java
Quicktime for Java
(Optional!) Java Media Framework (JMF): For optimum performance, choose to download the ‘Windows Performance Pack.’ (THL users are advised not to install JMF, since most THL videos only play with Quicktime, and having both installed forces Windows users into the extra step of switching their preference from JMF to Quicktime before being able to open a video.)
If you want Tibetan script, you must also install Tibetan Machine Web fonts.

That will use Java Web Start directly to install QuillDriver on your computer locally from this Web page. Once installed, you can run QuillDriver from your computer without being connected to the Internet. Depending on which version of JWS you are running, your computer may ask you if you want to create a desktop shortcut so that you can run QuillDriver offline. If it doesn’t, and you would like a desktop shortcut, you can quit QuillDriver and reload it by clicking on the link again. The second time you should be asked about creating a shortcut. For details and troubleshooting on Java Web Start (JWS) installation, click here.

It is important to note that for non-OS X+ machines you must install Java BEFORE you install QuickTime. Otherwise you will get an error message when trying to play a video in QuillDriver, “Please install a support media player.” If you get that message, please uninstall QuickTime and then reinstall. This should solve the problem.

Click external link: here to run QuillDriver Tibetan now.

(IV) FULL INSTALLER WITHOUT AUTOMATIC UPDATES

This installer is designed for Windows users that will not have internet access from the computer that will run Quilldriver If you expect to have internet access when running QuillDriver for the first time, consider the Full Installer with Automatic Updates. Offline installation involves downloading a large Installer file and then running the installation program from your hard drive. Alternatively, you may procure the installation program on a CD and not need the Internet at all.

When you run the Installer and Quilldriver for the first time, you do not need to have an Internet connection. However, this does not install a JNLP version, so that the program will not be automatically updated. In order to facilitate manual updates, we are also making small ‘update files’ available. If you have installed the above file once, and some days or weeks down the road you want the latest QuillDriver functionality, you can download a QuillDriver update without needing to download the libraries again. To get an update, click on a ‘get local update’ link.

Click external link: here to download now the Full Installer Without Automatic Updates.

Because the installer contain both QuillDriver and the supplemental libraries QuillDriver needs to operate correctly, as well as the fonts, video player, and Java itself, it may take up to 100 minutes or longer to download on an ordinary modem connection (it is 40 MB in size). If this is too difficult consider following the instructions for the basic installer without updates which involve smaller individual downloads. You could also write us at <a class="safe-contact" href="javascript:linkTo_UnCryptMailto('nbjmup;uimAdpmmbc/jud/wjshjojb/fev');"><img src="/global/images/contact/contact-thl.gif" /></a> and we can send you a CD for a nominal fee.

(V) BASIC INSTALLER WITHOUT AUTOMATIC UPDATES

This installer is designed for Windows users that have the required software, will not have internet access from the computer that will run Quilldriver, and prefer a smaller download. Because the basic installer does not include the fonts, video player, and the Java Runtime Environment found in the full installer, it is significantly smaller (5 MB), so you should not have problems downloading it even on an ordinary modem connection. Nevertheless, it does involve a few steps you have to follow to prepare your computer, which are done automatically by the full installer. Hence, if it is viable to download the larger installer (40 MB) from your internet connection, for ease of installation consider the full installer. If you expect to have internet access when running QuillDriver for the first time, consider an installer with automatic updates.

The preparation before running the installer involves four steps:

Java
Quicktime for Java
(Optional!) Java Media Framework (JMF): For optimum performance, choose to download the ‘Windows Performance Pack.’ (THL users are advised not to install JMF, since most THL videos only play with Quicktime, and having both installed forces Windows users into the extra step of switching their preference from JMF to Quicktime before being able to open a video.)
If you want Tibetan script, you must also install Tibetan Machine Web fonts.

Once your computer is prepared, you simply download and run the installation program from your hard drive. When you run the Installer and Quilldriver for the first time, you do not need to have an Internet connection. However, this does not install a JNLP version, so that the program will not be automatically updated. In order to facilitate manual updates, we are also making small ‘update files’ available. If you have installed the above file once, and some days or weeks down the road you want the latest QuillDriver functionality, you can download a QuillDriver update without needing to download the libraries again. To get an update, click on a ‘get local update’ link. Save the download to the QuillDriver directory you created while downloading the initial file. A new batch file will be created with the date of the update. You may keep multiple batch files to compare and contrast updates; alternatively, you can unclutter your QuillDriver folder by deleting obsolete updates. Remember that it may sometimes be helpful to keep old versions of QuillDriver at hand until you know that the newest version is stable for your purposes.

Click external link: here to download now the Basic Installer Without Automatic Updates.

(VI) STAND-ALONE APPLICATION

The stand-alone application is designed for users working on systems other than Windows, Mac, and Linux which support Quicktime, JRE 1.5+ AND do not support Java Webstart. It involves downloading the file, unzipping it, and then running the installation program from your hard drive. However, this will NOT be automatically updated in the future, and down the road you will have to manually check this website for new versions which will need to be re-downloaded manually. It does involve a few steps you have to follow to prepare your computer:

Java
Quicktime for Java
(Optional!) Java Media Framework (JMF): For optimum performance, choose to download the ‘Windows Performance Pack.’ (THL users are advised not to install JMF, since most THL videos only play with Quicktime, and having both installed forces Windows users into the extra step of switching their preference from JMF to Quicktime before being able to open a video.)
If you want Tibetan script, you must also install Tibetan Machine Web fonts.

Download and extract the relevant zip file . A ‘QuillDriver’ folder will be created on your computer. You can run QuillDriver by clicking on the batch (.BAT) file within this folder. You may keep multiple versions of Quilldriver to compare and contrast updates by renaming the folder for the previous installation from 'QuillDriver' to another name (for example 'QuillDriver' followed by the release date of the previous version) before unzipping the new version. Alternatively, when updating to a newer version of QuillDriver you can unclutter your installation folder by deleting the QuillDriver folder from the previous installation before unzipping the newer version. Remember that it may sometimes be helpful to keep old versions of QuillDriver at hand until you know that the newest version is stable for your purposes.

Creating Interactive Transcriptions

One of the challenges in disseminating – at the international level – audio-video materials with speech content in less common languages is, obviously, that no one understands the content. The two most common solutions to this problem are dubbing and subtitling. Dubbing replaces the original audio track with an new voice speaking in a different language, while subtitling prints a translated version of the speech at the bottom of the screen, line by line. A third solution, however, is transcription, namely to create a full written transcript of the speech, and make it available in its entirety.

Dubbing has the obvious defect of not allowing one to hear the original speech, which of course destroys the whole value of a music recording, deletes ambient sound that provides broader context, and in general interferes with one’s ability to hear nuance, tones, and other issues resident in the original speech. Subtitling is less intrusive but is frustrating in that one can only view it line by line and cannot see the speech in its entirety. Transcription with translation solves that problem by giving users access to the entire transcript at one time; however, it is in the form of a printed transcript that is no longer bundled together with the media but rather stands separately. In addition, the transcription is not connected to the audio-video line by line, so that it is impossible for a user who doesn’t know the language well to correlate precisely a line spoken in the audio-video itself with the corresponding line in the transcription.

Despite these limitations, transcription has two great virtues. First, users can consult the entire content of a recording at one time in the form of the printed transcript, whether in the original language or in translation. They can quickly view the context of a given line, or view entire sections quickly by scanning. Second, in a digital context, these transcripts can be rapidly searched. Thus, for a large repository of transcripts, a user can search for a given word or clause and can quickly find all recordings that contain that word or clause. Such searching features allow users to analytically interact with audio-video recordings in powerful ways that typically are only accessible to users of texts – namely the ability to specify search criteria and then search across a large body of materials and find precisely those segments that contain the specified criteria.

To address these problems and challenges, THL has been involved with a long-term initiative to build an authoring and playback software suite called QuillDriver. This software allows for the creation of rich transcripts with a minimum of technical training. “Rich” in this context means that the transcriptions can include translations and annotations, but most centrally include time codes that precisely correlate each line in the transcript with the corresponding line in the original audio-video file. Most importantly, users can click on a line of the transcript and the corresponding audio-video segment will immediately play. In addition, as they view the audio-video, a highlight automatically moves line-by-line through the transcript in unison with the line playing in the audio-video. Users can also switch between different languages if the transcript has been translated into multiple languages, and can turn the transcript, translation, and annotations off and on independently so as to create different views suited to their needs. The transcriptions can also be played back by end-users in a view-only mode within QuillDriver. Finally, one can search through all these transcripts according to user-selected search criteria, and then proceed directly from the search results to the corresponding audio-video segments. QuillDriver is intended for use in creating language and cultural instructional resources, and is targeted to create access to audio-video materials for a broad audience. We also plan to interface QuillDriver with associated reference resources such as dictionaries, grammar references, and pedagogical materials.

We believe that this innovative use of digital technology to create interactive audio-video transcriptions has revolutionary implications, since it opens up audio-video resources to the powerful, flexible, and nuanced analytical usage which until now has only been available for texts. However, we also recognize that subtitled audio-video has its own value – it allows you to see a bigger presentation of the media itself, and to focus more closely on the video while the linguistic content is only revealed line by line. In some contexts, this is clearly preferable to interactive transcriptions. We are thus working on an automated process that can generate subtitled videos out of QuillDriver transcripts and videos.

Our goal is to provide a full suite of tools that allows one to create such transcripts, view them on the Web, view them offline from a computer’s hard drive, view them from CDs/DVDs, and do analytical searching. Written in Java and based on XML technologies such as XPATH and XSLT, QuillDriver supports most major platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. In addition, it supports two major media players: Quicktime for Java (for Mac OS X and Windows) and Java Media Framework (for Windows and Linux). The combination of a simple XML editor with a video time-coding application enables its use in a diverse range of annotation tasks including transcription, translation, and video logging. QuillDriver restricts users to a limited but fully customizable set of editing and viewing functions. Thus, with a certain amount of work, one can create project- or even user-specific versions of it. QuillDriver is currently in use in multiple locations, though the overall suite remains under development in terms of bug fixes and feature enhancements.

QuillDriver at present comes in two flavors, a standard version and a version specifically optimized for Tibetan script. The Tibetan version is a temporary version that supports a non-Unicode legacy font encoding (Tibet Machine Web) rather than Unicode, the emerging standard for multilingual computing. Thus, the two versions are built from slightly different source code bases. Once Windows and Mac OS support Tibetan Unicode fully, the Tibetan version will be eliminated. Both fonts are available for free download from THL.

Try it out!

QuillDriver can be used for any language. At present we have content in such modules primarily for Tibetan and Quechua. The Tibetan data includes many videos from external link: Lhasa Today, a dramatic series ad-libbed by professional actors and shot in Lhasa in the summer of 2000; and videos of dialogs from Nicolas Tournadre and Sangda Dorje’s Manual of Standard Tibetan, available in English translation from Snow Lion Publications.

The Quechua content, created by Roger Andersen and Edward Garrett, is being used in Quechua classes at UCLA. This content includes two hours of ethnographic video shot in Ucuchi, Bolivia, along with accompanying transcripts and grammatical analysis. QuillDriver for Quechua offers less functionality than Andersen’s original release using the earlier “Savant” program, but is slated for further development and enhancement.

Once you have installed, try out QuillDriver. THL offers many audio-video titles along with QuillDriver transcripts for your easy download.

Just go to our external link: Audio-Video Archive and find a title you are interested in through browsing the collections or searching. We have created a separate Web-based audio-video archive of all our media. Thus one can search the cataloging records for the audio-video titles to find what one wants, or one can browse through the various thematic collections of associated audio-video titles. You can filter the results so you only see titles with transcripts by choosing “ external link: Advanced search,” and then under “Transcript Options” specify “Return only titles with transcripts.” Once one locates the title one is interested in, each title has a “download options” that allow for easy saving of the transcript and media to your hard drive. You just right click and save to your hard drive. We offer different forms of the media – video or audio-only, and then within video, different levels of quality. If you don’t care about the time it will take to download or the space it will take on your hard drive, then download the highest quality video (which will be the slowest to download and take up the most space once downloaded). If speed and space is an issue, then choose a lower quality video, or even audio-only. Its that simple. Once you have the media and transcript, you can play it off your hard drive, or burn it on CDs/DVDs to give to others. To View in QuillDriver, just launch QuillDriver and select ‘Quicktime for Java’ from the Preferences menu. (You may also see a ‘Java Media Framework’ option.) Make sure the mode on the Preferences menu is “THL Read only” to play back an extant transcript. Use the Choose File-Open to find and open the transcript and then media for the downloaded title.

For your easy reference, we have provided two sample video files with their transcripts to try out. Just right click and save to your computer, noting where on your hard drive you are saving them. Please note: these links are simply for downloading to use in QuillDriver - if you just click on a transcript link here it will not show you a nicely rendered view of it. Download, then open within QuillDriver. Also, the Dreams video is relatively small and easy to download, while the Sera video is lengthy and will require a fast connection to download.

Right-click to Download Women Discuss Dreams
Right-click to Download corresponding transcript
Right-click to Download Sera Monastery Chapel
Right-click to Download corresponding transcript

User Manuals

Manuals and Quick References for QuillDriver are now under preparation. Currently, a external link: short transcriptional manual is available for transcription.

Source code for QuillDriver is available under the terms of the external link: GNU General Public License. To get it, please visit the Tools for Field Linguistics site on SourceForge.

Feedback

In order to keep an archive of comments and suggestions from users of QuillDriver, we have established a mailing list for feedback. Please external link: subscribe to this list and then send all suggestions to it directly.

If you find this too difficult, you can send comments to <a class="safe-contact" href="javascript:linkTo_UnCryptMailto('nbjmup;uimAdpmmbc/jud/wjshjojb/fev');"><img src="/global/images/contact/contact-thl.gif" /></a>.

Status of QuillDriver Software Development

This was last updated as of December 15, 2005.

For an ongoing discussion of QuillDriver issues please visit the external link: QuillDriver Blog.

USING QUILLDRIVER TO CREATE TRANSCRIPTS

The QuillDriver software is currently working well in its version 1.0 (released in December 2005) and being used by a wide variety of people. It is stable and easy to use.

There are, however, a number of new features under development. Some of these features can be done now if one goes “under the hood” and opens up a QuillDriver transcript within an XML editor to do the work. Indeed, one feature we hope to add to the authoring software is a “native XML editing mode” which would allow one to see the XML tags “under the hood” and directly modify the transcript without the user-friendly interface that QuillDriver uses at present to protect the transcriber from being exposed to the XML, and protects the XML from being exposed to the transcript. We are currently working at a first release of an native XML editing mode which will not validate or have synchronization; we will then subsequently work on the harder task of adding validation functionality and synchronization. Thus our current work focuses on three basic transcript editing views: protected XML (what we have now), straight XML, and a table-based view.

A second limitation is that it doesn’t allow you to parse sentences grammatically within the transcription. This is an important feature for linguists and language instructional usages of QuillDriver, though not relevant for widespread public use focused more on the content than the linguistics of the audio-video. Edward Garrett of Eastern Michigan University is currently working on implementing such functionality within QuillDriver, but is not at present available.

We have not systematically tested out the use of different scripts beyond Roman, Tibetan and Chinese, such as Devanagari, in QuillDriver. This remains an urgent priority. If you have a Unicode font and keyboard, they should work fine, but we need to test this thoroughly. There may be problems with the issue of not being able to flexibly and individually indicate the language and font of the transcription, and various translations. However, there are clearly significant problems here, since QuillDriver does not work properly with standard Windows keyboards. For example, we have a Windows keyboard made for inputting Unicode diacritics and it doesn’t work at all with it. However, it does seem to work with Keyman keyboards, and so we aim to try to create a Keyman keyboard with Unicode diacritics to see how that might work.

The language of annotations cannot be easily switched by the transcriber. This is an easy fix and will be implemented as soon as possible.

The user-configuration of QD for the most part provides no easy to use user interface to make such changes. Thus if one wants to delete a given mode, such as “Quecha,” one has to go under the hood and have technical expertise.

One of most important features that needs to be developed in QuillDriver is to offer a method for marking segments of a QuillDriver transcript that are wholly independent of the transcripts clause by clause, or sentence by sentence, timecoding. This is crucial because once a QD transcription has been prepared, teachers and researchers want to mark specific segments of it for use for specific pedagogical usages – such as marking a sentence that exemplifies a grammar point, or marking a one minute segment from a two hour commentary that is particularly useful for beginners, and so forth. However, these segmentations must be time coded for them to be of use, and yet that timecoding has to not interfere with the primary clause/sentence by clause/sentence timecoding used for basic playback. Each segmentation should have a title (“Interesting use of dative particle”), and then type the segment (“Grammar Segment,” “Pronunciation Segment,” etc.).

This is also related to the issue of using QD for logging an audio-video title. In other words, independent of transcribing audio-video, users could simple note down points or segments with time codes and make notations as to the content therein. Such time-coded annotation can make audio-video titles navigatable, and searchable, even without transcripts. If a transcript is subsequently prepared, the annotations can still be a useful way to navigate and understand the structure of the transcript. However, the time-coding of the annotations and the time-coding of the sentence-by-sentence markup need to be well integrated.

We want to add a wave form analysis display so that transcribers can graphically see where speech begins and ends based on sound.

USING QUILLDRIVER TO VIEW RECORDINGS & TRANSCRIPTS

As soon as the Java programming language allows for it, we will convert our Tibetan script support to Unicode and then abolish the Tibetan–specific version of QuillDriver.

We want to add the flexibility to display transcripts in paragraphs, even if timecoding is of individual lines within the transcript.

We want to show language views based upon what is actually contained in the transcript, so that, for example, "English" view would not be given on the menu unless the transcript actually contains an English translation.

We want to add a notepad and other end user tools for interacting with the transcript.

We want to add more analytical tools that will allow end users to organized clips with keywords.

WEB PRESENTATIONAL SYSTEM

There is no functional system at present for deploying these interactive transcriptions over the Web. The development of a usable Web-based version is an urgent priority. We are working on creating a Web version using JavaScript, but it is not currently working in a reliable fashion. At present we are close to having a workable form, but it will only have the capacity to click on a line to play it, rather than having scrolling synchronization.

In addition, QuillDriver can play transcripts and medias from URLs, but the software doesn’t offer a user friendly way for users to specify a URL to use. Instead, one has to go “under the hood” of the software to specify the URL. We plan to add an “open URL” option for users, and also automate this from within the THL audio-video database. We also need to research systematically playing media from a URL to see if there are any problems with specific forms of media and/or players.

Finally, even if the URL play function was easy for users to utilize, the real challenge is to use streaming video. If the URL simply goes to a video which downloads on your hard drive, you still have to wait for the video to download. It does provide one a way to easily integrate QuillDriver on line into a Web site, so that a simple link could launch QuillDriver with a specified transcription and audio-video file. However, the real advantage to on-line QuillDriver would be in using streaming audio-video content, so that users wouldn’t have to wait for the media to download. This however has not currently been developed.

SEARCHING

At present we have not instituted a searching system for the transcripts, much less one directly connected to QuillDriver for display.

CONVERSION INTO SUBTITLED MEDIA

We are currently exploring different options for automating the process of converting QuillDriver transcripts into subtitled media.

USING QUILLDRIVER WITH TEXTS

The most important future adaptation of QuillDriver is to modify it to work with texts as a third object to the transcript and audio-video file. Thus when a scholar is giving a commentary on a text, a user could view the transcript, the original literary text and the audio-video file. The time coding would create automatic connections between all three through the use of highlighting in the transcription and text, and also navigation from the literary text or transcription. We have made some efforts at implementing this functionality, but to date it does not work properly.

Credits

QuillDriver is a collaborative effort between many people and institutions. Past and present include:

Roger Andersen (UCLA): co-director and designer.
Edward Garrett (Eastern Michigan University): co-director and lead programmer of QuillDriver.
David Germano (University of Virginia): co-director and designer.
Michel Jacobson (CNRS, Paris): technical advisor and contributor.
Travis McCauley (University of Virginia): technical contributor(not currently active).
Andres Montano (University of Virginia): programmer.
Rinchen Norbu (Tibet University): programmer.
Yutso (Tibet University): programmer.

We thank and acknowledge the U.S. Department of Education for its funding support on three separate grants from 2000 to the present.

Links

For details on related projects, please visit the following sites: