NetBraille-J: Learning support system of Japanese Braille 

in World Wide Web  

 
Mitsuji Kadota and Michiaki Yasumura
 
Keio University, Graduate School of Media and Governance 
5322 Endo, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, 252 Japan 
Phone: +81-466-47 5111 
Fax: +81-466-47 5041 
E-mail: {orecchi, yasumura}@mag.keio.ac.jp  
 
 

Abstract 
This paper describes a WWW-based system called NetBraille-J which supports learning Japanese Braille for the sighted beginners or casual observers. Braille is one of the most effective method for blind people to access literal information, but publishing in Braille is costly and needs considerable man-power. In Braille libraries, it needs volunteers to transcribe into Braille when making books by themselves. Meanwhile, people's interest in Braille is still not high. Since the linguistic structure of Japanese language is different from English, Japanese Braille is relatively complex than that of in English, it is difficult to learn.
    To solve these problems, we have developed a system called NetBraille-J, which provides the environment that supports learning Japanese Braille. The system consists of three parts: 1) basic instructions of Braille, 2) examining the basic structure writing Braille with Java applet, 3) step by-step exercise with contextual instructions. The users who are novice to Japanese Braille or casual observers can receive instructions in Japanese Braille and Braille writer.

Introduction

 Information media for the blind people consists of  Braille and speech. Braille is the system for accessing literal information by touching raised dots. By using Braille, blind people can read and  write letters and access the information as sighted people can. They can also control the speed of reading, thus Braille is one of the most effective method to access literal information.
 
     In Japan, Braille books are handled by Braille libraries.  Publishing in Braille format is expensive, so Braille publishers barely exist.  In order to make their collection satisfactory,  Braille libraries must make Braille books by themselves. The handmade Braille books are the main part of their collection. For example, Japanese Braille Library, Tokyo, supplied 2996 new books in 1995. Among the new books, 2856 books are handmade, that is 95%.  Volunteers who belong to Braille libraries actually transcribe printed letters to Braille. Volunteers also accept personal requests from blind people and transcribe the materials they want to read.
 
    Recently, auto transcription from Japanese letters to Braille by computer has been researched and developed, but accurate auto transcription is still difficult. It needs correction by human.  In addition, even if technology of auto transcription make remarkable progress, human transcription is still valid since a transcriber can insert comments when necessary.
 
    The volunteer transcribers are necessary to satisfy the needs of the blind people, and to maintain quality of service. Supporting  Braille literacy will be useful to increase the number of the volunteers.

Japanese Braille

Braille system was invented by Louis Braille in 1825 and was established as the international standard in 1878. Japanese Braille system is based on Louis Braille's 6 dot system, and improved by Kuraji Ishikawa.  Ishikawa made Japanese Braille system fit to Japanese language.
 
    Phonological and orthographic difference in Japanese and English makes transcription process of Japanese Braille very unique.

Difference in Japanese and English language

The noticeable phonological difference between Japanese and English is in syllable structure where English syllable is basically closed (CVC: a consonant + a vowel + a consonant) and Japanese syllable, open (CV).
 
    In terms of orthography, Japanese is written with Kanji, Kana (Hiragana and Katakana), western alphabet and Arabic numerals. Kanji is an ideogram imported from China and Kana is a phonogram created from Kanji by Japanese.  While alphabet represents a single sound, Kana represents a syllable (a consonant and a vowel). Each Kanji can be transcribed by Kana's.  Generally, Kanji's are used as independent words whereas Kana's, as function words.  Since Japanese is written with a combination of Kanji and Kana, unlike English and other western languages, a space is not usually inserted between words. 

Transcribing Japanese sentence to Braille

In order to transcribe Japanese sentence to Braille, two levels of work is done. First, transcribe Kanji to Kana.  Secondly, transcribe Kana to Braille based on Japanese Braille code.

Transcription from Kanji to Kana

First step is the transcription from Kanji to Kana's. A Kanji has multiple ways of reading: the sound of Japanese origin, "kun" and that of Chinese origin, "on" [1]. Appearance of these two sounds in sentence is based on complex rules of Japanese. After that, insert space between words in order to make all Kana strings easy to read. Finally, several Kana characters, which have the same sound as basic Kana have to be fixed. The rule of Japanese Braille provides the last two processes. But sometimes the rule is not unified, especially for numerals, personal nouns and foreign words.

 Transcription from Kana to Braille

Braille has 6 dots in a cell and each cell can represent 63 kinds of letters. This is not sufficient to cover Japanese orthography at all when Kanji's are considered.  This is why Kanji Kana conversion is necessary.  However, we still need to secure 98 kinds and 63 is not enough.  Therefore the following rules were defined by Ishikawa, the inventor of Japanese Braille.
Arabic numerals and alphabet are represented in different rules which basically follows the English Braille coding. 
 Image of a Braille cell. The dots 1-2-4 represent a vowel while 3-5-6 represent a consonant.
Figure 1: The basic structure of Japanese Braille

Problems in Learning Japanese Braille

A beginner of Japanese Braille will meet problems when learning as follows:
  • complex and sometimes not unified rules in transcription from Kanji to Kana
  • too many combinations between Kana character and Braille cells to memorize
    • The former is a problem lies in Japanese orthography itself, while the latter can be improved by instructing the structure of Japanese Braille effectively. 

    Braille Literacy Support System

    We developed a system called NetBraille-J, which provides Braille literacy support environment.
    NetBraille-J encourages learning of Japanese Braille and introduces Braille system widely through internet.

    System Description

    The system is implemented with HTML and Java applets on World Wide Web. This means anyone on the Web can learn writing and reading Braille and obtain Japanese Braille literacy. 
    NetBraille-J consists of three parts:  1) basic instructions of Braille,  2) examining the basic structure writing Braille with Java applet,  3) step-by-step exercise with contextual instructions. 

    Basic Instructions of Braille

    This part consists of HTML documents and provides introduction for users who are new to Japanese Braille. The main purpose of this part is to give basic background knowledge about Braille and blind people. This will give a motivation to users, especially casual observers on the Web.

    Examining the Basic Structure 

    This part consists of Braille Writer applet, which is implemented in Java. With real Braille writer, the user punch out the dots on a paper and readable raised dots appear on the other side of the paper [2]. Braille Writer is a simulation of an actual paper and has two areas: the reverse (writing) and the front (reading). Both areas have several Braille cells and the reverse area is clickable.  User can "write" Braille on the display by clicking this area just like writing Braille on the paper with slate and stylus.
     
    Figure 2: Braille Writer applet
     
        For instance, the user can click dot 1 of the first Braille cell as shown at Figure 3.
     
     
    Figure 3: The user wrote "A" in the reverse area.
     
    The result will be reflected on the front area. The area shows the mirror image of the reverse area and Japanese characters matched with the written Braille. Braille Writer has a dictionary in order to show these Japanese characters. The dictionary covers Arabic numerals, alphabet and all Japanese characters including "You-on", "Daku-on".
     
     Figure 4:  Kana character of "A" displayed on reading area
     
    If a user click dot-6 of the most right cell in Figure 3, which already has dot 1 clicked,  Japanese character "A" will change to "Ka" (Figure 5). If a reverse cell represents indicator of special characters such as "Daku-on", the color of the correspondent front cell will be changed. So does the cell next to it indicating that those two cells represent one Japanese character (Figure 6).
     
    Figure 5: The cell changed to "Ka"
     
    Figure 6: "Ga", one of "Daku-on", is of a voiced sound indicator and "ka".
    Two red cells appeared in the front area.
     
        The user is expected to operate Braille Writer freely, so that he/she can get an idea how it works.
     

    Step-by-step Exercise

    The exercise part consists of an instruction area and two applets: Braille Writer and Braille Tutor. 
     
        Braille Tutor shows a question from the instruction file. It displays Japanese words or sentence and ask user to write appropriate Braille with Braille Writer.  After the user writes Braille and clicks "Submit" button, it determines the answer is right or wrong. If the answer is right, the user proceeds to the next question. If the user submit a wrong answer several times, Braille Tutor shows another instruction on display area. The instruction will be more in detail as wrong answer increase.
     
        In our current system, Braille Tutor does not have strict strategy and constraints for instruction. In other words, the system expects the user learn actively. For instance, Braille Tutor has power switch. If the user get confused with the exercise, he/she can switch off Braille Tutor and confirm combination between Japanese letters and Braille cells.
     
     
    Figure 7: Step-by-step exercise with Braille Writer and Braille Tutor
     

    Related Works

    There are some works about Braille tutorial on the Web. 
     
        Internet Braille Wizard [3] shows combinations between Braille and alphabet graphically. The user types some letters in the form, and it displays Braille image. On the contrary, in our system, the user will interact with the image dynamically. Japanese Braille simulation with Java applet is also shown at Ant Works Company's page [4] . This system shows one Braille cell and user can click dots or submit letters. This applet is separated from their Braille tutorial.  

    Future Prospects

    This system is designed for the beginner to learn skills of Braille.  On the current system, we focused on learning of the combinations between Kana and Braille. By using this system, the user can read and write some words in Braille. There still remains a problem that the user will have some difficulty with transcribing Japanese sentence to Braille, however. 
     
        We can support some of Japanese problems by making appropriate instructions and questions. In order to help middle level transcribers, the additional functions are needed. 
     
    Supporting 6 keys input: Simultaneous input by 6 keys on the keyboard (for instance, "s","d","f","j"," k","l") is the general method for the experts. We will support this input method on Braille Writer applet and Braille Tutor.
    Read training: Our current system centered on writing Braille. By supporting Braille read training, learning efficiency will increase.
    More robust instruction: This is a matter of Braille Tutor applet enhancement. Braille Tutor must be capable of analyzing submitted answers, and presenting more contextual instructions.

    Discussions

    Generally speaking, the volunteers at Braille libraries are selected as experts, because the quality of the book will directly reflect trust of the library. So Braille library have to reject some people who wants to learn Braille. We believe NetBraille-J will close this gap. And wide spread of Braille system will have a good effect to Braille library and to blind people.
     
        Recently computer technology has made Braille transcription different to what it used to be. There are a number of transctiption styles in terms of how transcription process to be automated. Some people type Braille directly with six keys. Other people only transcribe Kanji to Kana. There are some transcribers who can't read and write Japanese Braille.  Our goal is to have volunteer transcribers capable with at least basic Braille literacy and to have other people interested in Braille. For such purpose, powerful and attractive learning support environment is necessary. 

    Conclusions

    We have proposed a Japanese Braille literacy support system for the beginners, NetBraille-J. We also described the unique structure of Japanese Braille and transcription process from Japanese orthography to Braille.  The system is designed to instruct the structure of Japanese Braille effectively, and the user can learn a skill of Braille by interacting with the system actively. The possible enhancements of the system for supporting mid level transcribers have also been discussed. 
     
    The current prototype system is at URL:
    http://www.mag.keio.ac.jp/~orecchi/access/bw/braille.html
     

    Acknowledgements

    We are grateful to Ms. Akemi Iida for preparing this manuscript, and to the members of Multi Modal Interface Project of Keio University for their comments on this work. 

    References

    [1] F. Higuchi, S. Iga and M. Yasumura, Japanese Literacy Support System for Foreign Students on the World Wide Web, Proc. of ICCPOL '97, Hong-Kong, April 1997 (To appear).
    [2] The Canadian National Institute for the Blind, The Six Magic Dots of Braille, http://www.cnib.ca/sixdots/ , 1997.
    [3] The Internet Braille Wizard, http://www.access2020.com/ .
     
    [4]ANT WORKS Company's Home Page --TOYONAKA Branch-- (in Japanese),  http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~JX1T UED/ten_java.html.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     


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