Special+Projects

Note: the detailed requirements for the Special Projects will be discussed with the instructor to meet the students' interests and programming skills.

=**eBook to Speech**= The last three years have witnessed a dramatic raise of e-reading worldwide. However, the market is still in its infancy and many reading devices/applications lack support for "real-world" operations such as dictionary lookup, smart note taking, navigation inside the eBook, etc. In this scenario, EPUB3Reader is an open-source Android application that aims at providing a more mature e-reading experience. In particular, EPUB3Reader currently provides the following functionalities. EPUB3Reader was first created by students Valentino Giacometti, Marco Giuriato and Biagio Petrantuono during last years' course, and earned them an article on eBookReaderItalia.com. The source code of EPUB3Reader is now publicly available on GitHub. The aim for this year's project is to **augment EPUB3Reader with a text-to-speech** (TTS) **facility**. Activities in the project will include: The project will be carried out in collaboration with ReadBeyond (Alberto Pettarin, Ph.D.). The members of the group are required to release the source code of their application under the MIT License.
 * It supports the EPUB 3 format, which is the most advanced open standard to create eBooks. (Unlike its predecessor, EPUB 2, the new standard allows for a better typographical management of the text, audio/video elements, a mechanism to synchronize audio/video and text rendition, etc.)
 * It handles books with internal (e.g., footnotes/endnotes) and external (e.g., Web resources) links. Links are displayed in a split panel.
 * It handles parallel texts (e.g., original text and its translation into another language).
 * It handles multimedia files (e.g., "audio eBooks" where text is read aloud by a professional speaker).
 * performance evaluation of some TTS engines, including Android's own engine and IVONA;
 * text extraction from EPUB 3 (XML) files so that data can be fed to the TTS engine;
 * connection of the TTS engine to the user interface of EPUB3Reader (e.g., text in the reader is highlighted as the reading plays on).

=**Gramophone** [ASSIGNED] = Prominent musical libraries and research centers on contemporary music, such as the Paul Sacher Stiftung Foundation, house significant collections of vinyls and/or recordings on magnetic tape. Original media are usually inaccessible: digital copies (e.g., on CDs) are all that is available to users and researchers. While addressing the purpose of better preserving the collections, digital copies cannot provide the full auditive and sensory experience of the original media: as a consequence, musical libraries are interested in applications that can mitigate the gap, e.g., The aim of this project is the development of a **prototype virtual device (gramophone or tape recorder) providing a listening experience that is "philologically correct"**. Activities in the project will include: The project will be carried out in collaboration with Sergio Canazza. The members of the group are required to release the source code of their application under an open-source license. Either the Android or the iOS platform can be chosen for the project.
 * by mimicking the user interface of the original player (gramophone, tape recorder),
 * by filtering the audio so as to restore the distortions of the original player.
 * the development of a touch-based user interface for the virtual device;
 * the implementation of a filter bank (the structure of the filters has already been designed, and a library is available to perform the "heavy lifting");
 * the implementation of variable-speed audio reproduction (support for this is provided by both Android and iOS).

=Listen by Looking [ASSIGNED] = Classical music uses a "language" not always easily understood by the general public, and live concerts of this music genre are often appealing only to a small audience of experts. The aim of this project is to **design and develop an app (for smartphone and/or tablet) to facilitate the understanding of some pieces of classical music**. As an audio guide, focusing on a few specific technical details, involves less experienced users in the visit of an art gallery, this "music guide" could allow a nice knowledge of classical music and bring a wider and more heterogeneous audience to the concerts. The app should allow the user to **browse an annotated version of the musical score**. The annotations give some hints to help the user in recognizing and appreciating the main elements of the musical language (motifs, riffs, harmonic structures). A hierarchical approach will allow the user to acquire information at different levels, from the macro-sections that compose a complex musical work (e.g. the movements of a symphony or a piano concert) to the elementary melodic fragments that compose a motif. The goal of this project is to build a prototype of the app, which will be final in structure but contain only a subset of contents. The prototype will be presented during a live concert at the Auditorium of the Conservatory of Music "C. Pollini" in Padova. The project will be carried out in collaboration with Antonio Rodà and Giovanni Umberto Battel, a renowned piano performer, who will provide the structure and contents of the app, as well as the associated multimedia material. The members of the group are required to release the source code of their prototype application under the GPL v3 license. Either the Android or the iOS platform can be chosen for the project.

=Logokit [ASSIGNED] = Speech and Language Pathology deals with childhood language disorders which are due to errors related to a previous stage of development. Globally this type of disorders affects 1 child out of 15/20, 70% of requests for speech therapy intervention in Italy are related to these difficulties. The role of technology in supporting speech therapy has been significant in the last 20 years, ranging from generic desktop software to customized solutions for the most acute patients. Mobile applications have just started being introduced but, although very promising, the phenomenon is still very limited. As a matter of fact, there is currently no interactive, effective and customized application to support the speech therapist. The rehabilitation program generally consists of weekly sessions with a speech therapist that prepares a set of customized exercises based on the needs of each child. In order to make the therapy effective, it is essential for the child to regularly train at home between each session, but this task is often undermined by the lack of interest in carrying out home exercises. Even though there are good examples of specific applications developed in UK and US, the specificity of each language makes them not suitable to be used in Italy, hence the need to re-create such tools for each country. That is what “Logokit” wants to achieve: **creating a professional tool that can help the therapist to improve the overall effectiveness of the language disorder treatment, stimulating child engagement through individually customized applications**. Logokit gives the speech therapist the possibility to manage children’s individual profiles. It includes a set of applications primarily based on animations and audio/video recordings, where children can have a feedback of the work done and improve themselves. The project consists of a 4-apps package that, if approved, will be tested in a real clinical environment after July. The applications will deal with one app of the toolbox, focusing on one of the following areas: the movements of the orofacial region, the use of voice, the acquisition of all Italian phonemes and the construction of sentences. The project will be carried out in collaboration with Antonio Rodà and the Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua (Cristian Leorin, Manuela Susigan). The members of the group are required to release the source code of their prototype application under an open-source license. Either the Android or the iOS platform can be chosen for the project.

=Nono-iOS= The Venetian composer Luigi Nono (Venice 1924-1990) is among the most prominent artists of the avant-garde music movement of the twentieth century. The aim of this project is the creation of a **prototype iOS app documenting the places of Venice that are linked to the artistic and human biography of the composer**. Placeholder icons on a map of Venice will mark Nonian places, categorized into three virtual tours: Each place will be associated with a descriptive text (taken from writings and interviews with the composer) which will be augmented with
 * 1) the places of Nono's life;
 * 2) the places of music, where Nono's compositions were performed or he heard the repertoire Venetian music he was fond of;
 * 3) the places of art, where works of art loved by Nono are preserved.
 * images and videos selected from the Archive,
 * audio fragments from Nono's works or repertoire Venetian music that was significant to the composer.

A similar app was designed for Android by students Nicolò Bonuzzi, Federico Carraretto and Iratxe Conde Osoro during last years' course; the idea is to render this year's app more engaging by leveraging on the advanced multimedia facilities of the iOS platform and, possibly, on additional features such as augmented reality. The project will be carried out in collaboration with Sergio Canazza and FALN, which will provide the structure and content of the map as well as the associated multimedia material. The members of the group are required to release the source code of their prototype application under the GPL v3 license. Only the iOS platform can be chosen for the project.
 * The prototype app will be final in structure but contain only a subset of the places **.

=PraticaPrassica= In recent years, the interest for Pervasive Developmental Disorders is growing: in particular, the possibility of early diagnosis and the growing number of facilities dedicated to such disorders show an important increase in the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Autism is a behavioral syndrome caused by a developmental disorder of biological origin. Symptoms include: communication problems, difficulty in the relations with people, events and things, repetitive body movements or behaviors, and sensory abnormalities. Between 20 and 50% of children with ASD do not develop any kind of verbal language. The rehabilitation training for these children should promote the achievement of this ability by using modern and efficient tools, supporting the traditional therapy, with the aim of giving to these subjects an efficient way to understand and to get in touch with the people and the world that surrounds them. As a matter of fact, verbal communication is the best way to interact with others, and scientific studies show that children with ASD, who acquire verbal language before the age of five years, have a better prognosis. These children show a particular interest in new technologies and, furthermore, they mainly use a visual-spatial system to elaborate information. On account of these observations and data, PraticaPrassica has been devised. **PraticaPrassica is an app which aims to stimulate and, then, consolidate the execution of each sound of Italian language, simply providing a visual feedback as a consequence of each child's correct production**. The project consists of 12 levels differentiated and defined by 4 articulatory and vocal parameters. Depending on the selection of these parameters, every level includes specific phonemes that the child has to utter, and each correct execution will be systematically followed by its own visual feedback. **The members of the group will deal with a limited subset of levels and vocal parameters**. When the prototype will be ready, the idea is to test its efficiency and efficacy using it in a rehabilitative setting with non-verbal autistic children, collecting and analyzing the data. The realization of this app could represent a real resource for speech therapy of Autism since traditional practice often cannot control several elements which interfere with the success of the treatment, such as lack of interest and motivation of the child or ambient distractions. Moreover, currently there are no specific multimedia programs that can be used with autistic children for the stimulation of verbal production of Italian sounds. The project will be carried out in collaboration with Antonio Rodà and the Department of Neuroscience, University of Padua (Cristian Leorin, Sara Isoli). The members of the group are required to release the source code of their prototype application under an open-source license. Either the Android or the iOS platform can be chosen for the project.

=Spy Mobile for iOS= Linergy, con sede ad Acquaviva Picena, è una realtà giovane e dinamica nel panorama europeo dell'illuminazione di emergenza. Linergy ha sviluppato e pubblicato in Play Store Spy Mobile, app di gestione delle sue lampade di emergenza: tramite smartphone Android, via connessione Bluetooth, Spy Mobile permette di collegarsi a un sistema di supervisione della linea Spy Micro per eseguire l’inventario e la gestione degli impianti, le operazioni di test funzionale e test di autonomia, per gestire il rest mode (spegnimento dell’impianto in emergenza) nonché la possibilità di condividere (via mail o social) i report dell’impianto monitorato. Obiettivo del progetto è quello di effettuare il porting dell’app Android su piattaforma iOS, ripensandone opportunamente l’interfaccia utente. Linergy metterà a disposizione del team di sviluppo un kit con controller Spy Micro e due lampade di emergenza. Il progetto sarà coordinato da Capgemini Italia Spa, società italiana del Gruppo Capgemini, che, con 130.000 dipendenti in 44 paesi nel mondo, è uno dei principali fornitori globali di servizi di consulenza, information technology e outsourcing. Capgemini Italia si occuperà di mettere in campo la propria esperienza nello sviluppo di soluzioni mobile e di fornire supporto per coordinare, con l’ausilio di metodologie agili, le attività di sviluppo del team. Essendo il progetto di fondamentale importanza e di natura innovativa, sarà proposto al team un NDA (non disclosure agreement): la proprietà intellettuale di quanto sarà sviluppato sarà di proprietà di Linergy.