The Short and Long of MP3 Math

Alt-Media Listserv patron Scott Mcafee of the College of the Canyons asks:

What is the best software for creating "MP3 Math"? How does one even scan the math; what program recognizes all of the symbols and the structure of the book? Am I going to have to type in each page myself, or is there a simple solution out there for converting a text based Math book into audio format?

ATHEN expert on such matters Gaeir (rhymes with "fire") Dietrich provided quite the blog-worthy answer to Scott's dilemma:

The short answer to converting a math book to MP3 is "no." The longer answer is below.

Math is not easy to convert to speech. For one thing, there are no synthesized voices that can read math zymology, so if the student is needing to hear "x squared," you would have to write those words out in English in place of the symbol. The symbol x followed by a superscripted 2 would be read "ex two."

More advanced symbols are not verbalized at all and can, in fact, crash the Text To Speech system. One cannot, for instance, create a math book using the HTCTU Phoneticom tool.

Alternatively, you can relatively quickly create a Web page of MathML that can be read with a combination of TextHelp and MathPlayer. Sean Keegan [of the HTCTU] just did a presentation on this method at AHEAD 2006 and may be able to send you some materials *. The only way to create an MP3 from that, however, would be to capture the audio out stream from the computer as the page is being read in real time--a time consuming process.

Math can also be converted to a program called WinTriangle, which can be used on the computer; however, this program also linearizes equations (i.e., takes them out of their spatial orientation and reworks them in a straight line) and it takes some getting used to.

Whichever solution you use, you would have to scan the book and OCR it (possibly with Infty, which is a math OCR plug-in). You would then need to convert the book using a math equation editor--either MathType (an MS Word plug in) or Scientific Notebook. It is a labor-intensive process. A math book could easily require a hundred hours (or more) of processing time.
If you are looking for a quick solution, then send the book to RFB&D. They will create a DAISY book for you. I believe that gh Braille may also convert math, but I'm not sure. I do know that it may cost you a lot of money to have them do it.

*Sean Keegan of the HTCTU did a presentation at the AHEAD conference [in July '06] on
Creating Accessible Math for the Web Using MathType.

• Mathtype integrates into MS Word as an equation editor
• You can copy/paste equations from the MathType interface to Scientific Notebook in a variety of formats (MathML, Tex, LaTex, etc.).
• Using an export feature in MathType, you can export MS Word documents as Web pages with the equations in the document retained as MathML on the Web page.
• If you view the Web page in IE, you need a free plug-in called MathPlayer to view, speak, enlarge the math equations. Just right-click on the equation and select "speak equation" to hear the equation read with a text-to-speech voice.
• If you are using a screen-reader or Read/Write Gold, then all you need to have is MathPlayer installed to speak the equations (no right-click necessary).
• If you view the Web page in Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox, you will need to install MathML fonts in order to view the math equations.
• Sean has uploaded a test page where you can see MathML in action using either IE (with MathPlayer) or Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox. [NOTE: this file will download onto your computer and you will need the free plug-in as noted above]

Sean advises:

I think it is VERY important to realize that text-to-speech reading of math equation works O.K. when the equation is simple. As soon as you begin to get more complex equations, you are really limited by the ability of the text-to-speech engines to read/interpret MathML content. To really derive useful recordings of math equations, I would suggest [working through] RFB&D as they have individuals trained to narrate as well as content experts for the subject matter.

For those of you truly interested in Math MP3's of another nature - I recommend googling "Math Rock", "Mathcore", or for that math'r "Tech Metal".