The Hybrid Book – One Document for All in the Latest Development

Abstract

The term “Hybrid Book” stands for a digital document with a synchronized multimedia content. In the narrower sense, the Hybrid Book is a name of a technology used at Masaryk University for creation of study materials for users with a variety of information channel impairments: the blind, the deaf, dyslectics, and others. A document in this format can include a digital text, an audio recording of a text read by a human voice, and a video recording of a translation of a text into a sign language. These records are shown simultaneously by the given software application when browsing documents. A user can navigate in documents using a variety of specific navigation functions. The Hybrid Book does not only compensate for an information channel; for example, it can also be used as a unique system for creation of foreign language textbooks.