Abstract
The aim of this project was to produce
a talking newspaper system using the Internet to obtain the latest news and
information. The user has control over what information is included in the
newspaper.
The project is implemented as an
application that runs on a users machine, downloading web pages at night for
inclusion in the newspaper. These pages are then converted into plain text and
recompiled into a single hierarchical document.
This ‘newspaper’ is stored on
the users machine and can be read at any time without being connected to the
Internet. The newspaper can be read using a talking web browser or a web browser
with a screen reader.
The user chooses which
pages to include in their newspaper from the menus in the application. The menus
of pages are arranged into a hierarchy of
categories.
The pages that can be included in
the newspaper are in a database stored on a central server. This is set up and
maintained at the central location.
The users
application can periodically download the newest version of this page database
and it uses this information to download the chosen pages.