T. V. Raman (born 4 May 1965) is a computer scientist who specializes in accessibility research.[4] His research interests are primarily in the areas of auditory user interfaces and structured electronic documents. He has worked on speech interaction and markup technologies in the context of the World Wide Web at Digital's Cambridge Research Lab (CRL), Adobe Systems and IBM Research.[5] He currently works at Google Research.[5][6] Raman has himself been partially sighted since birth, and blind since the age of 14.[1][4]

T. V. Raman
Born (1965-05-04) 4 May 1965 (age 58)
Occupation(s)Computer Scientist, Accessibility researcher
AwardsACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, 1994[2][3]
Websitehttp://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/raman/

Early life and education edit

He grew up in Pune, India.[7][8] Raman became blind at the age of 14 due to glaucoma,[5][9][10] being previously partially sighted[7] and able to see with his left eye.[11] To deal with his blindness he had his brother, his mentors, and his aide read out textbooks and problems to him. Although unable to see, he was able to solve Rubik's Cube with a braille version,[5][12][13][14] write computer programs, and perform mathematics.[11][15][16]

Raman attended the University of Pune with a BS in mathematics, IIT Bombay with an MS in mathematics, and Cornell University earning an MS in computer science and a PhD in applied mathematics under advisor David Gries. His PhD thesis titled "Audio System For Technical Readings (AsTeR)"[3] was awarded the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award in 1994.[2]

Career edit

Recently Raman has incorporated these features in the Chrome browser.[17] Raman went on to apply the ideas on audio formatting introduced in AsTeR to the more general domain of computer interfaces Emacspeak. On 12 April 1999, Emacspeak became part of the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. In 2005 he began work at Google.[5] In 2018, IIT Bombay felicitated Raman with a Distinguished Alumnus Award[18]

Work edit

  • AsTeR – Audio System For Technical Readings
  • Aural CSS – producing rich auditory presentations from Web content
  • Emacspeak – the complete audio desktop
  • XForms – Next Generation Web Forms
  • XML Events – A reusable eventing syntax for XML
  • XHTML+Voice – Enabling the multimodal Web via voice interaction
  • RDC – Reusable Dialog Components
  • AxsJAX – Access Enabling AJAX
  • Google Accessible Search – for finding accessible Web content
  • Thinking Of Mathematics – Thinking Of Mathematics—An Essay on Eyes-Free Computing
  • Eyes-Free – Speech enabled Google Android applications.
  • ChromeVox – Screen reader from Google Chrome and ChromeOS
  • Chakshumati At 10 [19] Eyes-Free Stem Education In India and Chakshumati: Profile Of T.V. Raman [20]

Other interests edit

His favorite hobby is recreational mathematics, especially those that involve an intuitive feel for mathematics.[21]

References edit

  1. ^ a b Raman, T. V. "Abstract". Audio System for Technical Reading. emacspeak.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 20 June 2012.
  2. ^ a b "ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award".
  3. ^ a b "Audio System for Technical Readings" (PDF) (PhD thesis). Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b Gibbs, W.W. (1996) Profile: T. V. Raman – Envisioning Speech, Scientific American 275(3), 52-54.
  5. ^ a b c d e Helft, Miguel (3 January 2009). "For the Blind, Technology Does What a Guide Dog Can't". New York Times. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
  6. ^ "Stevey's Blog Rants: Dynamic Languages Strike Back". yegge.blogspot.com. 11 May 2008. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  7. ^ a b "PCD Seminar 10/28/94 T.V. Raman". Stanford University. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
  8. ^ Raman, T. V (1994). "Audio System for Technical Readings (Ph.D Thesis)". Cornell University. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
  9. ^ Guynn, Jessica (19 July 2006). "Google for the Blind". The San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 14 November 2007.
  10. ^ Raman, T. V. "DO-IT Mentor Profile". University of Washington. Retrieved 14 November 2007.
  11. ^ a b T. V. Raman (25 May 2007). "Thinking Of Mathematics—An Essay On Eyes-free Computing". emacspeak.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
  12. ^ Herzog, Brad (26 April 2010). "Second Sight". Cornell Alumni Magazine. Cornell University. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  13. ^ Krishnamoorthy, Mukkai (14 February 2007). "Solving a Braille Rubik's cube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 14 December 2021. Retrieved 7 November 2007.
  14. ^ "Watch Blind Man Solve Rubik's Cube". Sky News. Retrieved 31 October 2008.
  15. ^ Osgood, Charles (11 February 1999). "Commentary: Computer Software for the Blind". The Osgood File. CBS. Retrieved 7 November 2007. (personal archive copy)
  16. ^ Raman, T. V. (19 May 2007). "An Essay On Eyes-Free Computing". Retrieved 7 November 2007.
  17. ^ "T.V. Raman's Audio Deja Vu: From Google, a Math-Reading System for the web"
  18. ^ "Dr. T. V. Raman | Alumni and Corporate Relations". Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  19. ^ "Chakshmuti in India"
  20. ^ "Chakshumati: Profile Of T.V. Raman"
  21. ^ Raman, T.V. and Krishnamoorthy, M. S. "Visual Techniques for Computing Polyhedral Volumes."[1]

External links edit