RoboBraille features a comprehensive e-mail based interface with functionality identical to that of the web interface. The e-mail interface can be used for a variety of purposes, including:
- Using RoboBraille on platforms that do not provide access to the file system, e.g., iOS-based devices.
- As an efficient alternative to the web-based interface.
- As an alternative for users who find the web-based interface complicated.
- Integrating RoboBraille with other systems, such as digital libraries, learning management systems, multi-functional devices, etc.
The e-mail interface to RoboBraille is based on a set of dedicated e-mail accounts for various tasks. To use the e-mail interface, users forward documents to these e-mail accounts. As an example, to convert a PDF document to an MP3 audio file using an American English speech synthesizer, the document is forwarded to american@robobraille.org. Conversion options are specified in the subject field of the e-mail. As an example, to generate an MP3 audio file at the fastest speech rate, write +++ in the subject field of the e-mail.
Below you can click on the topic relevant to you, and quickly be navigated to that section on the page.
Files and File Names
RoboBraille only supports one file attachment per e-mail request. Users should be aware that images in mail signatures are usually converted to file attachments. In such cases, a request to RoboBraille may be rejected as the e-mail will appear to have more than one file attachment.
The names of file attachments are encoded differently by different mail systems. To ensure that RoboBraille is capable of recognising file names, accented characters and other special characters beyond the ASCII character set should be avoided.
Unlike the web interface, documents types are not filtered when using the e-mail interface. As a consequence, it is the responsibility of the user to forward only supported document types to particular e-mail accounts. Forwarding unsupported document types will result in error messages.
Usage Statistics
Activities reported in the RoboBraille usage statistics are captured based on (1) the site ID of the web form used to submit the request or (2) the e-mail domain of the submitted request. Since users of the e-mail interface will not include a site ID, only e-mails from registered e-main domains will be included in usage statistics. As an example, if a user at XYZ University (registered e-mail domain xyz.edu) submits requests via the e-mail interface from her e-mail account abc@xyz.edu, it will be included in the usage statistics. If the user submits requests via the e-mail interface from her e-mail account abc@gmail.com, it will not be included in the usage statistics.
MP3 Audio Services
E-mail Accounts
| E-mail account | Meaning |
|---|---|
| american | American English |
| arabic | Arabic |
| arabicbilingual | Arabic/English Bilingual |
| britspeech | British English |
| bulgarian | Bulgarian |
| cantonese | Chinese, Cantonese |
| mandarin | Chinese, Mandarin |
| taiwanese | Chinese, Taiwanese |
| sara | Danish, female |
| anne | Danish, female |
| carsten | Danish, male, distinct pronunciation |
| v | Dutch, female |
| m | Dutch, male |
| finnish | Finnish |
| parlefrancais | French |
| deutsch | German |
| grspeech | Greek |
| greenlandic | Greenlandic |
| hungarian_female | Hungarian, female |
| hungarian_male | Hungarian, male |
| icelandic_female | Icelandic, female |
| icelandic_male | Icelandic, male |
| audio | Italian |
| japanese | Japanese |
| korean | Korean |
| regina | Lithuanian, female, older |
| aiste | Lithuanian, female, younger |
| vladas | Lithuanian, male, older |
| edvardas | Lithuanian, male, younger |
| norwegian | Norwegian |
| mova | Polish |
| textoparavoz | Portuguese |
| romanian | Romanian |
| russian | Russian |
| preberi | Slovenian |
| castellano | Spanish, Castilian |
| leeme | Spanish, Latin American |
| swedish | Swedish |
| czech_zuzana | Czech, female |
| czech_iva | Czech, female |
| slovak_laura | Slovak, female |
| slovak_melanie | Slovak, male |
| welsh_female | Welsh, female |
| welsh_male | Welsh, male |
Options
Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
+ | Fast rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice. |
++ | Faster rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice. |
+++ | Fastest rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice. |
- | Slow rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice. |
-- | Slower rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice. |
--- | Slowest rate of speech compared to the default rate of the voice. |
All other contents in the subject field, including an empty subject field, will set the speech rate at the default rate of the voice.
Supported Document Types
The following file types can be converted into MP3 audio files: .TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .HTM, .HTML and .RTF.Notes
All files are converted to plain text files prior to conversion into MP3. All formatting information and semantic mark-up are consequently removed. Prior to conversion into MP3, all paragraphs are normalised, potentially adding a period (.) at the end of all lines with hard line breaks to ensure proper pausing.
DAISY Audio Services
E-mail Accounts
| E-mail account | Meaning |
|---|---|
| daisy | DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English. |
| danskdaisy | DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Danish. |
| deutschdaisy | DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in German. |
| englishdaisy | DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English. |
| nldaisy | DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Dutch. |
| pldaisy | DAISY project produced with DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Polish. |
| newdaisy | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English. |
| bulgarian_daisy | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Bulgarian. |
| hungarian_daisy | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Hungarian. |
| romanian_daisy | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Romanian. |
| czech_daisy | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Czech. |
| slovak_daisy | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Slovak. |
| welsh_daisy | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in Welsh. |
| daisymath | DAISY project produced with SaveAsDaisy and DAISY Pipeline. User reply in English. |
Options
There are no options available for the DAISY Audio Services.Supported Document Types
The following file types are supported by the daisy, danskdaisy, deutschdaisy, englishdaisy, nldaisy and pldaisy accounts:
.DOC, .DOCX, .RTF and .XML
The following file types are supported by the newdaisy, bulgarian_daisy, hungarian_daisy and romanian_daisy accounts:
.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .RTF and .XML
The following file type is supported by the daisymath account:
.DOCX
Notes
Source documents to be converted by the daisy, danskdaisy, deutschdaisy, englishdaisy, nldaisy and pldaisy accounts must be well-formed, reflecting the semantic structure of the documents. The first element in the document must be a heading at level 1, and the author and title of the document must be set in the meta data of the document.
.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, and .RTF files are converted to .DOCX format prior to conversion by the newdaisy, bulgarian_daisy, hungarian_daisy and romanian_daisy accounts. XML files are not converted but assumed to be in Word 2003 XML format. Missing meta data is added in the conversion process.
Mathematical contents to be converted by the daisymath account must be composed using the MathType plug-in to Word from Design Science.
Accessibility Services
E-mail Accounts
| E-mail account | Meaning |
|---|---|
| convert | General accessibility conversion with user reply in English. |
| convert_alt | PDF accessibility conversion with user reply in English. See options below for PDF files regarding image over text/text over image. |
| converteer | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Dutch. |
| converter | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Portuguese. |
| converti | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Italian. |
| convierteme | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Spanish. |
| konverter | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Danish. |
| konvertiere | General accessibility conversion with user reply in German. |
| konwersja | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Polish. |
| potconvert | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Greek. |
| convertbg | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Bulgarian. |
| converthu | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Hungarian. |
| convertro | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Romanian. |
| convertcz | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Czech. |
| convertsk | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Slovak. |
| convertcy | General accessibility conversion with user reply in Welsh. |
| o2pdf | Office-to-PDF conversion with user reply in English |
| dos2win | MS-DOS text to Windows text converter. |
| epub2txt | Converts an EPUB e-book to plain text user reply in English. |
| epub2rtf | Converts an EPUB e-book to RTF user reply in English. |
Options
The following options are available for accounts (except o2pdf and dos2win):
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| doc | Word document in DOC format. |
| docx | Word document in DOCX format. |
| rtf | Rich Text File format. |
Tagged PDF. By default, tagged PDF files are returned with the recognised text in a layer on top of the original image. To have the original image placed on top of the recognised text, use the convert_alt email account instead. | |
| pdf – Note handouts with slides as images | The original slide is included as an image with the handout notes as accessible text. |
| xls | Excel spreadsheet in XLS format. |
| xlsx | Excel spreadsheet in XLSX format. |
| csv | Comma separated file. |
| txt | Windows text file. |
| htm | HTML file. |
Supported Document Types
.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX and .DJV, files can be converted into .DOC., .DOCX, .RTF, .PDF (tagged), .XLS, .XLSX, .CSV, .TXT, .HTM, .EPUB and .MOBI files.
PowerPoint presentations (.PPT, .PPTX) can be converted into .RTF (outline), .HTM and PDF (tagged) files. PowerPoint presentations with handout notes can be converted into PDF (tagged).
Notes
The service is unable to convert protected PDF and Word documents. Such protections must be removed prior to conversion.
When converting from a document format with semantic information to another format that supports semantic information, accessibility features in the source documents are generally retained.
By default, the service returns PDF documents with the recognised text on top of the original image. In some situations, it may produce better visual results if the original image is placed on top of the recognised text. This functionality can be selected as an option (see above). The quality of the text recognition remain the same.
E-book Services
E-mail Accounts
| E-mail account | Meaning |
|---|---|
| epub | EPUB with user reply in English. |
| epub_de | EPUB with user reply in German. |
| epubbg | EPUB with user reply in Bulgarian. |
| edpubda | EPUB with user reply in Danish. |
| epubhu | EPUB with user reply in Hungarian. |
| epubro | EPUB with user reply in Romanian. |
| epubcs | EPUB with user reply in Czech. |
| epubsk | EPUB with user reply in Slovak. |
| epubcy | EPUB with user reply in Welsh. |
| mobi | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in English. |
| mobi_de | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in German. |
| mobida | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Danish. |
| mobibg | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Bulgarian. |
| mobihu | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Hungarian. |
| mobiro | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Romanian. |
| mobics | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Czech. |
| mobisk | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Slovak. |
| mobicy | MOBI Pocket (Kindle) with user reply in Welsh. |
| epub3 | EPUB3 with user reply in English. |
| epubwmo | EPUB3 with media overlay, user reply in English. |
| epub2txt | Converts an EPUB e-book to plain text, user reply in English. |
| epub2rtf | Converts an EPUB e-book to RTF, user reply in English. |
Options
The following options are available for all accounts except epub3 and epubwmo:| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| large | Move document base line to 16pt. |
| xlarge | Move document base line to 24pt. |
| huge | Move document base line to 40pt. |
Supported Document Types
The following file types can be converted into EPUB and MOBI Pocket:
.TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .HTM, .HTML, .RTF, .LIT, .EPUB and .MOBI
The following file type cam be converted into EPUB3:
.DOCX
The following file types can be converted into EPUB3 with media overlay:
.PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .RTF and .XML
Braille Services
E-mail Accounts
The following accounts are available for Braille transcription:| E-mail account | Meaning |
|---|---|
ueb_grade1 | Unified English Braille Grade 1, 6-dot |
| ueb_grade2 | Unified English Braille Grade 2, 6-dot |
| banagrade1 | American English Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| banagrade2 | American English Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot. |
| 820en | British English decontractor. |
| fulltext6 | British English Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| fulltext8 | British English Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot. |
| 6dot | British English Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot. |
| 8dot | British English Grade 2 Braille ,8-dot. |
| bulgarian_bralle | Bulgarian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot |
| 820da | Danish decontractor. |
| fuldskrift6 | Danish Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| fuldskrift8 | Danish Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot. |
| lille6 | Danish Grade 2 Braille (reduced), 6-dot. |
| lille8 | Danish Grade 2 Braille (reduced), 8-dot. |
| sekspunkt | Danish Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot. |
| ottepunkt | Danish Grade 2 Braille, 8-dot. |
| braille | French Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| vollschrift | German Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| vollschrift8 | German Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot. |
| kurzschrift | German Grade 2 Braille, 6-dot. |
| kurzschrift8 | German Grade 2 Braille, 8-dot. |
| hungarian_braille | Hungarian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot |
| icebraille6 | Icelandic Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| icebraille8 | Icelandic Grade 1 Braille, 8-dot. |
| brailleseipunti | Italian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| fullskrift | Norwegian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| kortskrift1 | Norwegian Grade 2 Braille (level 1), 6-dot. |
| kortskrift2 | Norwegian Grade 2 Braille (level 2), 6-dot. |
| brajl | Polish Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| textoparabraille | Portuguese Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| romanian_braille | Romanian Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot |
| brailleintegral | Spanish Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| czech_braille | Czech Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| slovak_braille | Slovak Grade 1 Braille, 6-dot. |
| E-mail account | Meaning |
|---|---|
| eksport | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Danish. |
| exporteer | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Dutch. |
| export | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in English. |
| potexport | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in English (for Greek). |
| eksportiere | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in German. |
| esporta | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Italian. |
| zmienbrl | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Polish. |
| exportar | Formatting and character set conversion with user reply in Portuguese |
| E-mail account | Meaning |
|---|---|
| filpart | Partition file with user response in Danish. |
| verdeel | Partition file with user response in Dutch. |
| potpartition | Partition file with user response in English (for Greek). |
| filepart | Partition file with user response in English. |
| dateiaufteilen | Partition file with user response in German. |
| suddividifile | Partition file with user response in Italian. |
| partirficheiro | Partition file with user response in Portuguese. |
Options
The following options are available for the Braille transcription and/or export accounts:| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| logtext5m | Log-Text Braille notetaker with old character set. |
| logtext | Log-Text Braille notetaker with old character set. |
| braillelite | Braille Lite with US character set. |
| braille-lite | Braille Lite with US character set. |
| nacb | North American Computer Braille. This is the standard character set of many Braille embossers. |
| computerbraille | North American Computer Braille. This is the standard character set of many Braille embossers. |
| uscomputerbraille2 | North American Computer Braille. This is the standard character set of many Braille embossers. |
| us437 | IBM code page 437. |
| germanascii | German computer ASCII. |
| german_ascii | German computer ASCII. |
| ibm850 | IBM code page 850. |
| eurobraille | EuroBraille. |
| italianjaws | Italian JAWS. |
| italian_jaws | Italian JAWS. |
| braillenote | Braillenote note taker. |
| braille-note | Braillenote note taker. |
| dbs | InterpointElekul at the Danish Association of the Blind. |
| dbs_elekul | InterpointElekul at the Danish Association of the Blind. |
| ibos_elekul6 | InterpointElekul at the Institute for the Blind and Partially Sighted |
| Unicode | Unicode Braille (in the 2800-28FF range). |
| pefXXYYpd | Portable Embosser Format. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination. d specifies duplex embossing. p and d are optional. |
| Canute360p | Produces a PEF file formatted for the Canute multi-line Braille device. p specifies pagination and is optional. |
| nacbXXYYp | Produces a formatted Braille document in North American Computer Braille. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination and is optional. |
| UnicodeXXYYp | Produces a formatted Braille document in Unicode. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination and is optional. |
| formatXXYYp | Formats an existing Braille document in OctoBraille format. XX specified the number of characters per line. YY specifies the number of lines per page. p specifies pagination and is optional. |
| Option | Meaning |
|---|---|
| File size | The maximum size of each part in bytes. As an example, specifying 50,000 will divide the source document into parts of up to 50000 bytes. |
Supported Document Types
The following file formats are supported by the Braille transcription accounts:
.TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, .HTM, .HTML and .RTF
The following file formats are supported by the export accounts:
.TXT
The following file formats are supported by the file partition accounts:
.TXT, .ASC, .PDF, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV, .DOC, .DOCX, and .RTF