W3C

– DRAFT –
Immersive-Web WG call

26 January 2021

Attendees

Present
cabanier, Dylan_Fox_XR_Access, leonard, yonet
Regrets
-
Chair
-
Scribe
Leonard

Meeting minutes

<ada> ahh Zakim is already here

layers#239 Subtitle displays for layers which play video [AdaRoseCannon]

<ada> https://github.com/immersive-web/layers/issues/239

Ada: WebXR screen readers mentioned by Dylan

Dylan: Only seen prototypes. A little work on Accessibility object model by Microsoft with audio clues.

<ada> https://github.com/immersive-web/webxr/issues/1158

Dylan: difficulty is identifying important items for audio priority

Ada: How to access screen readers from WebXR. Touchy when there are no release screen readers.

Dylan: "Last of Us, Part 2". Sound icons to alert player to what is in the environment

Ada: Asks Dylan to note that in issue #239
… Back to issue specifics. Get system level titles to display for video content
… Video layers point to a video element. Uses first source that is playable. Discards subtitles.

Rik: Resource that is played is similar to what is played on a regular HTML page
… Subtitles are still present, but uncertain where the titles are displayed

Ada: Will follow up with tests and examples.
… Probably expect same behavior video layer.

Rik: User/developer may not want default behavior

<bajones> This MDN page has some details on captions with on HTML5 players: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/Audio_and_video_delivery/Adding_captions_and_subtitles_to_HTML5_video

Dylan: Immersive captions W3C group (Chris Hughes) has been putting together a prototype player. Currently uses 360
… video with different configurations.

Ada: Perhaps a new layer type that would display raw text on top of everything.

Brandon: Wants a way to easily do this. Is not concerned about the issue of styling text, including HTML elements.

Ada: Goal is to solve accessibility issue in WebXR without needing to wait for DOM-layer solution.

Brandon: Feels that there is a need and desire for a simple light-weight library that displays text
… pretty sure that it is possible to get basic default titles

Ada: Pretty sure there will be standards for subtitle styles. Just need to support that.

Ada: To Rik or Brandon -- interested in seeing this develop or is this a dead-end?

Brandon: Would like to see it going. References MDN article about subtitles (linked above).
… A lot depends on what the browser supplies vs. what needs to be provided by the developer

Ada: Don't be worse than the regular web. Notes that the HTML video element is not accessible

Dylan: State of art for captions is to allow setting size & contrast. When expanded into Immerisve environments
… would include motion and positioning of those captions. Should be synch with W3C Immersive Captions WG.

Rik: Is it more important that the captions are available to accessible technologies?

Ada: Discussion has been on accessibility for hard-of-hearing

Brandon: So much depends on the particular disability.

Ada: May have to deal with the difficult issues of people who have difficulty with vision and hearing.

Dylan: Usual solution is to provide a transcript that can be read with Braile readers (or some other h/w that supports the user)

Leonard: Some video conference providers have real-time transcription capabilities. Zoom allows a person as a transcriber
… and are prototyping automated systems

Rik: If platform provides subtitles, would that work?

Ada: That would be the best solution.

Brandon: Might need opt in/out capability to support specialized needs or requirements.

Rik: Will look into system support for accessibility

Aysegul: Android & iOS has system settings. Can be used on a page-by-page basis

layers#237 Support mipmapping in composition layers [cabanier]: https://github.com/immersive-web/layers/issues/237

Rik: Feature allows setting multiple mip levels on the composition layer.
… Separate question for projection layers. All up to the UA.

Rafael: OK with options as long as there a means that allows the developer to determine multiple layers were not provided.

Brandon: <breaking up too much to understand>

Rafael: OpenXR has a separate run-time. On Windows there is a limitation the prevents sharing under certain circumstances.

Brandon: Wondering if it is reasonable to allow the developer to request a number of mipmaps and the system reports back
… how many you actually got.

Brandon: Several other means were discussed for handling the Windows limitations.

Ada: Feature flag to allow extra-crisp text rendering. Is it possible to hint to browser that a certain image has overlayed text?

Brandon: This flag allows filtering applied to text prior to creating image of text
… (that was a question with answer)

<laford> I heard OpenXR

Lachlan: Wondering about what extension

Rik: No such extension.

Rik: Will open new issue with discussion here

Rafael: If want mips & anti-aliasing, what wins?

Rik: No anti-aliasing currently available.

AOB, Moving the WG meeting back to bi-weekly

Ada: Other business...
… Moving the WG meeting back to bi-weekly

<cwilso> +1

<cabanier> +1

<bajones> +1

<yonet_> +1

<cwilso> +1

+1.5 (no real preference)

<Dylan_Fox_XR_Access> +1

<ada> +1

<Dylan_Fox_XR_Access> I have to drop - thanks for the warm welcome all!

Ada: After discussion, will do bi-weekly starting 9 Feb. Applies to all Immerisve Web meetings. WG/CG will depend on
… need and agenda items

Ending meeting @ 1:02PM PST

Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 124 (Wed Oct 28 18:08:33 2020 UTC).