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[Proposal] Subtitles for 360° Videos

tairt
2019-08-29

A lot of 360 video content is already offered. Most of the time the content is not accessible for certain user groups like the deaf and hard of hearing. One of the reasons is the lack of technical standards for 360 subtitles

Using Web VR (now Web XR) the web platform is an interoperable layer between immersive content and display devices. The Timed Text working group of the W3C is home of important standards for subtitle and captions. Therefore, the goal is to find a solution for rendering and activating of subtitles using web technologies. It may be adopted in a different technical context.

The topic for 360 subtitles lies in an intersection of different technical fields. Amongst others, experts are needed from the following groups:

  • XR community
  • Accessibility community
  • Timed Text community

One part of the solution is to persist the intent for 360 subtitle presentation in a suitable data format.

Another part is to define the handover/the API between the web platform and the presentation device.

An explainer is available on github.

This proposal is based on a discussion of a immersive web community proposal.

Any feedback is of help and very welcome : )