Mathematical formula recognition and
transformation to a linear format
suitable for vocalization
Nazemi, AzadehORCID: 0000-0002-1138-309X and Murray, Iain
(2013)
Mathematical formula recognition and
transformation to a linear format
suitable for vocalization.
International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering, 5
(9).
pp. 847-855.
ISSN 0975-3397
Students with vision impairment encounter barriers in studying mathematics particularly in
higher education levels. They must have an equal chance with sighted students in mathematics subjects.
Making mathematics accessible to the vision impaired users is a complicated process. This accessibility
can be static or dynamic, in static accessibility the user is presented with a representation of the entire
mathematic expression passively such as using Braille, dynamic accessibility allows the user to navigate
the mathematical content in accordance with its structure interactively such as audio format[1].
MATHSPEAK is an application that accepts objects described in LaTeX and converts it to a linear or
sequential representation suitable for vocalization, describing functions to people with severe vision
impairment. MATHSPEAK provides interactive dynamic access to mathematic expressions by rendering
them to audio format. This paper describes a method to create plain text from images of mathematical
formulae and convert this text to LaTeX which is used in the earlier developed algorithm,
“MATHSPEAK”.