A simple algorithm to enrich eLectures with instructor notes

Abstract

One of the devices that may help in content development for eLearning services is an Electronic Copyboard (e-board). Once it is available in every classroom, it helps in extracting the lecturer notes in an electronic as-in-class format. This paper introduces an alternative solution to e-boards. The presented solution is much cheaper and much simpler to install if compared to that of the e-boards. It could be implemented using a web camera and a video processing algorithm to extract notes that were added or removed by the lecturer. The notes extracted along with the slides presented and the recorded lecturer voice may compose a complete as-in-class electronic form of the lecture (eLecture). This paper presents first the proposed Notes Extraction Algorithm and runs few experiments when the notes are added on a traditional white board under various scenarios. The algorithm takes into consideration the brightness variations of the video in detecting the notes especially since this is normal to occur due to for instant to the lecturer movements in front of the white board. Second, the paper presents an authoring tool that includes the proposed algorithm to extract notes and combines them along with video and slides, if exist, before generating eLectures that could be viewed using popular players.