Build your own image-based flashcards

[imcgraw]

Hi all,

Although I'm and avid reader of these threads, this is my first post. I'm hoping to round up some beta-testers of a new service being offered by MIT's Spoken Language Systems group: http://web.sls.csail.mit.edu/chinesecards/?requireLogin=false.

At the moment, this is a mash-up that encorporates Yahoo Images and MDBG dictionary search results into a flashcard database. You can create your own flashcard categories by logging in, or add to a public set.

Eventually, we hope to add some speech recognition features via VoIP. Since the site is for research being done at MIT, it's freely available, but comes with no guarantees. As our server resources are limited, the number of accounts may also eventually be capped. Your comments/suggestions/bug reports, etc are welcome!

Happy Studying!

-imcgraw

[TheLearner]

I love this. I've always been a visual learner. Just clicking on the animals, I learned 16 new animals in a matter of minutes. This is so cool

[imcgraw]

I'm glad you like it. Feel free to add your own images / definitions to either the public set or your own private account. If any of the features are unclear don't hesitate to ask. You can also suggest some. If there is enough interest (and if I have time) I'll try to accommodate.

[Madot]

Fantastic idea! But I just tried it out and must be doing something wrong. I managed to put in English, pinyin and character. I clicked first to browse and then download the image and then saved the flashcard BUT when I went to test myself, no picture appeared. I only had the choice of English, pinyin or character. Help please! What am I doing wrong? It is such a wonderful idea, I'd really like to be able to make it work for me. Thanks. Mado:help

[imcgraw]

If you are uploading your own images (or even when you just use the Image Search feature) you have to add them to the flashcard by clicking on the image as it appears in the "Tools" section. A thumbnail should then appear just below the card (in addition to the one in the "Tools" section.) Then you have to click *Save Card*. Otherwise the image won't get uploaded to our databases. After that you can click on the green play arrow and the image should appear.

If it's not clear I'd love to hear suggestions as to how to make it more user-friendly. At the very least, I'm going to make it so that a different cursor shows up when you mouse-over the images in the tools.

Note that you can add definitions by clicking on the search results as well!

If you are still having problems let me know what browser you use? Different browsers often do things slightly differently, and it's hard to test them all. If you let me know, I'll see if I can repeat the error on one of my computers and fix it for you.

[Madot]

Dear Imcgraw,

I did all of that but clicking on the picture didn't make a thumbnail sketch appear. I clicked on upload image which I had browsed for and found (not on my own computer) and it looked like something happened but it apparently didn't save to the card when I saved the card. I'm using Internet Explorer 7. Hope you can help. Thanks.

Mado

[imcgraw]

Hmmm... I have IE7 and it works fine for me. It may be that my interface is just not very clear. I'm making a few changes which I expect to deploy today.

I don't quite understand the procedure you followed. What do you mean by "not on my own computer". Are you saying that you are not using your own computer? Or are you saying that the images you found were using the "Image Search" feature (and thus the images weren't on your computer)?

There are two *different* ways of getting images to appear in the "Tools" section.

1. You can use the "Browse..." / "Upload Image" feature to upload images from your file system on your computer. Is this the feature you are using? If so, a Have you gotten any images to appear using either method?thumbnail should appear in the Tools section. Does this happen? If not, then what kind of image are you trying to upload from your computer? Is it a "GIF" or a "PNG" or a "JPG"? If you do see the image in the tools section, what happens when you click on it.

2. You can use "Image Search" to get search results of images from the internet. You first have to type a query in the text field, click "Image Search" and the results should start appearing in the Tools Section. Do these images appear? If so what happens when you click on them?

In both cases, once the images have appeared in the "Tools" section, you have to click on them to get them on the card.

Just to be clear, which of these two methods are you using? Have you gotten any images to appear on a flashcard using either method? It is quite possible that there are some issues with method 1, as I'm not sure that all image types will work.

I appreciate your help in getting to the bottom of this, as it's certainly possible that other users might run into the same difficulties and just not say anything to me.

Actually looking through some of the log files on my machine, I do believe some people have had difficulty with method 1.

[Madot]

Hi! Thanks so much for your help.

What I meant was that the images I found were using the "image search' feature rather than images on my own computer. I used the "Image Search"..."/"Upload Image" feature by typing in a query. A series of images appeared but when I tried to click on any of them, nothing happened, but perhaps the image I clicked on was of a type that wouldn't work and I should have continued clicking on different images in the grouop that appeared until something happened. I'll try again later today.

Mado

[imcgraw]

I just re-deployed a newer version. It should be slightly clearer what to do, but from your description it sounds to me like you're doing it right.

I'm running IE7 on Windows XP and it seems to be working reasonably smoothly. I can't seem to repeat your problem... maybe it was just a corrupt image from somewhere on the internet.

Sometimes I do have a problem where an image won't show up on a card when I know I put it there a while ago, but if I go back and forth between two cards it usually shows up again. When playing the cards only a single image shows up... if the card has more than one, an image is randomly chosen.

[imcgraw]

Oh... and in just to reiterate...

The "Image Search" button is a *different* feature than the "Upload Image" button.

The "Image Search" gets images from the internet. Then you can click on the image (NOT on "Upload Image" to add it to the card.)

The "Upload Image" button will get images from your local machine (after you've used "Browse..." to find a file.) Then you click the image to add it to the card.

I should make that clearer.