An image description guide that just managed to render all my image descriptions obsolete and far below optimal; CW: long (ca. 3,300 characters), alt-text meta, image description meta
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The
Cooper Hewitt Guidelines for image descriptions just did something that I'd never have expected an image description guide to still be capable of.
They rendered all my image descriptions obsolete again. Yes, even
the latest one with over 1,400 characters of short description in the alt-text and over 60,000 characters of full description in the post.
Not that the descriptions would be shorter now. They'd rather be even longer.
I've botched four things especially.
One, I've mentioned OpenSimulator in the alt-text. That could be taken for jargon. Jargon must be either avoided at all costs or described right after using it in such a way that it's understandable without anyone having to look up anything. Since such an explanation of OpenSim would almost use up the 1,500-character limit for alt-text on Mastodon, Misskey and their forks, I should have avoided mentioning it.
Two, sizes should be relational rather than absolute. Granted, it's beyond me how I should have described the overall and detail sizes of a building that's some 30 metres high and 50 metres wide at the near end and over 200 metres long altogether with the human body as a reference. And there isn't anything in the image with a commonly known size that could serve as a reference. But still, that's what the guidelines say. And I have actually used my avatar as a reference to roughly figure out the sizes of everything, as dumb as it seemed at the time.
Three, colours must be mentioned and described using standard names. If using non-standard names can hardly be voided, the colours have to be described using these standard names.
For example, I've written near the end, "The other four main light sources are three types of ambient light in darker taupe, bluish slate grey and Prussian blue." It should have been, "The other four main light sources are three types of ambient light in darker taupe, a very subdued tone of medium brown that is almost grey, but with slight hints of yellow and green; bluish slate grey, a medium-dark tone of grey with traces of medium pastel blue; and Prussian blue, a dark, subdued, slightly greenish, very slightly greyish tone of blue."
Four, materials should be mentioned, but they should also be described in colour, texture and other physical properties. I should have gone much more into detail with this. In fact, I haven't mentioned a single time what brushed stainless steel looks like, especially not what the various fairly simple emulations of brushed stainless steel in this picture look like individually.
Essentially, my full, detailed description of over 60,000 characters isn't nearly as detailed as required.
That is, if the enriching part is to be considered mandatory, I've botched that, too, even though 3-D virtual worlds are purely audio-visual in general. And the place which I've described in this case is mostly absolutely silent and doesn't even evoke any sounds, smells or feelings.
But still, none of this could possibly be done better by any AI out there than I have done it, much less than I'm going to do it in future image descriptions.
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