Hasta La Gadget!

Smartphones are changing the world and making it easier for all kinds of people to access information. Except for blind people, who miss out on several of the aspects of smartphones and touchscreens that make them so cool. Qualcomm, which produces the Snapdragon SoC that powers many Android phones, has built features for blind people that could make life significantly easier for the 285 million visually impaired people worldwide. Qualcomm is calling the software  ”Project Ray,”  and it features a user interface that’s completely reconsidered from the point of view of a blind person. For instance, a user touches the screen, and that point becomes the starting point for other interactions with the device. The devices also use vibration to provide useful feedback. Currently, the UI can make calls, text with a vocal read-out, and do most social networking. Also, the Central Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Handicapped is making a lot of blind-accessible media available for download. Sounds like a good program.

The Project Ray handset is built on top of Android and is currently in testing in Israel.

The photo is courtesy of RedEyedRex.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: EyeRing voice-activated augmented reality device for the blind, Busalert app helps blind people in identifying the arrival time of buses,

A neuroscientist from New York named Dr. Sheila Nirenberg apparently has made a medical breakthrough that allowed her to restore sight to blind mice. Now these mice can see how they run thanks to the nonsurgical procedure. The procedure involves something akin to Geordi La Forge’s visor. The process that restored vision to the blinded mice has the potential of being effective in humans as well.

The technique the neuroscientist came up with uses glasses that are embedded with a tiny video camera and a computer chip. Nirenberg envisions a day when blind humans will be able to wear Star Trek style visors and see the world around them. She believes that the system could be ready to test on humans within two years.

According to the scientist, blindness is often caused by diseases that damage certain parts of the retina that detect light and the neural circuitry that attaches the retina to the brain. The technique bypasses the damaged cells and sends encoded information directly to the brain. The breakthrough came when she was able to decipher the code of neural pulses that a mouse’s brain is able to turn into an image. The treatment for blindness in the mice included the prosthetic glasses and an injected gene therapy to activate ganglion cells that were still alive inside the mouse’s eye. The scientist says she has already figured out how to use the same process with a monkey retina, which is very similar to the human retina.

[via NY Daily News]

Most digital Braille devices are built on the assumption that the legally blind already know how to write in the format — if they don’t, they’re often forced back to the analog world to learn. PDT and Perkins hope to address that longstanding technology gap with the Perkins Smart Brailler. Going digital lets Perkins build in lessons for newcomers as well as provide immediate audio feedback (visual for writers with borderline vision) and text-to-speech conversion to give even an old hand a boost. Logically, the leap into the modern world also allows transferring documents over USB along with traditional Braille printouts. Smart Braillers will cost a weighty $1,995 each when they first ship in September, but it’s hard to put a price tag on mastering communication and fully joining the digital generation.

Continue reading Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide

Filed under: Peripherals

Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phone options for the blind previously been pricey hardware based solutions — or feature-light (physically-heavy) handsets. While the functional abilities of smartphones have expanded out wildly from the mobile devices we used to use, accessibility options have remained firmly in the past. Enter Georgie, an Android app that offers up a blind-friendly interface to open up the likes of maps, Twitter and email. It also includes an OCR function that can both re-display text in larger fonts and offer an audio version for listening. You can even store these photos for listening to later. Navigation through the app is steered by holding your finger to the screen, hearing the menu described and giving haptic feedback to confirm your choice. Keep reading to see how the app developed and our impressions on how it all works. You can also check out our hands-on video, which includes a glimpse at the app’s OCR read-out feature and a quick demonstration from its co-creator Roger.

Continue reading Georgie app offers up Android features and voice-guided menus for the blind: we go hands-on (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Georgie app offers up Android features and voice-guided menus for the blind: we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Sight and Sound, Georgie (Google Play)  | Email this | Comments