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Developing "Eyes-Free" Gadgets and Applications
Posted by
Soulskill
on Sun Jan 04, 2009 01:06 PM
from the translating-web-sights dept.
from the translating-web-sights dept.
The New York Times is running a story about Google engineer T. V. Raman, who lost his vision at age 14 but didn't let that stand in the way of his interest in technology. In addition to modifying a version of Google's search engine to give preference to pages that were more compliant with accessibility guidelines, Raman is now working on making cell phones easier to use without needing to look at them. "Since he cannot precisely hit a button on a touch screen, Mr. Raman created a dialer that works based on relative positions. It interprets any place where he first touches the screen as a 5, the center of a regular telephone dial pad. To dial any other number, he simply slides his finger in its direction — up and to the left for 1, down and to the right for 9, and so on. If he makes a mistake, he can erase a digit simply by shaking the phone, which can detect motion." Raman and a co-worker, Charles Chen, are also attempting to extend various phones' ability to read back scanned text to include signs that are anywhere in the phone's field of view.
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Reading Signs (Score:2)
You could probably translate different things about the text into different audio cues. Bigger text? Louder reading. Stereo headphones could also make the reading come from the direction of the sign. As image recognition gets faster and more accurate, I'm sure a number of different audio cues could tip a blind user off with clues about the environment. I am sure the usefulness of this will go well beyond blind users.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Or we could admit that the current crop of iPhone inspired phones are a tremendous leap backwards. Seriously, even if you're not blind, the fact that you have to pull it out of your pocket to use is a pain in the ass. Makes me wonder what the point of wireless headsets really are if you ultimately still have to look at the phone to use it.
I'm not sure any of that other stuff is going to be helpful if companies are exercising in a pathological hatred of necessary buttons.
Re:Reading Signs (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, because technology such as 'hands-free Bluetooth' hasn't been invented yet on your planet.
When I'm using an earwig or in the car, the phone stays in the pocket...everything, from connecting to the car to taking calls happens automatically or via voice control - what a country.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Makes me wonder what the point of wireless headsets really are if you ultimately still have to look at the phone to use it.
Well.... duuuuhhhh... it's there so that you can check your called ID and dodge the call from the GF while you are out drinking with the boys!
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Then there's also the research going into piping images from cameras directly through the optic nerve. Wont work for everyone but it's something.
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ALL CAPS FOR SHOUTING!
obviously.
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They should follow the Screenless MP3 Player. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that a cell phone with just buttons on it and braille lettering would suffice, provided that the voice navigation is really good. An added advantage is that having no screen can make for very thin and attractive devices, if aesthetics is something of a priority for them.
Re:They should follow the Screenless MP3 Player. (Score:5, Interesting)
One of the down sides to hardware that has no screen on it is that there is not a sufficient market for general use, and as a result the cost to the consumer is significantly higher. Braile readers for example end up being hand made because there isn't a sufficient demand to mass produce them, but the result is a display that's one or possibly 2 lines of text, that costs a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars to produce.
Part of the idea of what Raman is doing is taking existing consumer hardware and applying software solutions to make them more usable to the blind.
A similar solution would be to use a cell phone to convert the words a person is speaking into text that a deaf person could read. You could build into it language recognition and translation and the deaf person on the bus next to you on your next tour of Europe, Japan, China, etc. may get more out of what is going on around you than you do.
A screen free MP3 player may sound like something that a blind user would appreciate, especially if the control hardware, and the audio menus were well designed. The big problem becomes one of what all the device can do. Adding a camera to a device like this seems somewhat counter intuitive from a consumer goods perspective, even if the hardware cost were just additional pennies. How about gps location hardware. Again just pennies, but to build it into that MP3 player doesn't seem to make all that much sense, does it. Add in a compass and an accelerometer, and you have a navigation aid that a blind user could use to get almost anywhere with.
The thing is that pretty much everything described is in a G1, so really adding usability for the blind is primarily a matter of plugging into the user interface with something that converts text to speech and where possible images to text. Both of those are partially solved problems. The part that's still difficult is getting it all tied together, and making available sufficient processing power to make it operate cleanly.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
However, If was blind, I might not want an MP3 player because I rely so heavily on my sense of hearing to get around. If I encased myself into my own musical world, I might miss something I need to hear.
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Take a look at some of the internet devices out there for the blind. They are computers in their own right, but the only interaction available is through the keyboard (and audio).
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I have never heard of any MP3 player that works from voice commands, so I would like to hear more about that! Or do you mean synthesized speech based navigation? If so, you may have been thinking of RockBox [rockbox.org]. Which is FOSS tha
Brilliant (Score:5, Insightful)
"Since he cannot precisely hit a button on a touch screen, Mr. Raman created a dialer that works based on relative positions. It interprets any place where he first touches the screen as a 5, the center of a regular telephone dial pad. To dial any other number, he simply slides his finger in its direction -- up and to the left for 1, down and to the right for 9..."
So simple yet so brilliant. There is so much tripe published about 'innovation' (usually Microsoft), yet I think this is the first time _I_ can use this word properly.
Well done Mr. Raman - truly brilliant.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I was coming here to say pretty much the same thing - it's a great and simple idea that would even be of use to people with full sight. I often have problems 'dialling' a number on the touch screen of my HTC TYTN II - 'fat fingers' and all that.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
This isn't innovative - see mouse gestures, pie menus, even context menus that pop up where you first click, and not in a predefined place.
Now if this guy Raman had instead invented Raman Noodles ...
Re:Brilliant (Score:4, Insightful)
Maybe true - but does any touchscreen phone currently on the marker have this damn useful feature?
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
All regular touchscreens (not phones) do. You can configure them so that a "double-tap" opens, for example, the context menu right under your finger, or launches a specific app with a specific interface at your fingers' location.
Calling this innovative is like calling a blank white board innovative because "you can write anywhere - you're not constrained by the lines."
In other words, this is not an "invention" - it fails the "obviousness" test.
Merriam Webster Begs to Differ (Score:2)
1 : the introduction of something new
2 : a new idea, method, or device
The fact that you don't find it interesting, or you can think of vaguely similar concepts in unrelated mediums does not discount this idea and implementation from being innovative. Shaking the phone is relatively innovative and the whole package is somewhat interesting.
That said, the device itself seems unlikely to really solve his problem of making cell phones easier to use without looking at them. I get the feeling
Re: (Score:2)
So Merriam Webster doesn't have the same definition as the patent office. Big deal.
Also, this is not a "new idea", not a "new method", and by itself is not a "new device", so it fails.
This is no more innovative than my grabbing a seat at random in a restaurant and having the staff serve my meal at that particular table instead of another one. They will then place everything (knife, fork, plates, meal) in the same relative starting position, just that the starting position is changed based on which ta
Re: (Score:2)
That's okay. In Soviet Amerika, phone looks at YOU!
Also, being legally blind doesn't mean being completely sightless.
Old technology. See Etch-a-Sketch.
Look, this might
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Re:Brilliant (Score:4, Funny)
How a bout having a set of predefined buttons with a small bump so that the number 5 can easily be identified. The buttons could be placed in some sort of logical order, let's say in ascending numbers, 3 each row. We could also add * # Send and End as buttons.
It might look something like that:
S E
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
* 0 #
What would really be cool and useful too is to make sure that when someone presses a button it also feels like its been pressed.
As an aside, a cool feature would be the cellphone speaker phone saying the number that was pressed as someone dialed. _That_ would be useful.
Parent
DTMF when dialing (Score:2)
As an aside, a cool feature would be the cellphone speaker phone saying the number that was pressed as someone dialed. _That_ would be useful.
But phones already do that. They play the tone pair [wikipedia.org] for each digit that the user dials.
Re: (Score:2)
As an aside, a cool feature would be the cellphone speaker phone saying the number that was pressed as someone dialed. _That_ would be useful.
Yeah, it may get cellphone users to step into special closets to make their calls to prevent others from knowing what numbers they're dialing. And then maybe they'll just stay there until the call is finished.
In fact, they could just put a wired phone in there so people wouldn't have to carry a cell phone and just charge a modest fee for its use.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah exactly ;-)
I was actually being very tongue in cheek.
As for the dtmf, I meant something a bit more user friendly, like having a digitized voice that would say it blind people.
It's not like cellphones require dtmf to dial out...
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Patentable? (Score:2)
Simple yet brilliant huh?
So, would you say it is patent worthy? Or was it obvious to somebody 'skilled in the art'?
Re: (Score:2)
Necessity is the mother of invention. Patents are the motherfuckers of necessity.
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what about speech recognition (Score:2)
are there any blind
I Wonder (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course it would. A phone with keys with braille (or raised numbers/letters or whatever) on them would be better for a blind person - why would they want ab LCD screen covering the whole device even if it is a touch screen?
The article does mention that, something along the lines of the guy likes to think about things in terms or what if the user can't look at the screen right now, rather than what if the user was blind.
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect that this technology will be used more by drivers and teens than the handicapped.
Which would be a good thing. Just as good as controlling by speech: lifts, lights, air conditioning, vending machines, etc.
It's much safer to rely on the general public's lazyness than to rely on solidarity.
Why not.. (Score:2, Informative)
If we're working on making a touch screen phone more accessible to the sightless, why not ditch the screen entirely and replace it with a tactile display capable of adapting to the needs of the user? This would make it possible to still have your email or even text messages right at your fingertips - literally!
Here's a prototype that I'm sure could be improved upon and made portable given the right amount of funding.
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/factsheet/visualdisplay.htm [nist.gov]
Problems (Score:2)
I think Ultimately the best solution is embossed numbers on the phone or other tactile metho
Eyes Free ??oneoneone? (Score:2)
Where will this end? First they'll make a cellphone that has no eyes and the next thing you know they'll make one with no spleen.
I better hold onto my Nokia SpleenMaster 5000, it might be the last of its kind.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
That's pretty cool (Score:3, Interesting)
I went to a college that catered heavily to people with disabilities, primarily the deaf but also a large number of the blind. It occurred to me early on that a great deal of the tech they use is developed by people without disabilities and then tested on people with them.
I think Mr. Raman is pretty unique in the sense he's able to develop like this as a blind man. That said, I'm curious why voice recognition wasn't considered the better option?
Re: (Score:2)
SWYPE (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
swype is intended as a replacement for an entire keyboard, and presumes that you are reasonably close to the first letter in the word.
One way to make swype work like this would be to start with a 'common' character on the keyboard and draw from there. Preferably central to the keyboard. Another alternative would be to build a 5x5 grid of letters, doubling the c and k characters into one cell of the grid, and using that as a swype board. (It would fit on a screen better as well) That layout is what the tap c
How about a hands-free phone that doesn't suck (Score:2)
Even with a high-end noise-canceling Bluetooth headset and a phone with voice recognition, the interface sucks.
First, the Bluetooth headset has one button, which both originates and terminates calls. Pushing it generates a tone, but almost a full second after pushing the button. The same tone is used for connect and disconnect. Dumb.
Starting from the idle but synchronized state, pressing the button yields, after a few seconds, a tone, and then, after another five seconds, the message "Say a command"
Ahead of traffic laws... (Score:2)
I generally agree with you. That said...
Considering that hands-free operation is mandatory in California for phoning while driving, one would think this would be done better.
I was steering my vehicle with my knees long before "hands free operation" was made mandatory in California.
Any movement to legislate "eyes-free operation" is going to make driving even more challenging, as the braille lane markers are missing from a lot of California's streets. What's a person to do? Get one of those talking GPS n
The spanish org. ONCE does something similar (Score:2)
The spanish organization ONCE (Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles - Blind Spanish Men Organization) has a group that also develops applications for blind people.
Website (in spanish) http://cidat.once.es/ [cidat.once.es]
Some applications (which you can download trial versions):
MOBILE SPEAK POCKET
http://cidat.once.es/home.cfm?id=184&nivel=2 [cidat.once.es]
You can hear the text of the text in a windows mobile pda
Louis Braille's Bicentennial Birthday (Score:2)
Louis Braille [wikipedia.org], inventor of the alphabet glyphs readable by blind people, was born exactly 200 years ago today.
Umm...No. (Score:2)
A '5' is the "orientation tap" and any numbers following are the numbers to dial. The phone could say each number as it's tapped and a "swipe" across the screen could delete the most recently tapped digit.
A "fist pounding" on the screen could indicate high user-frustration. The machine could then re-boot to force a "time out" on the user.
Users can be trained.
Re: (Score:2)
The parent should get one Funny mod.
But no, a tap would get a five anytime. Strokes in 8 directions get the other digits other than zero. A circular stroke gets zero. How to get # and * though, I don't know.
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For instance some have congenital absence of integrity or conscience.