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Graphics Software

Drawing For The Blind 87

Posted by timothy from the but-not-the-colorblind dept.
idletask writes: "Hesham Kamel, a student from University of Berkeley who lost his vision 17 years ago due to a surgeon error, imagined and implemented IC2D (Integrated Communication 2 Draw), a program allowing visually impaired people in general to create computer graphics. The interface to the program is a mere telephone keypad, and it uses voice synthesis to communicate with the user. In fact, this program reveals, through its testers, that yes, blind people know how to draw, and they're as good at it as other people. More information on this program can be found here (1) and here (2). Story found on ArsTechnica."
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Drawing For The Blind More

Drawing For The Blind

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  • Good? (Score:4, Funny)

    by buzzbomb ( 46085 ) on Monday July 01, 2002 @08:18AM (#3799924)
    blind people know how to draw, and they're as good at it as other people.

    Well, if the poster had seen any of my "artwork", he'd know that that isn't saying very much.

  • Cool. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Maverick TimeSurfer ( 536379 )
    That's really neat and all, and it's a good idea, and a lot of people are probably going to try it out, but..... If they're "visually impaired", how are they going to enjoy their own work?
  • You should have waited for drdink to come back from vacation to post that story.

  • Great! (Score:3, Funny)

    by NASAKnight ( 588155 ) on Monday July 01, 2002 @08:21AM (#3799937) Homepage Journal
    Now I can play pictionary with blind people WITHOUT feeling like I have an unfair advatange!

  • artwork (Score:2, Insightful)

    by xpurple ( 1227 )
    I think this is a wonderfull thing. We could get some very good works that would otherwize not existed.

    Very similar to software that lets blind people use computers for general use.

    It's all about using technology to let everyone have access, and become productive members of society.
  • some kind of MUD game for the blind?
    great idea anyway...

  • One small problem... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pembers ( 250842 ) on Monday July 01, 2002 @09:44AM (#3800019) Homepage

    ...is that the article says the system uses a telephone keypad for selecting where you want to put the cursor. Perhaps it's just a metaphor to make it easier to understand, but the keypad on a phone is upside down compared to the number pad on a computer keyboard. It would be rather confusing if the instructions said "press 1 for the top left corner," and you had to press the key that you were used to thinking of as "7". If this is a problem, I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to add an option to invert the pad - rather like GUIs will let you use a mouse left-handed or right-handed.

    That apart, this sounds like a very cool idea. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that a blind person can draw if you give them the right tools. The main skill in drawing is observing things accurately - even if you draw from imagination, you're often remembering details of things you've seen. If you can't see your surroundings, then moving around without bumping into things or injuring yourself requires you to build an accurate mental model of the environment in 3 dimensions - observe it, in other words. The fact that collecting the information to build this model requires you to use senses other than sight is what project managers would call an "implementation detail." ;-)

  • The next Rembrandt (Score:2, Insightful)

    by p3d0 ( 42270 )
    One man blind since birth drew a side view of a car that's as good as anything I could draw!
    Really? This [berkeley.edu] is the best you could draw?
    • I have been moded down for the parent post, so apparently my comment is subject to misinterpretation as making fun of the blind. I don't care about the former (as I have reached the karma cap), but the latter bothers me, so I suppose I should explain myself.

      I simply meant that Mr. James Landay was grossly overselling the capabilities of this new drawing tool. If I hadn't actually seen the art [berkeley.edu] that had been produced by the tool, his description would have led me to believe it looked more like this [mvcc.net] or this [westcoastw...rvanes.com].

    • Yes, I'm not a great sketcher (with or w/o computer).
      I cannot draw anything like the two figures you posted. I stand by my original comment. Also, the car was by someone who was blind from birth and has no experience drawing or using the program (IC2D).
      • Yes, I'm not a great sketcher (with or w/o computer).
        I cannot draw anything like the two figures you posted. I stand by my original comment. Also, the car was by someone who was blind from birth and has no experience drawing or using the program (IC2D).

        On the other hand, with force feedback being an option these days I'd think blind people would have some advantage drawing 3D shapes at the very least and being able to do some mostly decent 2D drawings if the stylus would "bump" over lines already drawn (there is already a mouse that can do force-feedback and is thusly a good choice of tools for blind-rendered art).
      • Hey, that's cool. I don't want to minimize the importance of this tool either. The point--I forget where I read it--about trying to imagine using a traditional paint program with the monitor turned off really makes you realize just how hard drawing would be without something like this.
  • This story reminded me of this Star Trek episode where Riker says:

    "A blind man teaching an android to paint? That's gotta be worth something to someone."
  • Don't see the canvas...BE the canvas.

    -Pete
  • "Kamel, 40, who lost his vision 17 years ago through a surgeon's error." Damn, I'd be pissed! I hope he got a nice settlement out of that one.

  • Ahh... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SageMadHatter ( 546701 ) on Monday July 01, 2002 @10:17AM (#3800193)
    A deaf man composed some of the greatest music the world has ever heard. When will a blind man come along that will draw the greatest paintings? Mad Hatter
    • Actually, he could hear through bone conduction. He sat at a piano with a long stick. One end was placed against the harp and he held the other end between his teeth. Still, great music though.

  • Drawing for the blind? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I guess this was how the Pontiac Aztek was designed...
  • I can only imagine the kind of stuff a blind person would draw. Probably the kind of things that would make a powerful impression on anyone.

    Honestly, I'd like to see a good blind artist become famous, it would be neat to see what people think.

    It would be true art (and not in the Santa Fe sense, where you could barf on a canvas and sell it for $2700)

  • Positioning the mouse. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    After looking at some of Mr. Kamel's works I realised, according to the counter, that I was the 1st person to visit the page. This is after 47 comments. For shame.

    Now on to my thought, Mr. Kamel is not tone deaf and there is the problem with repositioning the mouse to some point on the canvas. Is there any reason there could not be some sort of tonal feedback from the canvas to indicate where the mouse is positioned? I don't have time to invent it but the technology exists. Some of you folks have time to do it. We're talking sensors the size of a pixel and a modified mouse.
  • Do you have any Screenshots of this application ?

    oh, wait ...

  • Simpler interface (Score:2, Interesting)

    by RDPIII ( 586736 )
    One could also use WordsEye [att.com] and maybe add a speech frontend.
  • Hey, the blind aren't that bad at "visualizing" and drawing, but web designers they are not. Red on green? Ug. :)

  • Unfortunately the system doesn't appear to be able to tell the operator that red links on green background [berkeley.edu] are very difficult to read!
  • It could just as easily be argued that drawing is simply the process of conveying an idea from their mind's perception of it to an external manifestation. The fact that it requires a visual component is more of an afterthought. If I place an object in a black bag and have someone place their hand inside, feel the object, and then draw a picture of it (either by hand or some other means) with their eyes closed, the individual should still have an understanding of what the object is. I am left wondering how many of the people posting here that have commented on what a blind person can or can not do have actually seen, spoken to, or worked with a visually impaired or totally blind person. Judging by most of the comments here I would say not too many. A number of years ago a friend of mine (yes, who was blind) made a comment to me. He said "I am blind, not stupid." :)
  • For years the promotional literature and reviews for Dragon Naturally Speaking have mentioned the MouseGrid technology which was "patent-pending". The idea behind MouseGrid is precisely the basis for IC2D--dividing up a region into 3 x 3 squares, homing in by subdividing each subregion into 3 x 3 squares, etc; furthermore, Dragon Naturally Speaking uses voice commands to select these regions. I have seen no mention of Dragon Naturally Speaking on the IC2D web site. Shouldn't a researcher at least acknowledge prior work?

    I'm beginning to think that the Bakers are the only true innovators in natural language processing.

    • We saw the Dragon MouseGrid years after coming up with this idea in IC2D. It is of course different in that Dragon's requires a visual interface, but it is indeed a quite similar idea (and that is more evidence it is a good idea). We have no problem crediting their work in future papers.
  • berkeley.edu = Univerity of California at Berkeley not University of Berkeley.
  • This reminds me of a company, Zform, that is starting up interactive games for the blind. I wonder how much longer it will be before the blind can get addicted to EverQuest like the seeing. ;-)
  • don't you think it's kinda wierd that this guy's site uses colors that aren't suitable for reading by colorblind people?
  • The discovery that blind people can draw (and use techniques like obscuring and perspective) wasn't discovered here. I'd rather give credit to John M. Kennedy at the University of Toronto, a Cognitive Psychology prof who's been working with blind children for years.

    He's published at least one book, "Drawing and the Blind" (Yale Press, 1993), and there's a course at Scarbourough College on the subject: PSYCH54S [utoronto.ca]. The link will take you to the course notes, which includes excerpts from his book.

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