Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind 153
prostoalex writes "ACM News Service links to a page on Cornell University Web site that describes a technology developed by researchers to enable blind people to read maps. According to the article, the software package consists of "Java computer code that could translate images into sound, and a rudimentary software program capable of converting pixels of various colors into piano notes of various tones"."
Finally blind people can experience online porn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Finally blind people can experience online porn (Score:3, Funny)
wiki wiki wha wha wiki wha...
Re:Finally blind people can experience online porn (Score:2, Informative)
Why Bother? There Are Great Braille Maps (Score:2, Insightful)
We've got one of the Washington DC area up on the wall, with different textures for water, forests, highways, etc. It's about 5 by 5 feet.
There are others that're book sized, of the U.S. and the world. They're pretty cool.
http://www.independentliving.com/prodinfo.asp?numb er=309300&variation=&aitem=4&mitem=5
Re:Why Bother? There Are Great Braille Maps (Score:1)
Re:Finally blind people can experience online porn (Score:2)
turn on the sound and hear:
A! A! A!. AAAAhhh. OOOOhhh. YEA, BABY! AAAA! OOO, what's that? Ouch, that hurt! EEEWwwwww!!! Do it again! AAAA! Damn that rabbit!
Wow! (Score:2)
What will be the sound of... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What will be the sound of... (Score:2, Funny)
cat lastmeasure/hello.jpg >
It sound like 'shshshshshshshshshh'.
Re:What will be the sound of... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What will be the sound of... (Score:1)
Re:What will be the sound of... (Score:1)
That's and easy one. It will sound hollow.
Re:What will be the sound of... (Score:1)
Probably a lot like the Wilhelm.
Re:What will be the sound of... (Score:2)
I dunno, but it will have one hell of an echo.
Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind (Score:2, Informative)
For the uninitiated:
Re:Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind (Score:1)
Oh yeah, there's a Potter/Weasley/Snape version too:
One tracked mind (Score:5, Funny)
There most be better use for this technology, but apperently there arent.
Re:One tracked mind (Score:4, Funny)
Does listening to porn make you deaf? I think some serious scientific research is needed!
Re:One tracked mind (Score:2)
Oh no this is bad (Score:1, Funny)
I'll tell you what happens... (Score:2)
A symphony of bullshit.
Re:I'll tell you what happens... (Score:1)
They all copyrighted already by RIAA.
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:cat file | /dev/soundcard (Score:1)
see no evil, hear no evil (Score:3, Funny)
Re:see no evil, hear no evil (Score:5, Informative)
I wonder if the brain can be trained to "see" a mental 3D image from these sounds and how long it would take. A blind woman I knew was an experienced computer user and she had her screen reader set to max speed. For me it was impossible to hear what it was saying, the reader did not attempt to use pronounciation rules, it was all just a confusing staccato of fast phonemes which blended into each other. "ATT-ECK-APP-SA-BA..." Not very pleasant to listen to, but she had no problem "reading" letters using this almost as fast as I could with my eyes.
Perhaps children can learn to see a full picture from sounds, but I wonder about adults. I have tried a "picture book" for blind children. The images were large and very simple. There were in 3D, but very flattened of course, and always "from ahead". Different material textures were used (fuzzy fabric for papa bear's fur, rippled plastic for water etc), but it was INCREDIBLY difficult for me to "see" with my fingers what an image was if I hadn't peeked beforehand. Any attempt to include some sort of perspective would have made it impossible.
Listening speed (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if they could practice doing it with different voices in each ear? That would be pretty amazing...
Brain-Ear Limitations (Score:2)
As I understand it, there's a hardwired limit in the human brain that keeps one from processing information coming in from seperate ears, at least without some surgery on the corpus callosum, same as how there was that recent study showing that you can't ignore an angry voice; your brain will still process it and act upon it.
Re:Listening speed (Score:2, Informative)
Ray Charles could drive (Score:3, Interesting)
I heard this YEARS ago, probably in some car magazine somewhere...
Anyway, some car manufacturer was releazing a new convertible, Renault I think, and had an ad campaign which essentially said that the new car was so fun that even Ray Charles liked it.
So they wanted to film him driving it and singing.
They flew him and the cars and cameras out to Bonneville Salt Flats and discovered something odd.
Ray knew how to drive. H
Human sonar (Score:2)
Re:see no evil, hear no evil (Score:1)
Re:see no evil, hear no evil (Score:1)
They have a test course near their studio, and guests on the show have to drive a car around the course, and their time is put on a leader board. I don't know how long the course is, but a professional driver in the current top end Merc
Re:see no evil, hear no evil (Score:2)
Re:see no evil, hear no evil (Score:1)
"Turn that thing off and keep your ears on the road, dammit!"
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
Man, I was doing that in 1996 (Score:1, Funny)
bash$ cat
If I heard sound, my soundcard was working. This could presumably be done with *.jpg's as well.
Re:Man, I was doing that in 1996 (Score:1)
Something like http://actsofvolition.com/archives/2005/january/t
Re:Man, I was doing that in 1996 (Score:1)
Wanna bet? I've been using cat
Re:Man, I was doing that in 1996 (Score:1)
cat
Like (Score:3, Interesting)
A fun drawing program in which tone is determined by pixel color.
Java!? (Score:4, Informative)
Starting countdown to first comment..NOW.
Seriously though, this sounds great. My previous job was at the Swedish national library for the blind/visually disabled. Their lives have gotten a LOT easier with technology, and especially the net, but there are still lots of problems.
The greatest service you can do to them is make sure all web pages you make are HTML 4.01 compliant though. Alt tags for pictures are of course important (even if it just saying "logo"), and screen reader programs are not as forgiving as IE/Mozilla/Firefox et al when it comes to confusing tags.
Re:Java!? (Score:1)
Re:Java!? (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't ignore that one since I do a lot of work with some of the accessibility researchers, including one who is blind. Meaningless ALT tags are more of a nuisance than a help. HTML compliance is not a bad thing
Re:Java!? (Score:2)
It's true, overuse of ALT attributes can just add noise to a page.
For a good overview of Web accessibility, check out the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessbility Guidelines [w3.org].
EricWhy is William Shatner's face on my cereal box? [ericgiguere.com]
Re:Java!? (Score:3, Insightful)
I figure you were just trying to be cute and/or get this out of the way, but it does bear a bit more examination.
It's funny that the meme here on /. seems to be "Java is so big, bloated, slow and buggy it just sucks" when in fact it's being used for lots of interesting, cutting edge software projects. Freenet, speech recognition, game development, many Apache projects, Azureus...there are plenty of cool Java packages out there.
The fact is tha
Re:Java!? (Score:2)
Yep, getting it out of the way. I agree with you on the topic of Java. It was probably because of that I added you as a friend before.
Re:Java!? (Score:1)
Does it work? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Does it work? (Score:2)
Converting images to sound beeps is similar to a product that has been available for decades - viewing images with a group of pins (like those old dot matrix printers). They were popular because blind people could 'feel' the images. Some could even read regaular books and magazines with them. The problem is that fingers eventually lose their sense of touch if overused. So, it wa
way cool (Score:2, Redundant)
Re:way cool (Score:2)
Will porn sound like hot lesbians masturbating? Will LaTeX sound like my Mathematics lecturer from last year?
What about pictures of the Buddha, or Jesus, or any other religious figure? Will pictures of steak sound like cows?
I never get anything (Score:1)
I read this and my first thought was:
Please don't run porn through a baby!
post more like this at night (Score:1)
Music to images? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Music to images? (Score:1)
Re:Music to images? (Score:1)
Edges, textures and sound (Score:2, Interesting)
Partly offtopic: a free software to convert images to tactile graphics using
Beep Boop boop Beep! Beep Bada Boop! (Score:1)
Coagula (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Coagula (Score:1)
Also BATS (Score:1)
Didn't Daredevil Already Figure This One Out? (Score:2)
my best sig is this one.
Pft, old. (Score:4, Informative)
Already existed in 2002 [scene.org] ;-)
/* Steinar */
Will this top video.google.com in uselessness? (Score:1)
For example:
A snippet of Conan O' Brienhere. [google.com]
at 20 minutes >> Conan: this is very nice. >> Conan: you might want to boil ebay and sayy Conan wore it. S get our priorities ackson." Ings.
Metasynth? (Score:2, Interesting)
It's been doing this for a long time. But I guess because it's Mac only many people won't have heard of it.
And yes it sounds much better than Coagula, but no it's not free.
Old News (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Old News (Score:2)
Re:Old News (Score:2)
Smell ya later!
Technology to allow blind to read maps (Score:1, Offtopic)
Blind person on blind date (Score:2)
Aphex Twin (Score:1)
This site [kempa.com] has more information about the Windowlicker song.
Pr0n for the blind (Score:1)
Re:Pr0n for the blind (Score:2)
Map Reading For the Blind (Score:1)
No, a little to the right.
Okay, now forward.
Wait! Stop! Back up a little.
A little to the left....
Hell, we could teach 'em Logo and get more done.
The vOICe (Score:2)
Another free proggie I've used in the past is the vOICe. [seeingwithsound.com]
I'm not blind, but I like to make wierd experimental music, and the vOICe is a neat tool for watermarking, steganography, [slashdot.org] and just plain general wierdness. It's windows only, though (Sorry, team), so I imagine no extra credit for me!
Tip: Fractals make really nice noises.
marcopolo.jar (Score:2)
At this point, the user can hold shift and enter "icyhot mode", whereupon their mouse clicks generate audible "warmer" and "colder" and various incarnations of such descriptions, to help them find the route that the computer has generated for them.
Another assistive technology is in the works for assisting users in knowing when an image ha
Converting Images Into Sounds for the Blind (Score:1)
If they could implement this soon enough, it would help Cobra (<URL:http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedi
to counter the secret move of false king Babel of Sodes sword men race (episode 21)
One time in college... (Score:1)
From Johnny English (Score:2)
Johnny English: It may be pitch black, but we can still see.
Bough: Can we, sir? How?
Johnny English: The Bedouin monks of the Al Maghreb mountains developed a system of sonic chanting.
Bough: I see, sir.
Johnny English: The sound of their chanting would bounce back off any obstacles, and using their highly tuned ears they could paint a mental picture of the path ahead.
Bough: Brilliant, sir.
Johnny English: However, you must always sing in E-flat.
Johnny English: [singing] T
touch arrays better? (Score:2)
Users of these arrays, both blind and sighted, say that after a few days you brain starts automatically "seeing" them as visual images. One guy mention
Can you see what i'm hearing? (Score:1)
Georgi? (Score:2)
Understand it (Score:1)
Using auditory cortex for visual processing (Score:1)
From Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate, pages 95-96:
Let me turn to the most amazing plasticity of all: the rewired ferrets whose eyes fed their auditory thalamus and cortex and made those areas work like a visual thalamus and cortex. Even here, water is not being turned into wine. Sur and his colleagues noted the redirected input did not change the actual wiring of the auditory brain, only the pattern of synaptic strengths. As a result they found many differences between the co-opted auditory brain and a
Already a product (Score:2)
UNC Research (Score:1)
More than just blind people can't read maps (Score:2)
a technology developed by researchers to enable blind people to read maps
How about next having a technology that will help sighted but clueless people read maps? So few people nowadays have this skill. We need a tutor program that starts telling people "North is up". :/
Oblig. Quote (Score:1)
Close Encounters (Score:2)
So it's a reverse-Spielburg device then?
Everyone's blind sometimes (Score:2)
Re:Everyone's blind sometimes (Score:2)
JaVOICe (Score:2)
Here's the website of the current incarnation [seeingwithsound.com] of that application.
So -- the eternal
I'm working on UPC - voice code for mobile phones (Score:2)
I've been working on adapting my UPC reading code for series 60 mobile phones to query upcdatabase.com and read the output via a screen reader such as talx. My biggest obstacle has been trying to contact developers of such of programs in order to get information on how to get their programs to speak the text I print on their screen. Another problem is the lack of a web database which maps EAN-13 values to product names, which is necess
Re:Affected my eyes (Score:2)
Re:even better (Score:1)
Re:What will be the sound of... (Score:2)
Ppprrfrrffrrrrttttt..... (Score:1)
Re:Mods are insensitive clods - this *is* on-topic (Score:1, Offtopic)