The day I bought my iPhone 4, one of the very first apps I purchased and installed was the Navigon GPS app. It wasn't long before I retired my trusty Trekker, and as time passed I think I downloaded and tried every new GPS app, including BlindSquare, which I reviewed recently for the July issue of AccessWorld .
Recently, I was given the opportunity to check out another GPS app, this one for Android. Nearby Explorer is available from the American Printing House for the Blind for $99. InstallationNearby Explorer requires a device running Android version 2.3 (Gingerbread) or later, at least 3.7 gigabytes of storage, and either a built-in GPS chip or the ability to connect an external GPS receiver. After installation, the first time you open Nearby Explorer you are presented with the license agreement. Next, you are prompted to turn on location services, if they are not already enabled. After that it's time to download the maps. Nearby Explorer installs the full set of NAVTEQ maps on your device. This allows most of the app's features to work, even without a data connection. It also occupies a lot of storage space, over three gigabytes, so you will probably need a Micro SD card installed on your phone. In order for the maps to download, you need to be on a Wi-Fi connection. I tested Nearby Explorer on an LG Optimus F3 running Android version 4.1.2. At first the maps refused to install on my SD card. I had to wait for an app update, after which the maps installed fine. I am told that prior to KitKat, Google's support for downloading maps onto SD cards was problematic. The developer plans to update this critical ability on Android versions KitKat and later. For now, before purchasing the app, you will probably want to subscribe to the Nearby Explorer Support List (see instructions under Product Information at the end of this article), and make sure your phone model and Android version are supported. The Nearby Explorer Main ScreenNearby Explorer's main screen offers a number of different checkbox options you can adjust for voice monitoring. Each of these options will self-voice whenever its value changes. For example, if you check the City option, Nearby Explorer will speak the name of the new city you just entered, then remain silent until the city changes again. The enabled items will continue to voice, even with your screen locked. I definitely enjoyed this way of doing things, as it allowed me to set Nearby Explorer to give me just the information I wanted, without voicing information I consider extraneous, such as the number of satellites in range, or repeating the same information, such as the street name. Running the app with the screen locked also stopped the voicing of other Android alerts, which otherwise had a tendency to interrupt app voicing. Many of these monitoring options offer extra functionality if you perform a touch-and-hold gesture. These are described below. Nearby Explorer offers 20 monitoring options, which are listed below with descriptions provided for those that are not self-evident.
Getting OrientedWhen you launch Nearby Explorer it announces your current position, along with the nearest POI. Then, as you begin to move, the app announces direction, speed, nearest address, and other monitoring elements you have checked on the main screen. If you'd like to browse the immediate area and learn which streets are nearby and in which direction, press the Menu button, then invoke the Explore option. Nearby Explorer displays a list of nearby streets, along with their distance and compass direction from your current location. Geo BeamIf you'd like a more precise view of what's around you at any time, use Nearby Explorer's Geo Beam. Hold your phone with its screen facing flat and skyward, and its top edge facing forward and begin slowly to move in a circle. When you're nearest favorite or POI is directly ahead of your phone, the device will vibrate and announce its name and distance. For an even more detailed look about, hold your phone with its screen facing left, as though you were about to shake hands. Now, as you slowly circle, all available POIs and favorites within your search radius will trigger audible and haptic feedback. This is an excellent way to hone in on a location. Reach the parking lot entrance and use Geo Beam to get a more precise fix on the store you wish to visit. You can then make a beeline for your destination, assuming, of course, there are no parked cars or other obstacles you need to circle around. By default, Nearby Explorer creates a search radius of 170 yards, but it's easy to shrink or expand this distance. While your phone is in "handshake" Geo Beam mode, your device will display two buttons, "Increase Radius" and "Decrease Radius." You can also change the radius using a touch-and-hold gesture on the main screen's "Nearby Distance" button. I found the first of these methods much easier to use. Map ViewAn additional way to explore your surroundings is via Nearby Explorer's "Map View." Invoke this option from the main screen's Menu control and the app will display a map of your immediate vicinity. Use a two-finger swipe to scroll the map in any compass direction. Touch or slide a finger on the screen to have Nearby Explorer voice streets and POIs. You can also use the Menu button to access several Map View features. You can search for an address, a favorite, or a POI, and have your map move to that location. I was pleased to discover that Geo Beam worked in this mode. So I could locate City Hall, then use Geo Beam to have a look around. Navigation ModeIf you perform a touch-and-hold gesture on a road, after three seconds you will begin to receive haptic feedback. The phone will vibrate slightly as you trace the road's path, and stop whenever you veer off course. This takes considerable finesse and practice. I found it much easier to use the app's Navigation Mode. This option is available through many of the main screen's touch-and-hold menus. Invoke this setting, and a map of the area is displayed, along with buttons to move in all four compass directions: North, South, East, and West. Each press moves you one search unit, and there are Move More and Move Less buttons to adjust this distance. Of course streets and highways do not always move straight along a compass direction. I usually found it preferable to enable the Follow Roads checkbox, which does just that. You can shorten your movement distance down to five yards--when I did this I was able to follow streets in my neighborhood by address, and then-by-turn. Unfortunately, in Navigation Mode the intersections did not announce. Usually the app reported "Near 120, Near 122," announcing address numbers continuing up or down depending on the distance you are moving. It only offered the street name when you were at an intersection, with no information on if the street is a two way, or if it only heads off in one direction. Getting GoingAs mentioned earlier, when you turn on Nearby Explorer and begin to move, the app will announce your position, direction of travel, nearby POIs and any other elements you have enabled on the main screen. Intersections will be announced in advance, with "Ahead" for cross streets and "To the left (or right)" if the intersection only goes one way. All streets I tested using Nearby Explorer reported accurate intersection names, though the distance varied in accuracy, depending on the accuracy of the GPS readings and the number of satellites in view. Nearby Explorer will continue to announce the intersection name and distance until you have reached it. To turn off these alerts, perform a tap-and-hold gesture on the "Nearby" option on the main screen, then uncheck the "Continuous Distance Updates" option. This can be tricky, especially if there is a lot of satellite drift and the app is updating your position frequently. For me, the Nearby control could become quite elusive, requiring me to stop and focus my attention. This was also true for other controls on the app's main screen. Proficient Android users are doubtless much more adept at negotiating the main screen, but for the rest of us, perhaps the developer should consider a touch-and-hold gesture on the app's title bar that would temporarily stop all updates. By default Nearby Explorer attempts to calculate street numbers by dividing the block into sections. Though you do not need a data connection to obtain addresses this way, it can be inaccurate. For example, when walking along a short street with no houses or businesses the app continued to report addresses that didn't exist. If you have a data connection, a far better approach is to enable the "Use Google for Street Addresses," option in the app's Menu/Settings control. I found this way considerably more accurate. So much so, often I could walk on the east side of the street and Nearby Explorer would announce the odd number addresses, then, when I crossed to the west side, it would announce only even numbered addresses. Very impressive. Favorites and Watch ItemsA favorite is a POI that you create for yourself. Your house or apartment might be one of your favorites, or the bus stop nearest your doctor's office, or the entrance to a park or hiking trail--once you turn these locations into favorites, they will be easy to quickly access for orientation and navigation. You can create your own Favorites at any time. Like most people running a new GPS app, the very first Favorite I created was to my home. I did so by tap-and-holding the Nearby control on the main screen, then choosing "Save Location as Favorite." Nearby Explorer placed my address in the Name field, but I changed it to "Home Sweet Home," before tapping the "Save" button to add it to my Favorites list. Now, before heading out for a walk, I could access the Menu/Favorites option, select Home Sweet Home, and add it to my Watch List. During my walk, Nearby Explorer kept me updated on how far I was from home, and in which compass direction my home was located. Creating a watch point can also be an excellent way to navigate to a campus building, or impress your spouse because you know which way to go to find the car in that vast parking lot. You can create a watch point from either your current location or one of your Favorites. We've described both of these above. Now let's move on to a third way to set a watch point, by using a search result. Searching Points of InterestWhen you press the "Menu" button, the first item that appears is the "Pause" button, which can be used to shut down GPS tracking when you don't need it (this will help save battery power). Alternatively, you can press the "Back" button from the main Nearby Explorer screen to shut down the app. The second Menu option is Search. There you are offered a number of options. You can have the app display all points of interest inside your search radius, and use the "Increase Search Radius" and "Decrease Search Radius" buttons to adjust the search results from 25 yards to nearly 30 miles. If you're looking for someplace in particular, or a location further away than 30 miles, you can use the Search Nearby Places, Search Nearby Streets, or Search City/State Code controls. Searching City/State Code requires you to enter the city name followed by a comma, followed by the two-letter state code, for example: Miami, FL. If you find the POI or street you're looking for, tap it and you are offered a number of choices:
Pressing "Set as Destination" before beginning my trip instructs Nearby Explorer to begin offering me spoken turn-by-turn directions. As I travel, Nearby Explorer announces upcoming intersections with their distance, turn-by-turn instructions on how to proceed, and updates for distance and direction. You can set Nearby Explorer to create routes for either walking or driving trips and optimize your route for fastest time, shortest distance or fewest turns. Additionally, you can check whether or not to include highways, toll roads, unpaved roads and ferries. You will only receive a single travel route at a time. The route Nearby Explorer proposed for one trip I make on a fairly regular basis is faster, shorter, and requires fewer turns, but it also requires walking along a busy street with no sidewalks. My preferred route is a bit longer. To travel this way I have to set my destination to a POI about midway along the alternate route, then set my ultimate location from that place to complete the journey. I would like to see this app offer route alternatives, or else the ability to set a single destination with way points so I can route my travel around road was that are difficult to travel. TransitNearby Explorer offers public transportation schedules for many large metropolitan areas. Select this option from the main screen menu button and Nearby Explorer will download the latest information. The app will download any new updates before you can access the routes and schedules. Consequently, I would advise users to access this option before leaving the house so you won't get caught having to use a data connection ifthere isn't Wi-Fi available at your nearest bus stop. Unfortunately, my town's transport system is not listed. I am told that this is because my municipality has not published a General Transit Feed Specification (GTF) file. Here is a link to a list of cities that Nearby Explorer does cover, but I am not sure this list is updated on an ongoing basis. If your city is not on the list and transit directions are critical for you, contact your local transportation authority and inquire if they have published a GTF file. I was able to set downtown Miami as a virtual position and obtain transit options for this location. The screen offered up the location of all stops within 300 yards of my virtual position. Tapping one of the stops called up a list of all buses that service that stop, along with route names and the time of the next arrival of that bus. This is useful information, particularly if you are on familiar ground. If you are traveling to an unfamiliar city, however, you will probably not know the name of the bus route that will help you reach your destination. The transit information Nearby Explorer provides is comprehensive, but not as useful as the information provided by Google Maps using my iPhone. Using Google Maps, I can set my destination before I call up the transit menu. I am then shown the nearest stop, and the time and route name/number of the next three buses that will allow me to reach that destination. Perhaps a future update to Nearby Explorer will include this feature? Final ThoughtsAt $99, Nearby Explorer seems a bit expensive at first. A sizeable portion of these proceeds go to NAVTEQ map data licensing, and unlike the Seeing Eye GPS app for iOS which costs $129 for a three-year license, this is a one-time payment--app and map updates are free. I have never felt so coddled and in touch with my environment while traveling alone as I do when using Nearby Explorer. I wish the app offered alternate routes, more transit information, and a way to more easily touch-locate information on the home screen. These are all minor quibbles that could likely be easily added or fixed in forthcoming updates, however. In the meantime, I have to say Nearby Explorer is without doubt the best GPS mobility app I have ever used, and I give it my highest praise and consider it an absolute must-have app for any and all Android users with visual impairments. Product InformationNearby Explorer for Android Price: $99 Available from: Google Playstore Publisher: American Printing House for the Blind 1839 Frankfort Avenue P.O. Box 6085 Louisville, Kentucky 40206-0085 Phone: 502-895-2405 Toll-Free Customer Service and Technical Support: 800-223-1839 (US and Canada) iPhone 6 and iOS 8: A Look at Accessibility with the Help of iOS Without the Eye, by Jonathan Mosen10/27/2014 Bill Holton
September 2014 was a busy month for Apple, at least on the mobile front. On September 9 the company announced two new iPhones, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. They also unveiled their long-anticipated AppleWatch. The watch--at the time of this writing its accessibility or lack thereof has not yet been definitively established--will not be available until sometime in early 2015. The two new iPhone models were released on September 19, two days after the public release on September 17 of the new iPhone operating system, iOS 8. It's a lot to keep up with, so in this article I will introduce you to the new accessibility features and improvements you will experience when you upgrade to iOS 8, and help you decide if there should be a new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus in your immediate future. iOS Without the EyeApple's iOS 8 was made available to developers in beta form several months back. Jonathan Mosen, author of the excellent eBook, iOS 7 Without the Eye, took advantage of this head start to write and release a complete new edition,iOS 8 Without the Eye. If you are brand new to the world of iOS accessibility, I would not recommend this book as your first iOS tutorial, as it assumes you already have a reasonable proficiency in using VoiceOver, Zoom, and other iOS accessibility features. Novice iOS users would likely be better served by purchasing Shelly Brisbin's iOS Access for All: Your Comprehensive Guide to Accessibility for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, which I reviewed in the July 2014 issue ofAccessWorld. That being said, Mosen's iOS 8 Without the Eye is an exceptional guide for upgraders who want to preview and learn how to use the various changes you will encounter when moving from iOS 7 to iOS 8. The ebook is available fromMosen Consulting for $19.95. After reading this book from e-cover to e-cover I felt more than prepared to upgrade my iPhone 5 from iOS 7 to iOS 8, then, two days later, set up and use my new iPhone 6. The iOS 8 changes and new functionality of interest to users with visual impairments fall basically into two categories: new mainstream features and functionality, and changes and improvements to VoiceOver and other iOS accessibility features. We'll describe a sampling of the major changes below, but first, let's take a look at the new hardware. The New iPhonesThe screens on the iPhone 5, 5s, and 5c were larger than the screens on the iPhone 4 and 4S. The iPhone 6 screens are even larger--4.7 inches measured diagonally for the iPhone 6 and 5.5 inches for the 6 Plus. The phones themselves are longer and wider than previous models. The phones are also thinner--so much so, the camera's sapphire lens cover protrudes a millimeter or so from the iPhone's rear edge. Because of this, it is possible to rock the iPhone just a bit from side to side, but I suspect even a thin case will re-level the phone and make things flush. Along with the size, the two biggest changes to this latest generation are in the placement of the screen lock button--it is now on the right edge, almost exactly opposite from the volume buttons, the same as most Android and Windows phones--and the iPhone's rounded edges and corners. The rounded edges give the iPhone 6 a sleek feel and make it seem even thinner than it is. I found it more comfortable to hold my iPhone 6 for an extended period of time. The screen lock button was a different situation. Gripping the phone in one hand, when I would reach for the volume buttons I had a tendency to grip the phone tighter, and frequently I would wind up accidentally pressing the screen lock button. You can read the complete specifications at the Apple iPhone 6 site but if you plan to upgrade there are only a few choices you will need to make.
To invoke reachability, double-touch the Home button (use only a light touch, not a tap). You'll hear a sort of whoosh sound as the screen shrinks and slides down. Unfortunately, at least for me, there are two problems using this feature with VoiceOver. First, I find it difficult to perform the double-touch gesture with the same hand I am using to hold the iPhone. More importantly, after about 10 seconds with no activity the screen reverts to full size, and iOS 8 does not consider the VoiceOver swiping gestures as activity. So by the time I have swiped down to the control I wish to activate or the e-mail I wish to open the screen has reverted to full size. Hopefully this issue will be addressed in an upcoming maintenance release. Hello from AlexWhether your plans include an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, I would strongly recommend avoiding the 16GB model in favor of either a 64GB or 128GB model. Otherwise you may not be able to enjoy perhaps the most anticipated iOS 8 upgrade: the inclusion of the Alex text-to-speech engine. This extremely high-quality voice will take a full 869 megabytes of storage. The good news is that iOS Alex is the same Alex voice many of us have come to enjoy on the Mac. The bad news is that he is only available on iDevices with 64-bit A7 or A8 processors, including the iPhone 5s, the iPad Air or newer, the iPad Mini with Retina Display or newer, and the two new iPhone models. I installed the Alex voice and found it quite understandable, even at high speeds. However, I found the lower pitch of this voice a bit difficult to understand in loud environments, such as a bus stop, and preferred, at such times, to revert to the Samantha voice, or my personal favorite, the compact version of Australian Karen. Other Accessibility Improvements and New FeaturesLet's take a brief look at some of the other new and improved accessibility features, which are available for all iOS users. Improvements to MapsApple has made some much-needed updates to Maps using accessibility. You will now find a "Tracking" toggle near the bottom of the screen. Enable the "Tracking with Headings" feature and Maps will begin announcing your compass heading, upcoming intersections and cross street names, and points of interest. There is no fine-grain control for how far from an intersection Maps should speak up, and the points of interest list is nowhere near as comprehensive as the POI database used by BlindSquare, which I reviewed in the July 2014 issue ofAccessWorld. Inexplicably, the Maps app does not voice when the phone is locked. Nor does it announce when a road is a full cross street and when it only turns left or right off your current location. While taking Maps for a walk, whenever I reached a "T" or "L" intersection where the road I was traveling on terminated, Maps announced that I was approaching the next road over, despite the fact that I could not reach it directly from my current location. The Maps Tracking feature is a good start, but it does need considerable refinement. ZoomThe iOS built-in screen magnifier can now enlarge the screen up to 15 times. There is also a toggle to do this without changing the size of the onscreen keyboard. Additionally, you can choose to Zoom full screen or in Lens Mode, a smaller region you can set to move as focus changes. There is also a new option in the iPhone's Display and Screen Brightness settings. "Zoom View" enables you to toggle the size of home screen icons from standard to larger, or "zoom," sized. This feature may be of particular use to high partials who need just a bit of magnification. GrayscaleYou can now set your iPhone screen to display in shades of gray instead of colors, and invert the shades, which may improve readability for many. Speak ScreenPrevious versions of iOS allowed you to have highlighted text read aloud. You can now instruct your phone to read the entire screen, even with VoiceOver turned off, using a two-finger slide-down gesture. This feature will be especially handy to Zoom users who are faced with a large text passage to read. You can enable this feature from the Accessibility/Speech menu. QuickNav and Braille DisplaysIt is now possible to use the same QuickNav Safari commands such as next heading, previous link, etc., that Bluetooth keyboard users enjoy with your braille display's input keys, although some users have reported this feature is a bit buggy at the time of this writing. Braille KeyboardWith iOS 8 you can add a brand new option to your rotor settings: a built-in onscreen braille keyboard. This keyboard allows you to type directly into app text edit fields, so you no longer need to jump through hoops to get your text from a braille keyboard app into your e-mail, text message, or other apps. Enable the keyboard in the General/Accessibility/VoiceOver/Braille settings page, where you can choose between uncontracted six-dot braille, uncontracted eight-dot braille, and contracted braille. Because of screen size, eight-dot Braille is only supported on the iPad. iPhones and iPod touches are limited to six-dot Braille. Place the braille keyboard in your rotor, and when you invoke it in an edit field the keyboard will auto-detect your device's position and work in either tabletop or Screen Away mode. You will receive the audio prompt: "To calibrate the dot positions, touch and lift the three right fingers, then touch and lift the three left fingers immediately afterwards." Uncertain of the dot positions? Touch and hold a finger to the screen at any time until you hear two beeps, then "Entering Explore mode." Slide your finger across the screen to locate the position of the various dots, then lift your finger to close Explore mode. Direct Touch TypingIf you are a very fast and accurate touch screen typist, you may appreciate Direct Touch typing. Instead of waiting until you raise your finger off the keyboard character to announce and enter it, Direct Touch typing types the character as soon as you tap it. In his book, Mosen describes how he uses this feature with great success on his iPad equipped with a tactile screen protector. If you experiment with this feature, plan to rely on auto-correct even more than usual, at least until you get the hang of things. Audio DuckingYou've probably noticed that if you are playing music or a video and VoiceOver has something to say, your media's volume will lower slightly until VoiceOver has finished speaking. This is called Audio Ducking. With previous iOS versions this feature has been on by default, but you can now choose whether or not you wish to have Audio Ducking enabled. You can also add Audio Ducking to your rotor to toggle this setting on the fly. Mainstream iOS 8 Upgrades and ImprovementsThe latest iOS includes a significant number of upgrades and new features. There are far too many to cover them all here, so I will concentrate on a quartet of new features that will be of particular interest to sight-impaired users. Third-Party KeyboardsApple is finally allowing users to install third-party keyboards, a feature Android has had from the beginning. If you are a Fleksi user, you will no longer have to rely on cut-and-paste to move your text into e-mails, messages, or other text entry fields. The only exceptions to this are for dial pad type entry fields, and for password fields, at which time for security reasons the standard iOS keyboard will reappear. Fleksi already works as a third party keyboard, although at the time of this writing VoiceOver support is incomplete and developers suggest disabling VoiceOver while using the Fleksi keyboard. The developers of Text Expander have already announced an upcoming third-party keyboard. Myself, I am looking forward to a keyboard that includes a number row at the top, and the many creative and useful alternative keyboards VoiceOver-focused developers will come up with. HealthKitiOS 8 includes a new app called Health. Currently, with my iPhone 6, I can instruct this app to count my steps and flights of stairs climbed for each day and compare that to my average. Great--now I have to carry my iPhone everywhere so I can get credit for every move I make. What's more exciting about the iOS HealthKit is that it is a framework for iOS-connected health monitoring devices, such as the upcoming AppleWatch. Bluetooth scales, workout monitors, treadmills, and other fitness accessories can link to the Health app to give the user a one-stop view. We can also look forward to a whole new generation of connected devices, such as on-the-go glucose and blood pressure monitors. I don't imagine it will be long before these sensors are both collecting this data and forwarding it to your physician so he can fine tune your treatment on an ongoing basis. One Health app feature that can be used right now is the Medical ID. Create a list of any allergies and other medical conditions and it can be made available on your lock screen's emergency control. HomeKitThe iOS HomeKit is not an app, it's a framework that will enable home automation devices to work and play together better. Which means we may be one step closer to an accessible washing machine, dishwasher, and other home appliances. Apple has announced plans to offer a certification program for HomeKit to ensure developers comply with the framework's standards. Please, Apple, include VoiceOver compatibility in this certification process. Apple PayApple just may be in the process of revolutionizing the way we spend our money--and I mean besides shelling it all out for new Apple devices. Both iPhone 6 models include near field communication technology (NFC) and with Apple Pay you will soon be able to keep your credit and debit cards in your pocket and use your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus to securely buy a hamburger, fill a prescription, or pay for a cab or other ride share. Android has incorporated NFC capabilities from the very beginning, and they have tried and failed to make Google Wallet a payment standard. I think Apple has an excellent chance for success, however, and I offer these three reasons:
Apple Pay is supposed to launch sometime this fall. New third-party keyboards are already appearing in the App Store, and I expect the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next January to be crowded with new devices that take advantage of HomeKit and HealthKit. My Experience so FarI already own an iPad Mini, and the larger 6 Plus seemed a bit much to carry around in my pocket, especially since I do not use Zoom and so would gain little from the expanded screen size. So I upgraded to the standard iPhone 6 with 64gig of memory. I also installed iOS 8 on my trusty but now antiquated iPhone 5. Overall, I find the iPhone 6 a much snappier device than my 5. I am also enjoying many of the new mainstream iOS features, including the ability to send a quick audio message, making and receiving phone calls from my Mac with the Yosemite beta, and other new iOS features I do not have space to describe here, but which are covered thoroughly in Mosen's excellent and well-timed eBook. As for VoiceOver, which I use exclusively, I think Apple has taken some giant steps forward, but a few tiny steps backward, at least in this initial .0 release. Here are a few of the problems I have experienced.
If you are a novice iOS user, you may wish to wait for an interim patch release which hopefully will address many if not all of these issues. For more advanced users, I have no hesitation in advising you to go ahead and take the plunge. I can say definitely that iOS 8 is a major upgrade with a host of new and exciting features, and the few accessibility issues you may encounter are more than worth the few minor glitches. Article Credits : http://www.afb.org At MIT’s Media Labs, researchers Roy Shilkrot, Jochen Huber and others are working on the “FingerReader,” a ring-like device that straps itself around your finger and reads printed text out loud with a synthesized voice, thanks to a mounted camera and heavily modified open source software.
The FingerReader’s voice is clipped and metallic – what one might liken to a Berlitz tape speaking through clenched teeth – but it is something the Finger Reader team is aware of and is working on, amongst many other things. The device itself is plasticine and upon first-hand inspection, weighs no more than a regular ring. To hear the words read aloud, simply point your finger at the text you wish to read. It’s possible thanks to a small camera mounted on the ring. It doesn’t work with text as small as, say, on a medicine bottle or baseball box scores, but it can read 12-point printed text, the on-screen computer component shown in the video above highlighting each word to the sound of what Shilkrot described as “bings and beeps.” Stray too far from a line, and a dial tone-like noise increases. Remain on the line of text and you can hear it. And though – as a whole – the FingerReader sounds like a ‘Reading Pen,’ Huber and Shilkrot differentiate it from the Reading Pen, noting that it gives real time feedback, whereas the Reading Pen does not, and that their software can read a whole line of text, and not one word at a time, as is the case with a Reading Pen. In an interview, Shilkrot, a Ph.D student, said he didn’t envision the final version of the ‘Finger Reader’ to be only for people with sight difficulties. He said it was for people with “disability, ability, and superability,” and suggested a scenario in which the Finger Reader translated text in another language. He said it was worth noting that the blind and visually impaired liked using devices that weren’t built just for them. He also pointed towards a study conducted by the Royal National Institute of the Blind in Britain that noted in 2011 that “only seven per cent of books are available in large print, unabridged audio and braille, including titles available in these formats as eBooks,” noting that an easy-to-use device would open up a lot of heretofore unread texts. Though there is no immediate plan to take FingerReader to market, Shilkrot is “aware of the costs of devices these days. [Even so], we still can’t say how much the FingerReader will cost as a consumer product. The technology is still evolving around miniaturization, stand-alone wireless operation, tethering to a PC or smartphone.” Video credit: FingerReader – Wearable Text-Reading Device from Fluid Interfaces on Vimeo. Pediatric ophthalmologist leads first-ever Albinism
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Olevia james-kelleyCo-Founder and Editor of ABM |