Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind the source for blindness news and information since 1907

On October 4, I watched a live blog as Apple introduced its newest iteration of the iPhone. While many were expecting a completely redesigned iPhone 5, what we’ve been given is an iPhone 4 on steroids–dubbed the iPhone 4S. The shape of the phone remains unchanged, but it is sporting some nice software upgrades. The most notable is something called Siri, which I’ll explain in more detail in a minute. While this new phone didn’t necessarily wow the tech world–who were waiting for some incredible new device–the impact of this most recent Apple Update Event could be large within the blind and visually impaired community.

First, with the newest iPhone 4S coming out next week, pricing has dropped drastically on the older models. While the new 4S will start at $200, the standard iPhone 4 will now be $100 with a two year contract. But the biggest news is that the iPhone 3G will now be free with a two year contract. While the 3G model isn’t the latest and greatest, it is still an amazing device that will continue to be supported by Apple. For any of you who have been on the fence about buying a smart phone, now might be the best time to do it. As multiple writers have said here in the past, while there is a learning curve involved, the voice-over software on the iPhone makes it the most accessible smart phone choice out there.

Now, onto the newest upgrade–Siri. Siri, as it was explained, is going to be your humble personal assistant. Available only on the newest iPhone 4S, Siri is able to listen to a host of voice commands and respond in turn. What is so remarkably different about Siri, though, is its ability to understand commands in normal speech. Instead of saying, “Call Dad’s Mobile,” you can say, “Can you give my Dad a call?” More than that, it can handle voice-to-text as well, so saying, “Text Bill and let him know that I’ll be a few minutes late” will result in a text message to Bill alerting him of your delay exactly how you spoke it. When creating a text message, Siri will compose it and read it back to you, giving you the opportunity to edit the message or simply say, “Send.”

Siri goes way beyond calls and text messages, though. If you ask, “How is the weather going to be today?” Siri will read you the forecast. You don’t even have to talk that official. You can simply say, “Will it be chilly out today?” and Siri will tell you something like, “No, not really. The high for today should be around 76 degrees.”

The potential for software like this is incredible, because it creates a communication bridge between you and your phone without the need to see or touch anything. In a way, it even makes voice-over moot. I’ve spoken before about how the future of technology for the blind will be drastically improved, and available at a much lower cost, when there is mutual use for both the blind and the sighted. Siri is a massive leap forward in that direction, and its implications, should it work properly, are huge.

As technology advances, devices and hardware that would have been prohibitively expensive years ago can now be had at a fraction of the price. Not only that, but with a little know-how, some incredible things can be created in a home workshop that have the potential to really improve the independence of blind and visually impaired individuals.

Case in point, a new glove has just been developed called the Tacit. The glove– which is actually just something that you wrap around the back of your hand and loop over your middle finger–is equipped with four directional sonar sensors that scan the area in front of the user in a wide sweep. As the sonar sensors detect objects in front of the user, they send a signal through a controller to two small cushioned servo motors, which apply light tapping pressure to the back of the hand. As the objects get closer, the pressure increases, letting the user know the object’s proximity to them. The sensors are sensitive enough to detect the distance to objects from one inch to ten feet away. The device is powered by one 9-volt battery and is entirely self-contained within a custom made neoprene wrap.

What’s nice about this device is that is takes virtually no training to learn how to use it, and since it doesn’t impede any motion of the hand, the user’s sense of touch is still available and it can be used in conjunction with a cane.

What is even more impressive about this particular device, though, is that it is a Creative Commons licensed Do-it-Yourself project, meaning that if you know someone who is good with electronics, they could download the parts list, schematics, and necessary code off of the internet and build it for you.

This device is important for two reasons. It has shown us that incredibly useful mobility devices can be easily created using inexpensive existing technology. This device would be a perfect complement to current mobility training and would provide more information about the world surrounding its user–which is always a good thing. Moreover, it’s a design open to the masses. A company didn’t develop this for a profit and patent its design. The creator recognized that this device would improve both mobility and independence and wanted to make it available to anyone. In an environment where inventions are protected to an almost-militant degree, this is a breath of fresh air.
Source: http://technabob.com/blog/2011/08/20/tacit-haptic-glove-for-the-blind/

It’s a fact that we, as humans, create a ton of data–something which has been outlined in previous articles in this magazine. As our population grows and technology improves, our need for a larger data network will increase as well. As a result, companies are trying to figure out ways to improve and enlarge networks while simultaneously offering secondary services to consumers.

Enter Microsoft, and their idea to heat homes with cloud servers. Computing “in the cloud” is really the future of data storage and accessibility. But as more people begin using it, the need for more servers to handle the increasing stream of information is becoming apparent. As a way to both increase their number of available servers and help consumers, Microsoft believes that they can heat apartment and office buildings by using the radiant heat off of the servers themselves.
Their report stated, “Physically, a computer is a metal box that converts electricity into heat. The temperature of the exhaust air (usually around 40-50 degrees Celsius) is too low to regenerate electricity efficiently, but is perfect for heating purposes, including home/building space heating, clothes dryers, water heaters, and agriculture.”

This idea basically turns all of your usage of the internet into a way to heat your home–kind of like attaching your stationary bike to a generator, but without all of the exercise. The benefits are definitely abundant, though. Carbon footprints will be reduced as data usage increases, which will further reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use for heating purposes. Heating costs will be taken care of for many people in various applications from normal room heating to water heaters and dryers–which will save consumers a lot of money–and Microsoft will be able to expand its network and offer consumers more reliable service as well.

Instead of creating some massive underground server farm that sucks energy like a vacuum and wastes all of that heat, Microsoft’s idea offers a solution to the problem that will actually help people without requiring any change in behavior. On paper, it seems like a perfect symbiotic relationship between the corporate and public world.

I’m always cautiously optimistic with these kinds of things, so it will be interesting to see if its execution, should it occur, will stay true to their pure idea. These deals can either work incredibly well for all parties involved, or one or both parties can get greedy, demand more of the other than is reasonable, and the whole thing falls apart. This proposal really has some great potential, so I hope that of the two scenarios, the former plays out.
Source: http://dvice.com/archives/2011/07/microsoft-wants.php

Last week, Alena Roberts wrote an article about the financial inaccessibility of Braille technology. In my response to her, I said that as far as I can tell, the only real way that any sort of tactile technology could become truly affordable is if it can have a functional use in both the blind and sighted communities. With access to both markets, companies will be developing the product or products for a much larger pool of consumers, which will then reduce the cost. Unfortunately, at the time of that reply, that was as far as I could go, as I had no real solution or product idea. It seems now that there may have been a huge change.
Currently, there are a few crossover products or features that are used by both blind and sighted individuals. Off the top of my head, I can think of the vibration feature in cell phones (which was actually originally developed for the blind) and voice-to-text software, which has become very popular as a time-saver in lieu of typing. But now, researchers are developing touch screens that are capable of offering tactile feedback that is accurate enough to display real Braille lettering.
Apparently, this is not a new study. Research has been performed to create what’s called “programmable friction,” which yields more of a sticky sensation than anything crisp. But a new concept, called “tixtels,” or tactile pixels, is being experimented with to create a fine electrical field that can be felt by touch. The display, using something similar to static electricity, will allow the user’s skin to feel the touch interface. This could mean that buttons or icons will be felt, and possibly images as well.
This is exactly the type of technology that will be a game-changer for access to Braille, and education for the blind in general. With a display like this, that appeals to both the sighted and the blind, manufacturers will jump all over the opportunity to offer it in their newest devices. By using these displays, everything from Braille text to tactile pictures would be instantly available and at a cost many times lower than what is currently offered. Without all of the moving parts that come with the current displays, reliability will be increased and maintenance costs would be greatly reduced as well.
This is perhaps the most promising piece of crossover technology I’ve come across yet, and I really hope that some of the big guns in technology (I’m looking at you, Apple) decide to incorporate this into their future products.
Source: http://www.geekosystem.com/tactile-pixels/

Many of you are aware that the iPhone is one of the best mobile devices available to the visually impaired today.  Well, chalk another one up for the iPhone, because there is now an app which will identify US currency.

The application utilizes the camera in the iPhone to recognize all American currency–from the one dollar bill up to the hundred dollar bill.  Unfortunately, those of you with thousand dollar bills will just have to wait for an update.

Money, especially American money, can be tricky sometimes.  While everyone has their own way of recognizing the bills already in their possession, any new bills feel exactly the same.  That money in your hand could be a few ones, or a few twenties.  European countries have provided a solution to this problem by introducing different sized bills for each denomination.  These differences allow the blind and visually impaired to easily identify the bills in their hand without any outside help.  America just hasn’t implemented anything like this yet.

The app is especially smart as well, and can identify bills if they are folded, making it a fast-acting app for users on the go who don’t feel like waiting for a currency identifier to let them know what they’ve got.  You also don’t have to worry about getting the whole bill in the camera’s view, either, as the bills are visually different from one another.  The app is programmed to recognize the sometimes subtle differences between the bills and read off the money you have quickly and correctly.

For any of you who own and iPhone, you can find the app in the app store.  It’s called the LookTel Money Reader, and is on sale for $2.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/#!5780678/an-iphone-app-that-identifies-currency-for-blind-people

While the term “cloud computing” is relatively new in our vocabulary, it has been used for quite some time.  The majority, if not all of you, receiving this magazine via email are computing in the cloud.  What that means is that you can access your email everywhere because it is all stored in an online database instead of your computer’s hard drive.  Gmail, for example, allows its users to store thousands of emails on its servers so that you can check your email everywhere and on any computer or enabled mobile device.

Cloud computing has gained increasing popularity for other applications as of late due to its ability to make important data available at a moment’s notice, whether it involves that crucial presentation to the board or a television show you recorded but haven’t watched yet.  With wireless internet, 3 and 4G high speed services in certain mobile phones and devices, and increased connectivity across a variety of programs, cloud computing has finally found an environment where it can change the way we use computers in our everyday lives.

Another change will affect how computers are built, as well.  By utilizing cloud computing, hard drives with massive storage capacity will become obsolete.  If the majority of your data is stored off of your computer, there’s simply no need to have it anymore.  Devices like the iPad and the Kindle have already begun doing this by removing the need for a conventional hard drive and replacing them with smaller, less expensive flash memory chips.

But the real benefit of this new computing style lies in its ability to make computers universally accessible.  Currently, your computers all run an operating system like Windows or Mac’s OS X.  They require a hard drive to store all of the files that direct the countless processes the computer must complete in order to function.  But what if that bulky operating system was replaced with simple software which could run some necessary applications, but its main duty is to simply connect you to a more advanced system stored somewhere else–your computer in the cloud, so to speak.  Your “cloud computer,” as we’ll call it for the purposes of this article, could be available anywhere, on any device capable of accessing it.  All accessible software, like your screen reader, would be available everywhere as well because it would be tied to your “cloud computer.”  You would no longer need to rely on a home base to access your data.  By incorporating a thumb drive, you could easily hook it into any computer, cue up an accessible login, and access your entire computer, with all of its adaptive software, from anywhere in the world.  Incorporate a smart phone or mobile device and you will quickly find that the computing world is without any doors or barriers.

A non-profit organization called A Human Right is attempting to buy one of the world’s largest communications satellites from Terre Star, its bankrupt owner.  The purpose of this purchase is to provide free internet access to the poorest regions of the world.

The school bus-sized satellite could easily be moved above places like Papua New Guinea, where less than three percent of its population has internet access.  They believe that internet access, like clean water and shelter, has now become a necessity–a way for developing countries to help themselves.

Currently, the group is asking for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to put in a decent bid on the satellite.  While this money will only get their foot in the door, it will open them up to numerous potential investors who would be able to invest capital into this philanthropic business venture.  The company also plans on developing and distributing inexpensive satellite modems so that users can hook themselves into the network on the ground.

There will be miles of red tape to slice through, a great deal of planning, and probably a lot of luck to make this all work out.  Satellites don’t come cheap and other communications companies looking to expand their networks are probably clawing for the opportunity to add one of the best pieces of equipment floating above Earth to their fleet.

Still, with all of those obstacles in the way, this group has a chance to offer something for free that many of us take for granted every day.  If they’re successful, education, healthcare management, political involvement, and economic growth are all distinct possibilities for countries that could use improvements in every one of those categories.  The internet is one of the most important tools for success in any endeavor, and while it may not be an inalienable right, it is certainly crucial for development in today’s increasingly complex technological world.

Source:  http://gizmodo.com/5704185/have-150000-buy-this-bankrupt-satellite-to-share-internet-with-the-poor

We’ve spoken before about the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch, which is roughly the size of this country and represents years of pollution that is finally catching up to us.  Now, two companies are developing a way to collect and process the plastics that make up the patch and turn them into usable diesel fuel.

Through a partnership between Kaisei and Covanta, an ocean clean-up initiative and renewable resources company, a new collaborative effort is being made to solve the problem of the garbage patch while being able to simultaneously create a usable byproduct from the floating waste.

Kaisei is currently planning on multiple research missions to collect and analyze the types of plastics in the patch to determine the best way to convert them into usable fuel.  Covanta, who has been involved with renewable energy projects at the municipal level, has also done some work on marine debris and is looking to develop a system that is catered to that type of waste repurposing. 

The main barriers now are a lack of defined technology to make this all happen and funding to develop those technologies.  Kaisei needs the tools to conduct the research, and Covanta’s systems aren’t quite ready for commercial applications just yet.  It’s one of those frustrating, glass ceiling situations where the goal is defined and the development of the appropriate systems is very possible, there’s just a delay in getting all those pieces together.

This partnership does have support from some large groups, though.  The Clinton Global Initiative organized the partnership between the two organizations and both are members of the initiative’s Rethinking Waste group.  Former President Bill Clinton recently spoke at the UN and could potentially gain funding from many sources if he can present the problem as a global issue and not just an American one.

The ultimate goal of this collaboration is huge, as it will represent a reduction in a massive amount of waste while providing fuel for our everyday lives.  Hopefully their funding gap will close and they will be able to aggressively seek a solution to this problem and begin their operations as soon as possible.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1690136/print

With the recent Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, much has been written about the worst-case scenario involving the very powerful Gulf Stream current whisking millions of gallons of oil up the eastern seaboard and across the Atlantic.  But what engineers are looking into now is not a doomsday vision of the Gulf Stream infecting the world’s oceans, but rather providing energy to millions of people.

A team from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University wants to install an underwater turbine system that could capture the massive power of the stream and convert it into usable energy.  They estimate that the power generated by the stream would be 21,000 times greater than that of Niagara Falls, enough to power one third of the entire state of Florida.

The turbines will not be stationary, though, as the stream does undulate and change its path.  They will gather the energy in swarms, like schools of fish, and will be either tethered to the sea floor and allowed to move on a leash, or connected to a movable platform at the surface.  While this design is complex and will take some time to develop, it will allow them to harness as much energy as possible from the stream.

While this is big news for Gulf residents, other projects have sprouted around the globe, as well.  In Scotland, nearly 7 million dollars has been put into a tidal energy project.  By 2013, ten turbines will be set up which will provide energy to all of the whisky distilleries and malteries.  Another, much larger turbine (the largest tidal turbine in the world, actually) will be put in place in Scotland soon.  It will initially generate enough electricity for 1,000 homes, but with upgrades, will provide 700 times more power by 2020.

It’s comforting to see investment in ocean-based energy that doesn’t involve fossil fuels.  Our oceans contain massive amounts of potential energy that is constantly staring us in the face.  By funding these projects, research institutes are able to prove that hydroelectricity on a grand scale is not only highly beneficial, but that it requires much less environmental impact and further removes us from a dependence on fossil fuels.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.fastcompany.com/node/1685851/print

A new concept device has entered the mobile communications world.  It’s called tactile texting, and is designed by a Dutch engineer named Guuste Hilte.  It targets two main groups: the blind and visually impaired, and those who have a tendency to text at times when looking at their phone would be unsafe or ill-advised.

The device looks quite interesting and is about the size of a hockey puck.  On the top, there are a series of grooves that serve as the tactile interface.  The groove pattern is a circle surrounding a square that is split into quadrants.  The quadrants have an X crossing them from corner to corner.  To text, you simply run your fingers through the grooves in the shape of the letter you’d like to input.  It is assumed that things like symbols or including spaces would have defined groove shapes or swipe actions as well, but the article does not mention those.  The device connects to a cell phone wirelessly by using bluetooth.  Eventually Hilte hopes to create a thin model that could be mounted to the back of a cell phone, eliminating the need to carry it separately.  On the site, they show a concept vision of it residing on the back of an iPhone.

As was mentioned before, the device targets two main groups.  For the non-visually impaired crowd, the device supposedly allows users to do things like text while driving or walking without having to look at the phone.  This doesn’t seem like much of a solution, though, seeing as the person’s attention would still be focused on creating the text message and not the environment around them.  Plus, an additional device to carry around seems superfluous for sighted people who could just as easily stop walking or quickly pull their car over if sending a text is necessary.

For visually impaired users, this device seems to be somewhat more useful.  With many desirable phones utilizing non-tactile touch screens, this may be a quick fix for people who would like to send text messages.  However, it doesn’t solve the other problems associated with touch screen phones.  Sure, it can enter text, but what about opening the text message window?  It seems that the device’s function is too specific.  Also, the article mentions that cell phone software is prohibitively expensive for blind and visually impaired users.  This is true in many cases, however they feature the iPhone in the article, a device that audibly guides users through all areas of the phone while still using a touch screen, and all with included software.

I also find myself thinking about Bob Branco’s article this week.  Is this a beneficial device or yet another example of the sighted assuming things for the blind?  There are many of you who use cell phones every day and have no issue texting or performing any other function.  Many of you use the iPhone and celebrate the fact that it is so user-friendly.  You clearly don’t need a grooved hockey puck to use them.

What are your thoughts about this device?  Is it a step in the right direction that will make texting much easier, or is it simply a cool concept device that may have won an award or two, but further reinforces the notion that many sighted designers don’t consult their target audience enough when coming up with new hardware created just for them?  Let me know what you think in the reader’s forum.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662207/an-interface-that-allows-the-blind-to-text