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B&D Messenger Helps the Blind Read SMS
Posted by Gizmodo US Edition at 2:30 AM on August 24, 2008
The B&D messenger, designed by Okada Noriaki, bills itself as a way for both blind and deaf people to communicate via text message. Though there are several Braille phone products already in the market, Noriaki device is much smaller in size and pretty inexpensive. On one side of the gadget is twelve points that rise and fall in braille lettering; on the other side is a small LCD screen and a regular numerical touch pad. Users must connect the B&D messenger to a computer for it to receive and translate texts.
Noriaki lowered the B&D's cost by building it's chassis out of cardboard (the entire thing can be put together yourself), and by running its braille lettering program off an open source platform. I'm not completely sure how this technology helps deaf people any more regular phones, but it's a cool concept for helping out the visually impaired. [B&D Messenger via Tuvie]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
heylookitscook
Posted 2:54 AM 24/8/08
Honestly, do blind people even care about text messaging? I am pretty sure if they put this down they are going to lose it. Let alone, plug this into a computer, click the send recieve button etc...
I think its a rediculous idea.
heylookitscook
GadgetPlay
Posted 3:09 AM 24/8/08
A rather unfortunate name...
GadgetPlay
icntdrv
Posted 3:06 AM 24/8/08
I don't believe that this is designed to help deaf/mutes communicate by itself. It seems that it would be more geared towards helping blind persons to communicate with deaf/mute persons. There is a severe language barrier there where the blind person can't view the sign language and the deaf person can't hear the spoken language, both are pretty much barred from speaking with each other. This adds frustration as many schools for the disabled have both blind and deaf students/faculty present.
The deaf have been using text messaging to communicate for years. The T-Mobile Sidekick was a godsend. I had a deaf roommate once and that is almost the only way we had of communicating. For that reason and many others I can see how this would be useful. Needs to work independently of a computer, though.
icntdrv
ViperBorg
Posted 3:41 AM 24/8/08
I think the real question is:
How the hell are blind people going to put that together?!
ViperBorg
GadgetPlay
Posted 3:30 AM 24/8/08
BDSM(S)
GadgetPlay
yungjerry703
Posted 4:31 AM 24/8/08
inexpensive cause it looks like its made of cardboard!
yungjerry703
enchantedgoose
Posted 5:08 AM 24/8/08
@yungjerry703: READ YOU IDIOT
enchantedgoose
pardyhardy
Posted 6:47 AM 24/8/08
@ViperBorg: Are you serious?
@GadgetPlay: AHH you got it before I did. Damn.
It's nice to see that some people are devoting their time to help blind/deaf be more independent. That is, gadget loving blind/deaf people.
pardyhardy
sccleric
Posted 7:14 AM 24/8/08
Unless I'm mistaken, it looks as if someone also punched braille lettering into the cardboard, rather than having it punched out where one could actually feel the letters. It looks like they just punched little braille holes for the look.
sccleric
HisBoyElroy1971
Posted 10:20 PM 24/8/08
@heylookitscook: Actually yes they do, but since most of them already have software on their cell phone's that read SMS messages to them, this isn't very useful. And unlike your "rediculous" (sic) assumption, typically the blind don't immediately lose everything the minute it leaves their hands.
HisBoyElroy1971
FiveLiters
Posted 1:45 AM 25/8/08
The third pic looks a little "cube-from-hellraiser-ish"...doncha just hate when you're just trying to send a text message,and you accidentally loose an army of demons on an unsuspecting world?
FiveLiters
cmantito
Posted 2:42 PM 25/8/08
I think it's an interesting idea. While cardboard does seem a bit over-cheap, I think it's actually not a bad idea to make it from cardboard on the grounds that I doubt things like healthcare are going to cover such a product. It does seem like it could be pretty expensive..
Now it just needs to attach to a phone over bluetooth and that'd be awesome! (And not really too hard to do in theory...)
cmantito
ViperBorg
Posted 10:49 PM 28/8/08
If you are blind, how are you going to put that together?
ViperBorg
ViperBorg
Posted 10:48 PM 28/8/08
@pardyhardy: I wish I was.
"Noriaki lowered the B&D's cost by building it's chassis out of cardboard (the entire thing can be put together yourself)"
ViperBorg