Gizmodo Australia » accessibility

Google Makes It Easy for Blind to Dial on Touchscreens

Mark Wilson — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:04:22 +0000

How could a blind person ever possibly dial on a touchscreen? Really, any ideas? Google engineers T.V. Raman and Charles Chen have developed a system that’s so simple it’s almost embarrassing.

Instead of making the user find the right place to press their finger, the engineers made the software find the user’s finger. Wherever the user touches when dialing becomes 5, and from here things are pretty obvious. Swipe up for 2, down for 8 and way down for 0.

For those watching the clip, skip to about 2 minutes in for the actual demo. And if you’re interested in finding out more about how Google is making Android accessible to those who can’t see a touchscreen, the link at the end of this post will lead you to a bunch more YouTube demos of their Eyes-Free Android Project. [YouTube via NYTimes]

Rock Band Drum Kit Gets Wheelchair Accessible (With How To)

Jason Chen — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:20:00 +0000

The folks at Kinetic Communications took the Rock Band Drum Kit, which totally isn’t wheelchair accessible thanks to its bass kick pedal, and put US$20 worth of their own accessibility mod into it to make sure it is. All it took was a doorbell, a Y cable, a pair of pliers and some sweat and they made a Rock Band kick pedal that can be activated from on the drumsticks. Super cool, Kinetic. Hit up their site to see how you can do this yourself. [Kinetic]

Touchless Keyboard Lets Disabled People Type With Their Heads

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:01:10 +0000

This touchless keyboard system’s breakthrough is that it combines both the typing and the mousing in a single sensor. When configured on a standard PC, the user wears the headgear shown in the picture, and navigates and types by moving their head and neck. Here’s what separates this product from similar ones:The machine translation is quite shaky:

Kana dedicated keyboard input specification and development of new acceleration sensor module with Ma UNTOSENSA.

From what I can tell, that means the innovations include a dedicated single input for both keyboard and mouse functionality, and an acceleration sensor that measures not just the movements themselves, but their force and three-dimensional direction too.

Akihabara quotes the price in Euros, nearly 1800â‚¬, so that means well over $2,000. For now. [Actbrise via Akihabara News]

T-Phone Concept For the Elderly, Lazy

Sean Fallon — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:10:38 +0000

Nine digits, that’s a hell of a lot of numbers to remember–especially if you suffer from what many of my elderly relatives call “senior moments.” And forget about trying to explain contact lists and voice dialing, it’s all witchcraft as far as they are concerned. This T-Phone concept from designer Jeong-Kyun Nam aims to make things a little easier with its unique RFID badge dialing system. Each badge can be programed to remember someone’s number, and a picture slot makes identifying the correct badge easy. To make a call, all Grandma has to do is place the correct badge onto the call button and press. The phone will read the info and then dial the number.

If this phone were ever put into production, the easy to read buttons and large badges would make it easy for anyone with impaired vision to operate the device. Still, I can’t help but envision old folks leaving these badges at every Denny’s restaurant in town. [Yanko Design]

Lomak Light Control Frees Hands for “Better Uses”

Seamus Byrne — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:00:08 +0000

Lomak (Light Operated Mouse and Keyboard) allows for control of an entire computer through the use of a light pointer, accommodating those who have difficulty with traditional input devices.

Operated by hand or head, users aim the beam of light at a pad holding rotary-style letters and numbers. As the light passes over each button, it appears on screen without the need for clicking or nodding or any special gestures. Thereby, typing requires only slight dexterity in a system with nearly no learning curve. Also, no special software or calibration is required, and the Lomak in no way changes the UI of your existing programs.

The Lomak won gold in the 2007 IDEA design awards and we hope to see the design actualized soon. How men everywhere will explain the need for hands-free web browsing is not yet known. [design via scifitech]

LevelStar’s Icon Mobile Manager is a Screenless PDA

Seamus Byrne — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:40:56 +0000

The Icon Mobile Manager by Levelstar is designed with a different clientele in mind: the visually impaired. Instead of a screen, the Icon features audio menus to help the user navigate, and acts as a hub for daily technology-related activities. This thing is just a great idea, designed specifically to give functionality to a user base that hasn’t enjoyed a PDA this full-featured. Despite being a niche product, the Icon Mobile Manager doesn’t skimp on power.With Linux under the hood, it’s fueled by a Lithium Ion battery, and the Icon boasts a sizable 30GB HDD with room for expansion via a Mini SD slot. The device is fully wireless, sporting both Bluetooth and 802.11b, which is nice for users on the go who want to keep up with their audio books, podcasts and music.

It’s a little large at 5″x3″, but it only weighs half a pound so it’s still portable. The Icon Mobile Manager also has stereo speakers built in, though the package comes with a set of earbuds to take advantage of the unit’s headphone jack.

To fully use of some of the Icon’s more advanced features, such as Web browsing, we imagine users will want to buy the dock that comes with a Braille or QWERTY keyboard. Besides that, the device does everything you’d expect for a handheld. Be ready to pay a lot more, however. The Icon Mobile Manager costs $1,395 for the unit alone, and is available only inside the United States. – Kevin Hall

Product Page [LevelStar via popgadget]

Motion-sensitive Tablet PC To Help People With Disabilities

Seamus Byrne — Tue, 01 May 2007 11:03:42 +0000

The make-your-device-a-Wiimote craze continues. Now is British Telecom researchers at Ipswich who, putting on their Mario hats and completely ignoring the fact that this technology already exist in some laptops, have developed a Tablet PC with motion detectors to make easier for people with disabilities to use the computer.

They say they want to use their combination of hardware and software to make easier to control de computer and allow people to turn pages just by moving it. In other words, the same things you can do with a MacBook today, but with an add-on thingy. Well chaps, call us back when you can do a light saber with that. â€“ Jesus Diaz

Motion-sensitive laptop developed [BBC News]

Subtitle-Reading Glasses Make Cinema-Going for the Hard of Hearing Less, um, Hard

Seamus Byrne — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:41:03 +0000

Here’s something that could be a godsend for the hard of hearing who feel they are not getting their money’s worth in the movie theater. A nifty little idea thought up by some clever people at Madrid’s Carlos III University for the Spanish Center for Subtitles and Closed Captions, this gadget fixes onto a person’s glasses to give them access to subtitlesâ€”even in a subtitle-free showing.

The technology is simple: There is a computer in the cinema that emits the subtitles to within 50 meters, and also deals with their synchronization. A receptor in the glasses captures the signal and projects it onto the microscreen, which fits over the right-hand lens. It’s easy as pie to useâ€”one button turns the gadget on and off and another one restarts it. â€“ Ad Dugdale

Gafas con subtitulos a la carta [El Mundo]