These Synthesia Glasses Help Blind People “See” Via Sonar

People who have been blind since a young age can sometimes learn to develop a sort of low-grade echolocation. This technique, used by the likes of Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Ronnie Milsap, and Ben Underwood, works much the same way as it does in bats and dolphins. But people who have just recently lost their sight can't harness this ability innately. They need the vOICe to do it for them.

Invented by Dr. Peter B.L. Meijer, Principal Scientist at the Netherland's Hemics BV in 1982, the vOICe (as in "Oh, I See") is what's known as a sensory substitution device (SSDs). SSDs instigate a mechanical synthesia—transforming visual information into audible representations—in order to overcome a lost sensory ability. The image below is that of Dr. Meijer mid-conversion.

SEXPAND

The vOICe consists of a glasses-mounted camera for collecting visual data, a backpack-carried laptop running the conversion software, and headphones to project the converted sound into the patient's ears, scanning left to right like a sonar sweep. While Meijer did come up with the idea in the early '80s it wasn't until nearly two decades later in 1998 that the necessary components had shrunk to portable sizes and even that used a desktop webcam—which was quickly replaced with a pair of those "spy" sunglasses you find in Skymall. The system still uses spy glasses, though users can also download the software to their smartphone and use its camera instead.

As the vOICe website explains:

The vOICe converts images captured by a camera into "soundscapes" delivered to the user through headphones at a default rate of one soundscape per second. Each soundscape is a left to right scan of the visual scene with frequency representing the image's vertical axis and loudness representing brightness... The user therefore experiences a series of "snapshots" passing from the left to the right ear.

Some studies have suggested that the brain adapts to the long-term use of these devices, rewiring itself to "see" sounds, like Daredevil. Claire Cheskin, a long-time user of the vOICe, toldNew Scientist that she can interpret full images roughly akin to her lost sight just by listening. "I've sailed across the English Channel and across the North Sea, sometimes using the vOICe to spot landmarks," she said. "The lights on the land were faint but the vOICe could pick them up." What's more, some skilled users able to do the same without the aid of the SSD. The next step will, obviously, be Geordi LaForge-style visors. [PopSci - SeeingWithSound 1, 2, 3 - Images: Seeing With Sound, diagram (below): New Scientist]

Sign-language service via iPads tested by JR East

A JR East operator uses sign language Monday on an iPad screen in Shinagawa Station as the railway began testing a new service for the hearing-impaired. 

June 19, 2013 

East Japan Railway Co. began testing a sign-language interpretation service in Tokyo on Monday using a videophone application on an Apple iPad tablet for the hearing-impaired.

The application allows passengers at information booths to use sign language and ask questions to a call-center operator via the iPad. The operator then orally relays the questions to a JR information guide before using sign language to return the guide’s answers to the passenger.

The test service will be available at 12 information booths in seven JR stations — Tokyo, Shinagawa, Ueno, Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Akihabara — from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily until next March before JR East considers whether to expand the service.

JR East had previously only used written messages for guiding hearing-impaired people.

“The new simultaneous interpretation service makes communication smooth,” an information booth attendant at Shinagawa Station said.

JR East said the system will also be used to communicate with foreign passengers by connecting them with operators who can speak English, Chinese or Korean.

Source: The Japan Times

MACH system from MIT can coach those with social anxiety

Plenty of people out there have a serious phobia of public speaking and there are tons of other disorders, such as Asperger's, that severely limit a person's ability to handle even simple social interactions. M. Ehsan Hoque, a student at the MIT Media Lab, has made these subjects the focus of her latest project: MACH (My Automated Conversation coacH). At the heart of MACH is a complex system of facial and speech recognition algorithms that can detect subtle nuances in intonation while tracking smiles, head nods and eye movement. The latter is especially important since the front end of MACH is a computer generated avatar that can tell when you break eye contact and shift your attention elsewhere.

The software then provides feedback about your performance, helping to prep you for that big presentation or just guide you out of your shell. Experimental data suggests that coaching from MACH could even help you perform better in a job interview. What's particularly exciting is that the program requires no special hardware; it's designed to be used with a standard webcam and microphone on a laptop. So it might not be too long before we start seeing apps designed to help users through social awkwardness. Before you go, make sure to check out the video after the break.

Interactive braille smart phone maps for the visually impaired

Although Blind Maps is only a concept at this stage, it really is a remarkable one. The device, conceived by designers Andrew Spitz, Ruben van der Vleuten and Markus Schmeiduch during a 36 hour project at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, is a handheld interactive smart phone maps accessory made for the visually impaired. Using tactile-sensitive haptic technology, the interface has a perforated braille-like screen with pins which move to show navigation. Constantly receiving information and adapting, Blind Maps warns of changes to the user’s route, responds the user’s progress and gives options for bird’s eye or line view. Very impressive concept, let’s hope it becomes a reality.

Blind Maps: Concept for a Braille Interface - Navigation System for the iPhone from markus schmeiduch on Vimeo.

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  Andrew Spitz, Ruben van der Vleuten and Markus Schmeiduch: Blind Maps

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  Andrew Spitz, Ruben van der Vleuten and Markus Schmeiduch: Blind Maps

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  Andrew Spitz, Ruben van der Vleuten and Markus Schmeiduch: Blind Maps

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  Andrew Spitz, Ruben van der Vleuten and Markus Schmeiduch: Blind Maps

Further reading:

www.industrialdesignserved.com

Found via Fast Co Design

DARPA's Crazy Mind-Controlled Prosthetics Have Gotten Even Better

We've known for a few years now that DARPA-funded prosthetics research is yielding some pretty incredible technology. We're not talking incredible in the robotic cheetah sense. We're talking incredible in The Incredibles sense of the term. Specifically, DARPA is literally building superheroic technology that enables amputees to control prosthetic limbs with their minds, and it's getting pretty darn good.

This initiative has been around around for a while, but this just-released video of a man using a technique called Targeted Muscle Re-innveration (TMR) for Advanced Prosthetic Control shows how tantalizingly close we've come to prosthetic perfection:In science fiction terminology, you might sayDARPA is building cyborgs, bionic men and women who for one unfortunate reason or another have lost a part of their body. Thanks to science—and a research project that's years in the making—they can now have it back and will soon be able to live completely normal lives.

Notice how he handles that cup of coffee with relative ease? There's no Wi-Fi connection making that happen, just his brain and muscles.

The brilliant devices comes out of DARPA’s Reliable Neural-Interface Technology (RE-NET)program. “Although the current generation of brain, or cortical, interfaces have been used to control many degrees of freedom in an advanced prosthesis," explains Jack Judy, DARPA program manager, "researchers are still working on improving their long-term viability and performance."

Judy explains that the new prosthetic technology doesn't plug directly into the brain as some mind-controlled limbs do. Instead, it reads the brain signals that are already pulsing through local nerves and muscles. Indeed, these signals are the some of the same interrupted signals that cause the phantom limb effect. Reconnecting those nerves to a robotic wires seems like a great way forward, and in fact, the military is already moving in that direction. "RE-NET program advances are already being made available to injured warfighters in clinical settings," said Judy.

DARPA's not the only one working on this kind of technology. Robotics departments across the country are scrambling to become the first to make the perfect Luke Skywalker cyborg hand or the best robo-arm. Amputee Zac Vawter managed to climb the 103-floors of the Sears Tower last year using a mind-controlled leg:

From here on out, we start to approach Star Trek-scale technology. One step up in sophistication from limbs that connect to nerves and muscles are devices that plug directly into the ol' grey matter creating what's called a brain-to-computer interface. A team of researchers built a bulky but functional setup that enabled a paraplegic woman to give herself a drink of water for the first time in nearly a decade. Can you even imagine? Probably not but you can watch one more time! Watch 'til the end for the full mind-blowing effect:

This is only the beginning. We've seen bionic eyes help blind people see again. We've seen scientists 3D-print livers, blood vessels, jaw bones and stem cells — to name only a few ways we're printing human parts. There's even a crazy neuroscientist, Miguel Nicolelis, who's building an exoskeleton that will enable a paralyzed person walk just like a normal person. He plans to unveil it at the next World Cup in Brazil, where he wants the device to help a patient walk out onto the field in front of billions of people. It's an amazingly brazen idea. But all of these projects are also just plain amazing. [DARPA]

Review: Attractive Locus Workstation standing desk an excellent choice

Brendan Wilhide@BrendanWilhide

• May 23, 2013 11:00 AM

Focal Upright’s Locus Workstation is the company’s flagship product. Martin Keen, the man who founded the Keen shoe company, designed this upright desk. After he sold his shoe company, Keen started Focal Upright, and the Locus Workstation began shipping last year.

The Locus Workstation is something of a hybrid between an adjustable height desk and a standing desk. The desk is fully adjustable for height and pitch—it can accommodate anyone at a height between 4-feet 1-inch and 6-feet 8-inches—and features a large hand crank that changes the pitch of the desk surface from completely flat up to an angle of 15 degrees. Once selected, the desktop locks in place automatically.

BRENDAN WILHIDE

When I tested the Locus Workstation as a standing desk, I was able to use my MacBook as I normally would through a workday, typing on my Mac and using my wireless mouse—the laptop stayed in place despite the desk being angled slightly downward. Eventually, I found a preferred angle and can work without feeling any strain in my wrists or hands.

FOCAL UPRIGHT

Locus Seat

I’m told many ergonomists often say that your best and most comfortable position is “your next one,” which is to say that your body responds best when you keep active and change your position from time to time. Whilestudies have shown that standing is more beneficial than sitting, it is still important to take regular breaks from standing all day.

When I felt like sitting, I used Focal’s Locus Seat, another hybrid product; it’s a seat/perch that matches the Locus Workstation. The Locus Seat looks like a bicycle seat on top of a stool at an odd angle. I liked the Locus Seat, but it took a while to adjust to its unique position—you’re not fully seated, nor are you completely standing. Locus Seat puts you in a position that's slightly forward, with your legs stretched out comfortably, and you can still reach your computer. The range of motion when seated is similar to that while sitting on a yoga/fitness ball; I was able to reach from side to side comfortably and could still rock back and forth a bit if I liked. It's a new-but-comfortable position.

While using the Locus Workstation, I don’t take as many breaks as I usually do. I typically feel some soreness in my neck after some time while at a regular desk, but I don’t feel any pain while using the Locus Workstation.

BRENDAN WILHIDE

Bottom line

The Focal Upright Locus Workstation is a complete standing, height-adjustable ergonomic workstation whose functionality is matched only by its sleek design. The Locus Workstation may not fit into every budget, but for workers looking to invest in an ergonomic, height adjustable workstation, it is an excellent choice.

Focal Upright Furniture Locus Workstation

At a Glance

The Locus Workstation may not fit into every budget, but for workers looking to invest in an ergonomic, height adjustable workstation, it is an excellent choice

View full product specs »

Price when rated:	$1299 (Lotus Seat sold separately $690)

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Original article at: Macworld.com

Google makes Android easier to use for visually-impaired users with TalkBack and BrailleBack

by Aditya Thawardas on May 18th 2013, 12:42am
tagged blind, braille

Google has made some great enhancements to the Android platform with the goal of making their devices more user friendly to people with blindness or low-visibility. Google engineers have simplified the process for developers to augment their code to let Android use its accessibility features for these users. These accessibility features utilize either TalkBack (a spoken feedback system), or enable connected devices which give a blind person a legible description of the display to read using BrailleBack (a Braille emulator). TalkBack is already implemented in Android, while BrailleBack is available in the Play Store.

These features were put on display at an “Enabling Blind and Low-Vision Accessibility on Android” presentation at Google I/O. Developers were explained how to optimize their applications to take advantage of Android’s accessibility tools.

Mobile Accessibility by a Spanish company called Codefactory has already been assisting blind users for a while by using a simplified audio-based user interface. Their developers say that Android’s new enhancements will allow the company to work on new features for the service.

It’s really great to see support being improved for the visually-impaired community. There’s no reason everyone shouldn’t be able to experience how great Android is.