Access on Main Street

Designer David Chacon has come up with a small remote for controlling devices all over the house. Besides the convenience for people with mobility disabilities, we particularly like the large, intuitive iconography–no reading capability required–and the potential for creating custom icons for specific products.

Dvice: Universal remote concept reminds us of the all-in-one gadget dream

One of the problems for some would-be speech output users is that most speech output strategies require tricky or intense use of the keyboard, mouse, or both; this can be a particular problem for seniors. Some German researchers have come up with a pretty cool solution involving use of facial recognition technology: just close your eyes, and Microsoft Word reads back the “current” sentence (presumably the one where the cursor is located). Ein guter Start; we’d love to see additional features, such as the ability to blink slowly to have the speech output move to and read the next line.

ACM Digital Library: Spoken words: activating text-to-speech through eye closure (summary)

Firmo is a prototype system that uses a weak AC field to transform your skin into a signal transmission system for use with appliances, point-of-sale systems, and so on. Could be great for those with limited dexterity–or even no dexterity; we assume noses and toes would transmit just as well as fingers.

Crave Asia: Transmit data through your skin with Firmo

What’s better than a mainstream product with accessibility features? Why, a whole Microsoft competition full of promising designs, of course. We particularly like the electronic music stand that allows score pages to be turned via touch screen or foot pedal, the bracelet that wirelessly uploads information, and the neck-worn PC that automatically captures exciting events on tape (audio or video?) whenever the user’s heart rate increases–all of which could be useful to people with various levels of dexterity disabilities. Also submitted was the previously-noted ZEN PC with its tactile interface.

Gizmodo: Next-Gen PC concepts include laser screens, tactile interfaces, glossiness

We don’t usually cover one-off devices here, but this one’s too cool not to mention: an audio-only version of Ping Pong. You tilt your head to “center” the sound of an approaching ball; if you’re successful, game play continues at an increasingly faster rate. Of obvious interest to blind individuals, it’s also totally hands-free so it could be playable by folks with dexterity disabilities, too.

Mike McCracken: Audio Ping Pong

Samsung–one of the most frequent company names to show up on these pages–has patented a gesture-based interface for cell phones. Could be useful to people with some types of hand/arm disabilities; depending on its reliance on movement precision and its ability to be combined with audio output, could it be an improvement over touch screens for blind users?

Engadget: Samsung skips the touchscreen, patents gesture-based phone interface

Nokia is first-to-market with a mobile phone with built-in short-range wireless technology: near-field communication (NFC).  (Note that we just used up this month’s allotment of hyphens.) NFC will let you buy stuff just by passing the product and your phone near a checkout scanner, eliminating the credit card gymnastics that are difficult for some folks with reduced dexterity, and the signature pads that vex blind customers.  Some security scenarios (Caution: sibilant account balance near zero) may complicate this a bit, but in most cases it’ll be a net gain in ease and convenience.  Just watch those dollars drain away!

Nokia’s 6212 with Bluetooth NFC: Let the pairing revolution begin! - Engadget Mobile