Access on Main Street

We have yet to quite see the point of Twitter, the online service that lets you keep the world posted on the most minute details of your day (”Retrieved bellybutton lint, 5:04 PM”). But at least now there’s TwitterFone, a hands- and cost-free option for creating Twitter posts via speech recognition of phoned-in updates. As the article points out, this could also be used to create to-do lists for yourself, so maybe there’s a purpose after all.

Gadgetell.com: Twitterfone: why type when you can call in your tweets?

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

Sprint Nextel is ending its Voice Command service, which allowed users to store numbers and say names to dial them.  Is this a tragedy?  Not really, but like Hamlet, it is marginally interesting.  Voice Command was a network-based service; that is, the names, numbers, and matching voice files were stored on Sprint’s network.  Now that so many wireless handsets have voice dialing, the network service isn’t that useful (or billable), but the network cost of maintaining it was probably as high as it ever was.

So chalk this up as another salvo in the endless battle between network/shared resources and those feasible in every pocket.

Sprint discontinuing Voice Command on July 1st - Engadget Mobile

Evolution Robotics has announced that its ViPR visual search engine will arrive on the iPhone this June. What’s a visual search engine? Take a picture of any book, CD, or DVD, and information about it comes back to your mobile phone. Sounds amazing, no? It even works when the object is upside down or partially hidden.

Consider the implications for blind, low vision, and cognitively disabled users, especially once it can recognize other objects, places, people….

Magic: Visual Search Engine Coming to iPhone in June

 We’ve been posting about this keyboard-with-OLED-keys for quite a while now, and it’s finally gotten a review, with good pointers (like, wait for version 1.0 and a price drop).  It seems that this thing is not really made for everyday typing, and you have to program it all yourself, but the display-keys really do work, and can even show movies (”Now playing on Backspace, Groundhog Day“)!

So consider how cool a nonvocal communication aid you could make, with animated inputs.   And cognitive support galore.

Review: Ten Things You Need to Know About the Optimus Maximus Keyboard Hardware