Chameleon lamp reacts to ambient background
The Huey lamp senses the color of whatever it’s sitting on and changes to match that color. What we’d love to see as a related product is a lamp with the same type of sensors, but that responds by changing to a light color that would maximize contrast for elders and people with low vision.
OhGizmo: Huey chameleon lamp changes colors to match whatever he’s sitting on
Instapaper auto adjusts contrast based on time of day
Instapaper is a neat little iPhone app that lets you save websites for future perusal. What’s interesting about its latest release is that it lets you enter your location, and adjusts the text/background contrast from dark-on-light to light-on-dark around the local time that the sun sets. Since we all need more contrast as we age, could you also enter your birthdate and have the contrast auto-adjust for that too?
Ready, set, Odiogo
One of the most popular assistive technology features we’ve been asked about in recent years is the ability to convert text to downloadable audio files on the fly. Now there’s Odiogo, a free, mainstream service that does the same thing for “news sites and blog posts.” Great for anyone who prefers audio format or who benefits from simultaneous reading and listening. The only drawback is that it’s not controllable by the end user; instead, the website owner has to sign up for it.
Exquisite control
Oh my, we do like the Sony RM-KZ1 universal remote. Originally designed for kids, its main buttons are all distinct shapes (easy to distinguish by touch for blind folks) and have high-contrast labeling. Plus, it prevents volume from being changed too much too fast. It’ll set you back all of $18 at Target.
Still better Windows text-to-speech
Balabolka adds new features to free text-to-speech for Windows. You can import all kinds of files, set the voice characteristics you want, change the speed and emphasis, etc., then export the results as audio files, say for an mp3 player. Note that this is not a screen reader — it’s a utility for producing better-than-average synthetic speech for almost any text you have.
Balabolka Enhances Windows Text-to-Speech with Reading Styles and Audio Export
Diminished Reality
We’ve covered augmented reality interfaces, where a video image is superimposed with additonal content, such as the history of a building your camera is pointed at. Now researchers at the Technische Universität in Ilmenau, Germany are going the other way — removing objects from the camera’s output, in real time. This might work well as a wayfinding interface for people with low vision or cognitive disabilities. Imagine a street scene with all the signs still there, but none of the bustling, distracting people. Like a 10 megapixel neutron bomb.
Gizmodo: Magic Software Eliminates Objects From Reality Itself
Nokia if you got ‘em
You’ve got a Nokia N8 phone. You’ve got a TV or other display with an HDMI interface. You plug the former into the latter, and voila: an instant magnified, touchscreen-style interface for a limited number of functions, such as running a slide show or operating a calculator. More capabilities to come, we hope.
MobileCrunch: Nokia turns any display into a touchscreen with “Plug and Touch.”