Help now a text away
Waterloo, IA is the new national center of 911 accessibility; their call center can now receive text messages, and the operators can respond in kind. There are still a few potential bugs in the system–for example, the caller needs to be able to identify their location, which may be difficult for some nonverbal individuals with cognitive disabilities–but overall, this is a huge step forward.
uCan uCord
We’ve previously written about automatic cameras for dogs, but the idea has now been appropriated by people, presumably to continue the every-little-moment-has-a-meaning-all-its-own mentality encouraged by Twitter. However, this wearable audio/video recorder does have consequential applications for people with severe dexterity, speech, and/or cognitive disabilities; it could be used to record and therefore communicate about experiences, as well as serving as a safety cam. Wish the battery life were more than 2 hours, but if this catches on we might see some improvements.
Immersion: not all wet
Immersion has 2 new prototypes out, on display at the All Things Digital conference. TouchSense is a haptic keyboard for touchscreen phones. Users can “feel” the keys, and especially the borders between keys for heads-up or eyes-off typing. ImmersiveMessaging is a way of creating and sending haptic messages, like a beating heart. Probably doesn’t have the resolution needed for conventional-sized braille, but may have some use for tactile-only information display. Really, folks, we’re just doing target practice here until real stuff shows up.
D7 Demo: Immersion | Oliver J. Chiang | D7 Highlights | AllThingsD
La vida ProLoquo
USA Today reports a classic example of how basing assistive strategies on mainstream equipment can be cost-effective. Most communication devices used by individuals who are non-verbal due to either speech or cognitive disabilities are either highly simplistic or cost thousands of dollars. However, ProLoquo2Go, based on an earlier software program for the Macintosh, runs on the iPhone. Total cost for app + iPhone = $500, and no extra charge for the fact that this solution has the aesthetic advantage of being a standard piece of equipment rather than a bulky and “special” device.
Oh, the thinks you can think
A children’s hospital in Toronto is working on an innovative strategy for mind-control interfaces. Instead of trying to directly interpret thoughts–the lead researcher on this project doubts this could happen, and we agree–the system works by interpreting brain activity as an indicator of positive or negative reaction to different options, such as choosing between two soft drinks. Apparently this differs from prior systems in that it is user-independent; anyone can use it without having to train the system first. Could this someday become sophisticated enough to interpret whether a computer user “prefers” the OK or Cancel button in an active dialogue box?
Accenda heights
A Kansas City company called Accenda is marketing Voice Control, a voice recognition interface for the iPod. While this has clear implications for people with dexterity or visual disabilities, we’re intrigued by the manufacturer’s claim that Voice Control “may also be ‘trained’ to recognize commands in other languages or to better understand iPod owners with strong accents.” Hmmm, is dysarthric speech accommodated in there too?
Hear say
Apparently we missed the press release a couple of years ago on Motorola’s CrystalTalk noise reduction and voice enhancement technologies. We’ll make up for it by noting that LG is about to release their own version, DSE.T, by the end of the year. Clear benefits for hard-of-hearing people; we’d like to see how this works for people with mild to moderate speech disabilities, too.