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.
Sneaky snapper
Camera Camouflage is a new iPhone app that will pretend to call your phone. Every time you speak, or make any noise louder than the ambient environment, the app snaps a picture. Great hands-free photography option for people with severe dexterity impairments.
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
Like a hand with a cool seven-letter word, or like QWXJJZK?
The first commercial app is now available for the Kindle: a uniplayer version of Scrabble. Can it be used with Kindle’s voice output capabilities? Now that there’s a precedent, will there be other apps that take advantage of Kindle voice output? Will Larry Wanger’s article on Kindle accessibility affect the number of blind users who even buy one? Tune in tomorrow…
Cloudy captions
Online captions make videos accessible to people with hearing or language disabilities, and make content indexing and searching possible for everyone. There are more than a few online captioning tools. But SpeakerText is a bit different. It uses speech recognition and human transcribers to provide text at $2 a minute plus your volume-based monthly fee, with a turnaround of 48 hours. It stores the synchronized transcript in the cloud, and loads a player when people visit the video on your site, with additional features like search and quote. A good price for an innovative service that may help captions go even more mainstream.
SpeakerText Builds the Missing Text Layer for Online Video [Invites]
Gaze into the past
Eyegaze systems have been around for quite some time as a computer access strategy for people with ALS and other causes of near-total paralysis. Now it’s being used as a mainstream hack to operate an old-style Nintendo system, at least for Super Mario Brothers. Will this help advance the quality of the technology for accessibility purposes? Don’t blink or…
Wired: DIYers Mod a Nintendo to Play Mario by Moving Their Eyes
iCade, iSaw, iConquered?
Looks like the iCade cabinet for the iPad is this year’s Tauntaun sleeping bag–a product originally designed as a joke that stirred up real interest. The theoretical iCade would allow control via buttons and joystick as well as touchscreen. Proposed for games, but certainly of interest to anyone looking for a range of input options. In addition, Apple seems to be working on this in earnest.