Access on Main Street

The Spatial Interaction Touchless Kitchen Tap is a new faucet design where a variety of options–temperature, flow rate, number of streams–can be adjusted via gesture. Reasonably accessible and touch-free; promising, assuming that it can accommodate a range of dexterous abilities.

Ubergizmo: Concept: Spatial Interaction Touchless Kitchen Tap

Holiday Inn will soon be installing special room locks that open when you play a coded song for them from your smartphone.  Both the unlock tones and your room assignment will be sent to your phone automatically, so you can skip the front desk.  The OpenWays system may help customers who have dexterity or visual difficulty using keycards, but it also makes the accessibility of smartphones that much more essential — as these mobile devices become ever more integral, being left out really means being left out.

Soon You’ll Unlock Hotel Room Doors By Playing Songs on Your Phone–Gizmodo

Some good ideas just scream “Yanko Design” even before you click on the original link. Today’s example: the Tempdot faucet, which has no handles. Instead, you touch one of nine dots whose color corresponds to the approximate temperature you want; the water then begins to flow at that temp. Great for dexterity disabilities; could be easily modified to be tactile for the benefit of people with low or no vision.

Ubergizmo: Tempdot faucet concept

So you’ve been lingering for hours over your Optimus keyboard, and you’re too tired to even suss whether your coffee is still hot. Never fear: our close personal friend Art Lebedev knew this would happen, and came up with a mug that provides a visual temperature indicator on the outside. Good for people with impaired heat sensitivity and some types of cognitive disabilities.

Crunchgear: This Art Lebedev mug shows your caffeine power level

Continuing in the parade of useful smartphone apps: LookTel (price TBD), uses graphic codes, image recognition, and live human support to identify and announce any object you point the camera at. It’s touted for blind folks, but we think it’s got even more applications for cognitive assistance, especially for people with aphasia and similar injuries for whom a little assistance could head off a whole lot of frustration. 

Crunchgear: LookTel, an app for the blind

We understand the ringtones that soothe a savage breast, and the ones that let teenagers hear sounds that old men of 25 would miss. But the Japanese Ringing Tone Library has come up with a tone that is supposed to…clear your sinuses?! Reluctantly, we guess it might be useful for people who can’t blow their nose in traditional ways, but we’re also interested in what else is up the JRTL’s sleeves. “Ringtone makes your skin beautiful” is one announced project; we’re hoping for something like “ringtone stops your back from itching.”

Asiajin: Anti-Pollen-Allegy Nostril Cleansing Ringtone

A few months ago, we had an interesting discussion about ways to force users to take typing breaks to avoid repetitive strain injuries. Here’s a solution to the opposite problem: Write or Die, which checks to see if you’re meeting your writing goals. If you’re taking breaks too often or for too long, it performs the punishment you’ve selected, from changing the text color to even deleting what you’ve written. Could we get Don’t Write or Die, which would have the same punishments if you don’t take a break?

OhGizmo: Write or Die makes you write or…else