[Blindvet-talk] Fwd: Check out Google’s Phone Apps for the Blind, and Everyone Else - Bits Bl...

[NABlindVets at aol.com]

Don't forget to pay your 2009 dues early and receive the NABV Golf Shirt  
deal. See the details on our web site at _www.nabv.org_ (http://www.nabv.org)  
Dwight
 
See the google article below.


Dwight D. Sayer
National President,
The  National Association of Blind Veterans
A Division of the NFB
Email -  presidentnabv at aol.com
or president at nabv.org 
Web Site - _www.nabv.org_ (http://www.nabv.org/)   

 
  
____________________________________
 From: REPCODDS
To: nfbf-l at nfbnet.org, NABlindVets
Sent: 4/6/2009  11:51:39 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time
Subj: Fwd: Check out Google’s Phone  Apps for the Blind, and Everyone Else - 
Bits Bl...





  
____________________________________
 From: CMSMicro
To: REPCODDS
Sent: 4/6/2009 10:48:14 A.M. Eastern  Daylight Time
Subj: Check out Google’s Phone Apps for the Blind, and  Everyone Else - Bits 
Blog - 


_Google’s  Phone Apps for the Blind, and Everyone Else - Bits Blog - 
NYTimes.com_ (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/googles-phone-
apps-for-the-blind-and-everyone-else/)   
April 2, 2009, 4:27 pm  
Google’s Phone Apps for the Blind, and Everyone  Else
By _Miguel Helft_ (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/author/miguel-helft/) 
 
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times T.V. Raman with his guide dog Hubbell 
and Charles  Chen.
The featureless glassy screens of touch-screen phones may seem  like a 
forbidding barrier for blind users, who often rely on tactile clues  to feel their 
way around. But a pair of engineers at Google, T.V. Raman, who  is blind, and 
Charles Chen, who is sighted, have developed software that  makes the 
touch-screen T-Mobile G1, which uses Google’s Android software,  _more accessible to 
blind users_ 
(http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2009/04/announcing-eyes-free-shell-for-android.html) .  They hope the technology will also be useful to 
anyone who needs to operate  a phone without looking at the screen, like 
drivers.  
Back in January, I _profiled Mr. Raman_ 
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/business/04blind.html) , who has a long  history of adapting technology to his 
needs. I thought the work on touch  screens he was doing with Mr. Chen was 
intriguing: 
Since he cannot precisely hit a button on a touch screen, Mr.  Raman created 
a dialer that works based on relative positions. It  interprets any place 
where he first touches the screen as a 5, the center  of a regular telephone dial 
pad. To dial any other number, he simply  slides his finger in its direction — 
up and to the left for 1, down and to  the right for 9, and so on. If he 
makes a mistake, he can erase a digit  simply by shaking the phone, which can 
detect  motion.
If that is hard to conceptualize, now you can see it in action.  Mr. Raman 
and Mr. Chen have created _five videos_ 
(http://www.youtube.com/user/EyesFreeAndroid)  to demonstrate the  first installment of their work, which includes a “
shell” application that  operates an Android device, a dialer and a method for 
inputting text.  
The applications themselves are available in the Android  Marketplace, an 
applications store for the G1. Mr. Raman said that based on  comments posted 
there, more sighted people than blind people were using the  applications. That’s 
perhaps not surprising, since blind users may not have  been inclined to 
purchase a touch-screen phone, even one with a keyboard  like the G1. But it seems 
to validate Mr. Raman’s approach in developing  technologies not just for the 
blind, but for anyone who cannot look at the  screen.  
“People are saying they are using it in their cars,” Mr. Raman  said.  
The “shell” application has an interesting location function that  combines 
GPS or cell tower location data with Google Maps and the G1’s  compass.  
For Mr. Raman, who was once dropped off by the Google employee  shuttle on 
the opposite side of the street from his usual drop-off location  and walked two 
blocks before realizing he was heading the wrong way, it’s  pretty useful 
technology. “You just touch it, and it tells you which  direction you are heading 
in, the location you are close to, and the cross  streets,” he said.




 
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