[humanser] The New Device for the Blind

[Sharin]

Apparently this research group decided to omit the step of conducting a
needs assessment in their efforts. 


-----Original Message-----
From: humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:humanser-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of JD TOWNSEND
Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2010 8:49 PM
To: Human Services Mailing List
Subject: [humanser] The New Device for the Blind


Hi List:

I could not just read this without passing it along to our list.  This
device and the fantasy that we need such a device astounds me.

New Braille Technology Helps Visually Impaired 'See' Emotions
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) - Without vision it's impossible to interpret
facial
expressions, or so it's believed. Not any more. Shafiq ur Réhman, Umeå
University,
presents a new technology in his doctoral thesis -- a Braille code of
emotions. "It
gives new opportunities for social interactions for the visually impaired,"
he says.
Lacking the sense of vision can be very limiting in a person's daily life.
The most
obvious limitation is probably the difficulty of navigation, but small
details in
everyday life, which seeing people take for granted, are also missed. One of
those
things is the ability to see a person during a conversation. Facial
expressions provide
emotional information and are important in communication. A smile shows
pleasure,
amusement, relief, etc. Missing information from facial expressions create
barriers
to social interactions.
"Blind persons compensate for missing information with other senses such as
sound.
But it is difficult to understand complex emotions with voice alone," says
Shafiq
ur Réhman.
His thesis addresses a challenging problem: how to let visually impaired
"see" others'
emotions. To make this possible the research group has developed a new
technology
based on an ordinary web camera, hardware as small as a coin, and a tactile
display.
This enables the visually impaired to directly interpret human emotions.
"Visual information is transferred from the camera into advanced vibrating
patterns
displayed on the skin. The vibrators are sequentially activated to provide
dynamic
information about what kind of emotion a person is expressing and the
intensity of
the emotion," he explains.
The first step for a user is to learn the patterns of different facial
expressions
by using displaying the emotions in front of a camera that translates the
emotions
into vibrational patterns. In this learning phase the visually impaired
person have
a tactile display mounted on the back of a chair. When interacting with
other people
a sling on the forearm can be used instead.
The main research focus has been to characterise different emotions and to
find a
way to present them by means of advanced biomedical engineering and computer
vision
technologies. The project was founded by the Swedish Research Council.
The research group's spin-off company Videoakt AB has been granted a patent
for the
technology, which soon will be available as a product on the open market.
Tactile
feedback is also interesting in other areas as a future communication tool,
for seeing
people as well.
"We have successfully demonstrated how the technology can be implemented on
mobile
phones for tactile rendering of live football games and human emotion
information
through vibrations. This is an interesting way to enhance the experience of
mobile
users," explains Shafiq ur Réhman.



JD Townsend, LCSW
Daytona Beach, Florida, Earth, Sol System
Helping the light dependent to see. 
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