[nagdu] Fw: [MSB-Alumni] Fw: Smartphone-Friendly Innovation Holds Promise of Freeing Dogs From Involuntary Service

[Vanessa Lowery]

Forgive the one-liner, but me thinks I shall stick with the dog.



Vanessa Lowery, LGSW
Adult and Community Services Division
Adult Services Screening Unit
410-853-3550
VLowery at dhr.state.md.us


>>> "William Vandervest" <timelord09 at att.net> 7/24/2012 7:28 PM >>>
i just received this on another list, anybody heard of this before?



There are none so blind as those who will not see 
William And ld Lynard
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Steve 
To: msb-alumni 
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 2:39 PM
Subject: [MSB-Alumni] Fw: Smartphone-Friendly Innovation Holds Promise of Freeing Dogs From Involuntary Service



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Sieghard Weitzel 
To: viphone at googlegroups.com 
Sent: Tuesday, July 24, 2012 2:48 AM
Subject: Smartphone-Friendly Innovation Holds Promise of Freeing Dogs From Involuntary Service


Hello Listers,

 

I came across this article and am pretty shocked by it, I did not know that there are people and apparently organizations out there who consider guide dogs as providing an "involuntary" service which they apparently consider to be animal cruelty. I don't really have the connections and the time, but I hope maybe some people on this list do advocacy sort of work and may look into this. The biggest joke is that this research seems to be geared towards getting around inside buildings which of course would be great, but apparently these folks don't think much about how much a dog helps in getting around outside. Here is the article (hope the mods don't object since the article refers to "smartphones" and not "iPhones", but of course we all know how many accessible smartphone choices we have and I assume something like this, were it available, would not be a Windows Phone app!)

 

Smartphone-Friendly Innovation Holds Promise of Freeing Dogs From Involuntary Service

 

For Immediate Release: May 14, 2012

Contact: David Perle 202-483-7382

St. Paul, Minn.

 

The University of Nevada-Reno (UNR) science team working on smartphone technology that will help blind people navigate on their own, even gauging their pace and warning them far in advance of obstacles such as a stairway, will present its invention at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation in St. Paul on May 15 (the second day of the conference). The team, headed by researchers Dr. Eelke Folmer of the Player-Game-Interaction Lab and Dr. Kostas Bekris of the Robotics Research Lab, has won a PETA Proggy Award for Leadership in Ethical Science. PETA's Proggy Awards ("Proggy" is for "progress") recognize animal-friendly achievements.


"This new technology promises not only to give blind people the independence they want but also could mean that dogs will no longer be bred for this type of service," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "We commend the UNR team for developing 'eyes' for the blind that are both user-friendly and animal-friendly."


The low-cost system would enable blind people to navigate around buildings using nothing more than a smartphone. Its software is based on the same technology that enables robots to navigate but uses the person's stride length to track his or her movements. The system uses two-dimensional digital maps and the smartphone's built-in components, with the phone able to communicate what it "sees" using synthetic speech. Upon initial use in a particular environment, the user touches certain landmarks. The smartphone remembers the information and is able to give the user directions on subsequent visits.


For more information, please visit PETA.org.


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