[nagdu] Well everyone, time to give up our dogs

Lyn Gwizdak linda.gwizdak at cox.net
Wed May 23 18:14:04 UTC 2012


Yeah, Jenny, I agree with you about the use of some of this technology and 
our "forgetting" how to interact face-to-face with people.  Our voices don't 
break down like these devices seem to do!  Sometimes face-to-face or phone 
interaction is best where you hear and/or see the person you are talking to. 
Look at the misunderstandings we have on the list because we don't have 
visual cues or vocal intonations to show the real meanings behind our words. 
So we get insulted and mad and it goes downhill from there.  It is like 
cutting off a dog's ears and tail and watch the misunderstandings dogs can 
have with each other when meeting in a dog park.  Their ear and tail 
positions say something to other dogs in their own language.

I don't use any of that new technology that people seem to get.  I don't 
have a "smart phone" - mine is a regular one with a camera.  I don't have 
Internet on it but i could if I wanted to spend the money I don't have on 
it.  My Internet and e-mail comes on my home computer.  I don't even text! 
I TALK on my phone!  I wouldn't mind a GPS on my phone that woould tell me 
how to get somewhere and to let me know when the next bus would be at my 
stop, though.  I am "directionally challenged" when I have to go to a new 
area I've never been to before.  People can direct me til the cows come home 
and I won't understand it until I've gone there first.  So, I have to be 
shown the way or take Paratransit.  But I don't have the money for that.

PETA - well, they shoot themselves in the foot with their more wacky ideas. 
Like that we are cruel by having dogs work.  They think that it is great to 
have dogs running free, getting lost, killed by poisons they could ingest, 
being hit by cars, etc.  Some of these PETA members seem to not realize that 
adult dogs have the mentality of a three or four year old child!  Would they 
just let their toddlers out to roam free unattended???

It is a shame they let these wackies overshadow the good things PETA does to 
benefit animals - especially their work on cruelty to farm animals, how 
animals are treated when they are killed for food, etc.

Lyn and Landon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jenny Keller" <jlperdue3 at gmail.com>
To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 8:33 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Well everyone, time to give up our dogs


You know, Peta would be for this product, as they don't believe that we 
should use dogs as guides.  For those who don't know, they believe that 
using a guide dog is cruelty to the dog.

I was even told that so Peta people have even removed dogs from their 
leashes while blind people weren't paying attention in public places and 
coaxed the dogs away from the person, and when the blind person has gone to 
use their dog, it wasn't there.

they, in my opinion, a little crazy.

I have used Navigon in my travels with horrible results outdoors, so do you 
actually think I'm going to trust an indoor navigation system with the same 
results?

sorry, when I had a guide and when I get my new one, he's going to have to 
be on his or her toes, cause that's what they're trained to do.

I hate navigon, and don't think many navigation systems are accurate enough 
to use personally, not unless you have the big bucks to buy a tracker or 
something like that.

I'm not one of those people.  I was taught to just ask questions to receive 
the information I needed to know if I was lost or needed to know where 
something was.  there's nothing wrong with doing that, I think we've 
forgotten that art.

Jenny
On May 22, 2012, at 6:51 PM, Larry D. Keeler wrote:

> Animal friendly?  We don't want to put our dogs out of a job!  I prefer a 
> cold nose over a gadget anytime!  Also, the4 more complex the gadget, the 
> more things that can go wrong with it.  In conjunction with a cane or dog 
> it could be great!  I was involved in testing something like that and all 
> I got useful from it was what I was passing.  For instance, the Panda 
> Express.  It also told me about how far away it was but not what or who 
> might be between it and me.
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Margo and Arrow" 
> <margo.downey at verizon.net>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 6:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Well everyone, time to give up our dogs
>
>
> Oh, so, we just use guide dogs indoors and this is supposed to help us get
> anywhere we want to go?  Uh, no, not!
>
> Margo andArrow
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aaron Cannon" 
> <cannona at fireantproductions.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users"
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2012 6:51 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] Well everyone, time to give up our dogs
>
>
> Wow!  Just wow!  I'll let the article speak for itself.  Just be sure
> not to miss the priceless quote from PETA at the end.
>
>
> http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1112539355/indoor-navigation-system-gives-guide-dogs-a-rest/
>
> Indoor Navigation System Gives Guide Dogs A Rest
> May 21, 2012
>
> Helen Keller, perhaps the most famous activist for the visually
> impaired once said, “It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our
> powers, but for powers
> equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating
> at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.”
>
> Empowerment of the visually impaired took another step forward this
> month with the presentation of Navatar, an indoor navigation system.
> Navatar, which
> was developed by a University of Nevada, Reno computer science
> engineering team, is an improvement on existing systems because it
> relies primarily on existing
> smartphone technology and not on less practical and bulky sensors.
>
> “Existing indoor navigation systems typically require the use of
> expensive and heavy sensors, or equipping rooms and hallways with
> radio-frequency tags
> that can be detected by a handheld reader and which are used to
> determine the user’s location,” said Kostas Bekris, of the UNR College
> of Engineering’s
> Robotics Research Lab. “This has often made the implementation of such
> systems prohibitively expensive, with few systems having been
> deployed.”
>
> In conjunction with two-dimensional, digital architectural maps that
> are widely available, the smartphone-based Navatar uses the device’s
> accelerometer
> and compass to navigate its user. The system is able to guide people
> with visual impairments down hallways and into rooms through audible
> instructions
> similar to those given by GPS devices made for autos.
>
> “Nevertheless, the smartphone’s sensors, which are used to calculate
> how many steps the user has executed and her orientation, tend to pick
> up false signals,”
> said Eelke Folmer, who worked on the project.”To synchronize the
> location, our system combines probabilistic algorithms and the natural
> capabilities of
> people with visual impairments to detect landmarks in their
> environment through touch, such as corridor intersections, doors,
> stairs and elevators.”
>
> Folmer explained that Navatar ‘listens’ for voice prompts or a button
> push on a Bluetooth-enabled device from the user to confirm the
> presence of these
> landmarks. This means the system can work to assist the user in
> conjunction with their typical routine for navigation, including the
> use of a cane.
>
> On his website, Folmer noted that the system has a “high possibility
> of large-scale deployment” because it only requires a simple digital
> representation
> of an indoor environment can be sketched up with simple design drawing
> programs that could be downloaded from a building’s Wi-Fi network. The
> UNR team
> also performed a study involving 12 blindfolded and six blind users to
> demonstrate the feasibility of their system.
>
> While the system was able to track users within 1.85 meters of their
> actual location, the researchers were able to identify several areas
> for improvement.
> Based on feedback from test subjects, the team’s report said improving
> Navatar’s accuracy, making it able to repeat directions, and having it
> capable of
> working from within in a pocket are all improvement they are considering.
>
> For their work on Navatar, Bekris and Folmer recently won a PETA
> Proggy Award for Leadership in Ethical Science. PETA recognized the
> system as an animal-friendly
> achievement because of its potential to decrease the reliance on guide
> dogs for the visually impaired.
>
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