[NFB-DB] Sharing: Tatum is building a robot arm to help people with deafblindness communicate | TechCrunch

[jmail201586 at yahoo.com]

Hello Ron,
I'm just wanting to thank you for sharing the article with us.
I am blind and live with major hearing loss. Whenever I am clide my lack of
hearing into a conversation, I'll say "hard of hearing" since I've learned
that there are many types of hearing loss. But I'm wondering when should
this new product be available for the deafblind community? Was it stated in
the article>
Have a good day!

-----Original Message-----
From: NFB-DB <nfb-db-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Rod and Ele Macdonald
via NFB-DB
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2022 2:47 AM
To: nfb-db at nfbnet.org
Cc: Rod and Ele Macdonald <erjmacdonald at gmail.com>
Subject: [NFB-DB] Sharing: Tatum is building a robot arm to help people with
deafblindness communicate | TechCrunch

I am sharing this in case it is of possible interest. However, I must admit
to scratching my head on this: this robotic fingerspelling hand has
beentried multiple times and never gone anywhere. 

Rod

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: David Goldfield  <david.goldfield at outlook.com>
To:  tech-vi at groups.io
CC: 
Date: Wednesday, November 16, 2022 8:47 pm
Subject: [tech-vi Announce List] Tatum is building a robot arm to help
people with deafblindness communicate | TechCrunch

>
>
> 
> https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/16/tatum-is-building-a-robot-arm-to-hel
> p-people-with-deafblindness-communicate/
> 
> 
> Tatum is building a robot arm to help people with deafblindness 
> communicate Brian Heater6:10 PM EST"November 16, 2022
> 
> Precise numbers on deafblindness are difficult to calculate. For that
reason, figures tend to be all over the place. For the sake of writing an
intro to this story, we're going to cite this study from the World
Federation of the DeafBlind that puts the number of severe cases at 0.2%
globally and 0.8% of the U.S.
> Whatever the actual figure, it's safe to say that people living with a
combination of hearing and sight loss is a profoundly underserved community.
They form the foundation of the work being done by the small robotics firm,
Tatum (Tactile ASL Translational User Mechanism). I met with the team at
MassRobotics during a trip to Boston last week.
> The company's 3D-printed robotic hand sat in the middle of the conference
room table as we spoke about Tatum's origins. The whole thing started life
in summer 2020 as part of founder Samantha Johnson's master's thesis for
Northeastern University. The 3D-printed prototype can spell out words with
American Sign Language, offering people with deafblindness a window to the
outside world.
> From the user's end, it operates similarly to tactile fingerspelling. They
place the hand over the back of the robot, feeling its movements to read as
its spells. When no one is around who can sign, there can be a tremendous
sense of isolation for people with deafblindness, as they're neither able to
watch or listen to the news and are otherwise cut off from remote
communication. In this age of teleconferencing, it's easy to lose track of
precisely how difficult that loss of connection can be.
>  
> Image Credits: Tatum Robotics
> "Over the past two years, we began developing initial prototypes and
conducted preliminary validations with DB users," the company notes on its
site. "During this time, the COVID pandemic forced social distancing,
causing increased isolation and lack of access to important news updates due
to intensified shortage of crucial interpreting services. Due to the
overwhelming encouragement from DB individuals, advocates, and
paraprofessionals, in 2021, Tatum Robotics was founded to develop an
assistive technology to aid the DB community."
> Tatum continues to iterate on its project, through testing with the
deafblind community. The goal to build something akin to an Alexa for people
with the condition, using the hand to read a book or get plugged into the
news in a way that might have otherwise been completely inaccessible.
> In addition to working with organizations like the Perkins School for the
Blind, Tatum is simultaneously working on a pair of hardware projects. Per
the company:
> The team is currently working on two projects. The first is a low-cost
robotic anthropomorphic hand that will fingerspell tactile sign language. We
hope to validate this device in real-time settings with DB individuals soon
to confirm the design changes and evaluate ease-of use. Simultaneously,
progress is ongoing to develop a safe, compliant robotic arm so that the
system can sign more complex words and phrases. The systems will work
together to create a humanoid device that can sign tactile sign languages.
>  
> Image Credits: Tatum Robotics
> Linguistics: In an effort to sign accurately and repeatably, the team is
looking to logically parse through tactile American Sign Language (ASL),
Pidgin Signed English (PSE) and Signed Exact English (SEE). Although
research has been conducted in this field, we aim to be the first to develop
an algorithm to understand the complexities and fluidity of t-ASL without
the need for user confirmation of translations or pre-programmed responses.
> Support has been growing among organizations for the deafblind. It's a
community that has long been underserved by these sorts of hardware
projects. There are currently an estimated 150 million people with the
condition globally. It's not exactly the sort of total addressable market
that gets return-focused investors excited  but for those living with the
condition, this manner of technology could be life changing.
> 
> 
> 
>      David Goldfield
> Assistive Technology Specialist
> 
> 
> Feel free to visit my Web site
> WWW.DavidGoldfield.info
> _._,_._,_
> 
> 
> Groups.io Links:
> You receive all messages sent to this group. 
> View/Reply Online (#2968) | Reply To Group | Reply To Sender | Mute 
> This Topic | New Topic Your Subscription | Contact Group Owner | 
> Unsubscribe [erjmacdonald at gmail.com]
> 
> _._,_._,_s

_______________________________________________
NFB-DB mailing list
NFB-DB at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org