[Nfbf-l] New Gadgets Assist the Blind

[Alan Dicey]

New Gadgets Assist the Blind
Companies Are Developing Technologies That Allow Visually Impaired Users to
Feel More Connected to Society
By TE-PING CHEN
For decades, technologies to assist the blind have focused on the simple
mechanics of day-to-day living-helping the visually impaired safely cross a
street or turn on a stove.

Increasingly, a new generation of products is on the rise to help enhance
visually impaired consumers' emotional well-being and keep them more
connected to society.

Enlarge Image
Reuters
Peter Boyt, engineering director for Ocean Blue Software, demonstrates a TV
set's program guide for the visually impaired, which speaks menu items,
listings and other on-screen prompts aloud.
"That's really where the frontier is," says Julian Dailly, external-affairs
director at the Royal London Society for Blind People. After all, says Mr.
Dailly, the challenge of being blind can be "as much about being depressed
as it is about getting down the street."

>From entertainment to fashion, a number of companies are developing new
technologies that they say can help boost individual confidence and allow
visually impaired users to participate more completely in society-by helping
them to enjoy Broadway theater and TV programs, to pick out
color-coordinated outfits and more.

Ocean Blue Software (HK) Ltd. and its U.K.-based parent company Ocean Blue
Software Ltd. produce Talking TV, a set-top box for TVs that speaks menu
items, listings and other on-screen prompts aloud. Marketing Manager Amy
Lowe says that more entertainment options for the blind and visually
impaired are an important-if often overlooked-need.

Despite the work of companies like Ocean Blue Software, the overall
assistive-technology industry remains constrained by lack of funding,
according to industry observers. Development costs for these technologies
can be high, and attracting attention from mass retailers can be difficult.

Ms. Lowe says Talking TV isn't yet a moneymaking project. "It takes time for
the market to realize its potential," she says. The company is one of 12
finalists in The Wall Street Journal's Asian Innovation Awards.

Increasingly, advocates for new technologies for the blind have placed their
hopes on the proliferation of smartphones, which have been a particular boon
for the assistive-technology industry.

Apple Inc.'s AAPL +0.79% VoiceOver technology, for example, allows users to
touch the screen and hear descriptions of what they are interacting with,
and reads aloud each letter when the corresponding key is pushed, helping
visually impaired users to type. The technology is now standard on all
recent generations of the iPhone.

Meanwhile, smartphones also have provided a valuable platform for
entrepreneurs developing cheap, accessible apps that can assist visually
impaired users. For example, one color-identifying app by GreenGar Studios
uses the iPhone camera to help sight-impaired users tell the precise shade
of a particular item of clothing, which is read aloud by the app and refined
to the point of describing different hues as "lavender rose," "yellow metal"
and more.

Another free application, SayText, allows the user to snap photos of text
they want to read, such as a restaurant menu or cereal-box label, and hear
it spoken aloud.

Smartphone-based GPS programs that alert blind users to nearby restaurants
or other points of interestalso are available.

Perhaps the most encouraging trend, observers say, is how certain assistive
technologies are going mainstream. In addition to Apple's voice-activated
assistant Siri and VoiceOver technology, another example is Samsung
Electronics Co.,005930.SE +2.31% which has launched a TV set that has a
built-in camera and microphones that allow users to control it through voice
and gestures, as well as a camera that can be controlled through speech.

Likewise, LG Electronics Inc. 066570.SE +1.03% has launched a
voice-controlled remote, which allows users to control their TV with voice
commands.

"The tech needs of blind people and the disabled community in general may
appear to be different to the mainstream," says Mr. Dailly, "but potentially
are actually the same."

The potential size of the market is large. Globally, there are 285 million
people who have some form of sight loss, including 39 million who are blind,
according to the World Health Organization. The overall graying trend across
Europe and the U.S., as well as significant swaths of Asia, also has
increased the need for assisted-reading and other technologies to help cope
with diminished vision.

In the U.S., the market for assistive technologies stood at $41.1 billion in
2011, with nearly 75% of it comprising visual and reading aids, such as
eyeglasses and contact lenses, says BCC Research, a market-research firm. By
2016, the group estimates, that value will grow to $55 billion.

In the absence of well-funded distribution and marketing for such devices,
charities such as the U.K.'s Royal London Society for Blind People and the
U.S.-based National Federation of the Blind play a key role in educating
potential users about the latest assistive technologies, which often can be
purchased online.

Still, their reach is limited. Mr. Dailly says that more resources to
support marketing are needed to reach out to the blind and visually impaired
community.

Write to Te-Ping Chen at te-ping.chen at wsj.com

A version of this article appeared October 15, 2012, on page B5 in the U.S.
edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: New Gadgets Assist
the Blind.

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