[Nfbf-l] By Tricking the Brain, Disney's Bringing Digital Sight to the Blind

[Alan Dicey]

Fox News Digital Network   Fox News
By Tricking the Brain, Disney's Bringing Digital Sight to the Blind
By Jennifer Booton  - Your World Tomorrow
Published October 11, 2013
FOXBusiness
The Walt Disney Company
The iconic media company that brought you "Fantasia" and the aspiring 
magician Mickey Mouse now has a nifty trick of its own: bringing digital 
sight to the blind.
New technologies being developed and studied by Walt Disney Co. (DIS) are 
expected to add new dimensions -- literally -- to touchscreens.
Think screens that not only look but actually feel 3D.
Disney researchers in Pittsburgh are hoping their advancement in this 
technology -- known as haptics -- shakes up everything from the way people 
shop to how the blind interact with new media.
"The brain will be fooled into thinking an actual physical bump is on a 
touch screen even through the touch surface is completely smooth," said Ivan 
Poupyrev, director of Disney Research's Pittsburgh Interaction group.
The digital gears turning on a digital clock might feel rigid to a user, a 
piece of digital paper might not only feel but write like normal on a glass 
screen, while the dips and valleys of a topographical map would come to 
life.
For the visually impaired, new developments in haptics could improve the way 
they interact with the digital world, enabling them, for example, to feel --  
not just listen -- to navigation on a map.
Think what this could offer to a blind child watching a cartoon movie in the 
theater for the first time: they'd be able to connect new characters to 
their silly voices instantaneously, an ability people with sight might take 
for granted.
Seeing by Feeling
Teasing the brain into feeling the edges and textures of flat digital 
objects could open the door to a range of new apps that enhance e-commerce, 
video and education.

This would also add to the slew of technologies already available, like 
VoiceOver for Apple's (AAPL) iOS, that help the blind better navigate 
today's complex digital world. Technological advancements from Apple and 
Android have allowed blind people to partake in new developments in ways 
originally not thought possible.
"iOS and Android really did change tech in a fundamental way so we were able 
to use these technologies at the same time as the new versions were being 
developed and coming out," says Paul Schroeder, vice president of programs 
and policy at the American Foundation for the Blind.
Now, he says, many blind people can use touchscreen devices just as well as 
people with sight.
Adding new tactile features such as those being explored by Disney and other 
companies, including startup Tactus, would only add to that, allowing them 
to use touchscreens even more efficiently and enhancing everything from the 
way they learn and consume media to how they navigate in real time.
How it Works
Using an electrovibration to change friction, Disney can artificially 
stretch the user's skin as their finger glides laterally across the 
touchscreen surface, giving the sensation of "rich, immediate and dynamic" 
touch on complex digital items in real time.
The technology would attract and release the finger from the touch surface, 
producing "friction-like rubbery sensations" that allow the user to 
physically interact with virtual objects, Disney explains.
Haptics is nothing new, but the media conglomerate says its algorithm-based 
discovery, unveiled through a white paper this week, offers an innovative, 
inexpensive and lightweight technology that could be "easily integrated" 
into popular touchscreens.
How these haptics are developed into real-world applications will depend on 
the creativity of app developers and programmers, notes Roger Kay, president 
of Endpoint Technologies.
However, Schroeder says groups all around the world are already trying to 
figure out ways to use haptics to benefit the blind. Being blind himself, he 
has some great ideas of his own, including the cartoon movie and navigation 
examples above.
Of course, Disney is confident the "rich palette of tactile sensations" 
brought to life by this will inspire enhancements to existing apps while 
triggering entirely new ones.
For the media giant, haptics could be intertwined with its treasure trove of 
content, adding new layers to its 3D experiences and augmenting its 
educational games and theme parks.
You may read this article at:
http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2013/10/11/disney-tricking-brains-and-bringing-sight-to-blind/

With Best Regards,
God Bless,
Alan
Plantation, Florida
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