[nfbmi-talk] FW: [The-tech-zone] App turns smartphone into virtual cane

[Fred wurtzel]

-----Original Message-----
From: The-tech-zone [mailto:the-tech-zone-bounces at emissives.com] On Behalf
Of Hamit Campos
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 8:15 AM
To: 'A general technology discussion list'
Subject: Re: [The-tech-zone] App turns smartphone into virtual cane

Very cool man.

-----Original Message-----
From: The-tech-zone [mailto:the-tech-zone-bounces at emissives.com] On Behalf
Of Chris H
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2014 1:53 AM
To: A general technology discussion list
Subject: [The-tech-zone] App turns smartphone into virtual cane

App Turns Smartphone Into Virtual Cane for the Blind

MIT Technology Review
January 8, 2014


A smartphone app inspired by Greek mythology has the potential to help the
blind navigate indoors where GPS is unavailable.


It's easy to imagine that being blind or visually impaired more or less
excludes people from using smartphones or tablets. But nothing could be
further from the truth.  App stores have a dizzying variety of products that
help the visually impaired access all kinds of information much more easily
than would otherwise be possible.

These apps offer audio books, match clothes by colour and even offer games
played by hearing and touch alone. But the apps designed to give directions
all suffer from the same drawbacks-audio directions are helpful but also
screen out other audio such as conversations or the sound of traffic nearby.
What's more, GPS does not work indoors so these kinds of systems are of
little use in homes and other buildings

Now Pierluigi Gallo and buddies at the University of Palermo in Italy have
come up with an alternative which offers the blind navigational help without
any form of audio distraction or the need for GPS.

The approach is surprisingly simple and inspired by the famous Greek myth of
Ariadne and Theseus.  In the story, Theseus volunteers to kill the Minotaur
which lives in a labyrinth on the island of Crete. To help him, Ariadne
gives him a sword to kill the beast and a ball of thread to help him find
his way out when the deed is done.

Gallo and co take a similar approach with their prototype smartphone app
called Arianna, the Italian name for Ariadne. (It's also short for "pAth
Recognition for Indoor Assisted NavigatioN with Augmented perception.) Their
idea is to map out a route through a building by sticking coloured tape on
the ground.

The user then switches on the smartphone camera and points it towards the
ground, while placing a finger on the screen. He or she then waves the
camera back and forth, scanning the ground for the line.

In the meantime, the app analyses the frames produced by the camera, picking
out the line as it moves across the screen. When the line passes under the
user's finger on the screen, the app causes the smartphone to vibrate,
providing a tactile indication of where the line falls.

Scanning the smartphone back and forth allows the user to follow the line in
the same way as he or she might use a cane (see diagram above).  At the same
time, QR codes placed on the ground can give the user other information such
as the location of places such as toilets, water coolers, shops and so on.

Gallo and co say they tested their virtual cane in December at workshop in
Boston organised by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and say it works well.

And they plan significant upgrades in future. One idea is to use infrared
lines that are not visible but can nevertheless be picked up by smartphone
cameras which are sensitive to infrared. This infrared sensitivity is
currently an under-used feature of most smartphones, they point out. And
that raises the possibility of games and challenges that are equally
accessible to the blind and sighted.

All in all, this software could be a significant help to the blind and
visually impaired. Hi-tech aids for this disability tend to be expensive
because they have to be specially designed and manufactured for a relatively
small group of people. But with smartphones widely available at affordable
prices, much of the technology necessary for Ariana is available
off-the-shelf.

Gallo and co don't say when their new idea will be available as a commercial
app or how much it will cost but it has the potential to be significantly
cheaper than a bespoke device.

So: useful, simple and potentially cheap. Not a bad combination for an app.
--
Regards Chris

_______________________________________________
The-tech-zone mailing list
The-tech-zone at emissives.com
http://emissives.com/mailman/listinfo/the-tech-zone_emissives.com
To unsubscribe please send a blank message to
the-tech-zone-unsubscribe at emissives.com


_______________________________________________
The-tech-zone mailing list
The-tech-zone at emissives.com
http://emissives.com/mailman/listinfo/the-tech-zone_emissives.com
To unsubscribe please send a blank message to
the-tech-zone-unsubscribe at emissives.com