[Nfbmo] Fw: new tool for visually impaired

fred olver goodfolks at charter.net
Wed Aug 3 03:58:47 UTC 2011


VEry well stated, Matthew.

Fred
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Matthew Sievert" <msievert at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFB of Missouri Mailing List" <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: [Nfbmo] Fw: new tool for visually impaired


> Fred,
>
> What an interesting discussion.
>
> 1. I agree that tech can be useful to a point when it becomes an obstacle 
> or economically challenging
>
> 2. I used a monocular and a laptop to take notes in class.
>
> 3. Batteries and wall outlets are always something to take into 
> consideration. Since lots of folks have classes back-to-back
>
> 4. I think Audible.com would have been a great asset when I was going 
> through school.
>
> 5. I know the Kindle is not good for audible navigation, but i also wish I 
> had a kindle in school
>
> 6. There is a point where you can have too many assistive devices and no 
> clear way to evaluate their usefulness.
>
> 7. To bring up a common statement from Bryan Shultz. Tech is expensive and 
> still not obtainable without a good source of income or significant 
> economic assistance.
>
> We live in an interesting time and it is  neat to observe the changes that 
> are taking place.
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 2, 2011, at 10:58 AM, "fred olver" <goodfolks at charter.net> wrote:
>
>> Jim, I'm definitely in favor of technology because of it's practical 
>> aspects
>> but I have to wonder if the office of student services paid someone to
>> either take down the information that was placed on the chalk boards or
>> asking the instructor to make available to the V.I. students the 
>> information
>> covered in each day's lectures wouldn't be more efficient and less 
>> expensive
>> than a device such as the one that is outlined here?
>> Especially since we have no indication of how large the field of vision 
>> is
>> enlarged or what manipulative tasks are involved in moving the device to 
>> see
>> a different quadrant of the board in question.
>>
>> Also, I'm remembering the days when no type of hand-holding was available
>> for students in college accept those really bad recordings of 
>> well-meaning
>> individuals who read us our books on tapes. No choice of which format our
>> books would be in, no choice of whether we would have access to tests or 
>> any
>> other materials for that matter in any format other than print, and it 
>> was
>> up to us to be the responsible party in getting the materials read by a
>> well-meaning friend or classmate.
>> And we did manage without these things to get through college and have
>> successful careers inspite of it all.
>>
>> Fred Olver
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "James Moynihan" <jamesmmoynihan at gmail.com>
>> To: "NFB of Missouri Mailing List" <nfbmo at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 9:29 AM
>> Subject: [Nfbmo] Fw: new tool for visually impaired
>>
>>
>> Fellow Federationists
>>
>> FYI
>>
>> Jim Moynihan
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Neuman, Dale A." <NeumanD at umkc.edu>
>> To: <jamesmmoynihan at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 7:50 AM
>> Subject: new tool for visually impaired
>>
>>
>> College students with very poor vision have had to struggle to see a
>> blackboard and take notes-basic tasks that can hold some back. Now a team 
>> of
>> four students from Arizona State University has designed a system, called
>> Note-Taker, that couples a tablet PC and a video camera, and could be a
>> major advance over the small eyeglass-mounted telescopes that many 
>> students
>> have had to rely on. It recently
>> won<http://www.imaginecup.com/CompetitionsContent/2011Winners.aspx> 
>> second
>> place in Microsoft's Imagine Cup technology competition.
>>
>> There are roughly 75,000 students at colleges and trade schools who are
>> visually impaired. The telescopes allow students with low vision to see 
>> the
>> blackboard, but they can only focus on one section at a time. Then they 
>> have
>> to take off the telescope, write notes, and then go back to the board and
>> try and catch up with the lecture.
>>
>> David S. Hayden, who graduated from Arizona State in May, understands 
>> these
>> challenges-he can only read texts if he gets about two inches away from 
>> the
>> material. Mr. Hayden, the lead designer of Note-Taker, says he faced a
>> "morbid tradeoff" in class. Using the assistive technology that was
>> available to him, he could either take notes or listen and absorb the
>> information, but never both. After he had to withdraw from three
>> senior-level math classes, he says, "I realized the existing technologies
>> weren't going to assist my needs, so I had a project on my hands."
>>
>> The result was Note-Taker, which connects a tablet PC (a laptop with a
>> screen you can write on) to a high-resolution video camera. Screen 
>> commands
>> get the camera to pan and zoom. The video footage, along with audio, can 
>> be
>> played in real time on the tablet and are also saved for later reference.
>> Alongside the video is a space for typed or handwritten notes, which
>> students can jot down using a stylus. That should be helpful in math and
>> science courses, says Mr. Hayden, where students need to copy down 
>> graphs,
>> charts, and symbols not readily available on a keyboard.
>>
>> Mr. Hayden built a prototype of the device with the help of John A. Black
>> Jr., a researcher specializing in computing and human visual perception 
>> at
>> the university's Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing. The project 
>> was
>> then awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation and refined 
>> with
>> the help of Michael Astrauskas, Shashank Srinivas, and Qian Yan, who are
>> Arizona State students.
>>
>> "It's unlike what I've seen," says Clara Van Gerven, an access-technology
>> content specialist with the National Federation of the Blind. The
>> handwriting feature seems valuable, and she has not seen it in other
>> computer-compatible video-recording systems. Note-Taker, she says, "uses
>> existing technology to its advantage and then adds the rewind feature and
>> the manual note-taking to that. It seems like it would be a useful tool."
>>
>> But no tool can replace institutional support, says Chris S. Danielsen,
>> director of public relations for the federation. "The university is 
>> always
>> going to have to make sure that whatever technology it uses is accessible 
>> to
>> blind and low-vision students," he says. (Arizona State U. has gotten in 
>> hot
>> water in the
>> past<http://chronicle.com/article/Blind-Students-Demand-Access/125695/> 
>> in
>> just this area.)
>>
>> The team continues to develop the Note-Taker-a fourth-generation model is
>> already in the works-and is looking into ways to get it on the market.
>> Though the prototype is prohibitively expensive, the designers hope to 
>> bring
>> the price tag down to $1,000 per camera unit (the tablet PC would be
>> purchased separately), so that it will be affordable to more consumers.
>> Their second-place finish a few weeks ago in the Imagine Cup's
>> software-design category may also attract some interest.
>>
>> Mr. Hayden is starting graduate school in the fall at the Massachusetts
>> Institute of Technology. He's taking one of the Note-Taker models with 
>> him
>> to use when classes resume.
>>
>>
>>
>> Dale A. Neuman
>> Director, Harry S Truman Center for Governmental Affairs
>> Special Projects Associate, College of Arts and Sciences
>> Professor Emeritus of Political Science
>> 816-235-6108 or 816-235-2787
>> FAX 816-235-5191
>> Neumand at umkc.edu
>>
>>
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