[Nfbf-l] Wii Device Teaches Visually Impaired to Walk with Canes

[Sherri]

It sounds really great! Some adults could benefit from it as well.
Sherri
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Holly" <hbeanie at gmail.com>
To: "NFB of Florida Internet Mailing List" <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, June 04, 2010 8:18 PM
Subject: Re: [Nfbf-l] Wii Device Teaches Visually Impaired to Walk with 
Canes


>I want this program when it comes out!
> Holly
>
> On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 2:14 PM, Lenora J. Marten 
> <bluegolfshoes at aol.com>wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Interesting.....
>> http://www.ny1.com/content/ny1_living/health/118714/wii-device-teaches-visually-impaired-to-walk-with-canes/ 
>> click on the link for a two minute video
>>
>>
>> Teaching the visually impaired how to use canes to get around is about to
>> become hi-tech. NY1's Health reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following
>> report.
>>
>> Instructors at the Jewish Guild for the Blind on the Upper West Side have
>> found a new use for Wii technology. They are testing out a new device 
>> called
>> the "WiiCane" to see if it can help improve mobility training and use of 
>> the
>> cane in young children.
>> "One of the greatest challenges for an [orientation and mobility]
>> instructor, which I am, is trying to teach a student to travel and walk
>> outdoors in a safe line, in a straight line. And one of the greatest 
>> issues
>> is to try to prevent the students from veering which means angling left, 
>> or
>> right off their straight line," says Stuart Filan of the Jewish Guild for
>> the Blind. "So the WiiCane is like a super idea. It's a great indoor
>> training device to have our students get the feeling of what it feels 
>> like
>> to veer and how, independently, in real time, to correct that situation."
>> The training tool is being developed by the New York City-based design 
>> team
>> Touch Graphics. It uses Wii motion-tracking technology to help students 
>> get
>> the feel for not only walking in a straight line, but practice turns. A
>> computer receives movement data and dings if the student remains on track 
>> or
>> moves in the right direction.
>> "Evidence shows that once learned, those skills are translatable into
>> actual outdoor travel, and that's huge," says President Steven Landau of
>> Touch Graphics. "Because then, people crossing the street won't veer into
>> oncoming traffic and lots of other things in the course of their 
>> independent
>> travel, where they need that ability to continue walking in a straight 
>> line
>> without a lot of external information."
>> The Wii Cane training program is not meant to replace traditional 
>> training
>> methods, but is only a supplement. However, instructors at the Jewish 
>> Guild
>> for the Blind say their young students respond to computers and they see
>> responses in training in some of them that they haven't quite seen 
>> before.
>> "Some of the students are really getting off of it," says Filan. "They 
>> keep
>> talking about it, they can't wait to come back and to hold onto the cane,
>> work the receivers and manipulate their bodies through space to get to 
>> see
>> if they can walk the straight line."
>> The WiiCane is also being developed for adults who are new cane users. It
>> is expected to be available for commercial use by January 2011.
>>
>>
>> Instructors at the Jewish Guild for the Blind on the Upper West Side have
>> found a new use for Wii technology. They are testing out a new device 
>> called
>> the "WiiCane" to see if it can help improve mobility training and use of 
>> the
>> cane in young children.
>> "One of the greatest challenges for an [orientation and mobility]
>> instructor, which I am, is trying to teach a student to travel and walk
>> outdoors in a safe line, in a straight line. And one of the greatest 
>> issues
>> is to try to prevent the students from veering which means angling left, 
>> or
>> right off their straight line," says Stuart Filan of the Jewish Guild for
>> the Blind. "So the WiiCane is like a super idea. It's a great indoor
>> training device to have our students get the feeling of what it feels 
>> like
>> to veer and how, independently, in real time, to correct that situation."
>> The training tool is being developed by the New York City-based design 
>> team
>> Touch Graphics. It uses Wii motion-tracking technology to help students 
>> get
>> the feel for not only walking in a straight line, but practice turns. A
>> computer receives movement data and dings if the student remains on track 
>> or
>> moves in the right direction.
>> "Evidence shows that once learned, those skills are translatable into
>> actual outdoor travel, and that's huge," says President Steven Landau of
>> Touch Graphics. "Because then, people crossing the street won't veer into
>> oncoming traffic and lots of other things in the course of their 
>> independent
>> travel, where they need that ability to continue walking in a straight 
>> line
>> without a lot of external information."
>> The Wii Cane training program is not meant to replace traditional 
>> training
>> methods, but is only a supplement. However, instructors at the Jewish 
>> Guild
>> for the Blind say their young students respond to computers and they see
>> responses in training in some of them that they haven't quite seen 
>> before.
>> "Some of the students are really getting off of it," says Filan. "They 
>> keep
>> talking about it, they can't wait to come back and to hold onto the cane,
>> work the receivers and manipulate their bodies through space to get to 
>> see
>> if they can walk the straight line."
>> The WiiCane is also being developed for adults who are new cane users. It
>> is expected to be available for commercial use by January 2011.
>>
>>
>> Lenora
>> bluegolfshoes at aol.com
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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