Picture-phone eliminates the need for dialing
It's always good to see technology employed to benefit us power users, usually in the form of some sick converged device, but it's even better when advances in tech are used to make life easier for the disabled or less-fortunate. One designer, Warren Goodland (a British masters candidate in Design Research for Disability), has noticed the difficulty that seniors often have in operating a telephone, mostly due to a diminished capacity for abstract thinking. His solution: a system where photographs of the user's regular contacts are placed in a special peripheral attached to the phone; touching either the photo or the holder dials the desired number. This invention sounds truly promising, although we know more than a few people who are trying to make it harder, not easier, for their elderly relatives to ring them up.
[Via textually.org]
