LookTel's 'artificial vision' makes Windows Mobile useful to blind people (video)
By Vlad Savov 
posted March 31st 2010 5:40AM
posted March 31st 2010 5:40AM
[Thanks, Eyal]
posted March 31st 2010 5:40AM
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Earl Grey, Hot.
@Amnesiasoft
Some things never change, Captain
@Amnesiasoft
Earl Grey + milk + sugar = perfection.
you would have to be vision impaired to use Windows Mobile...I kid, I kid
Alternate ending:
"At least it's useful to somebody."
@Frozenbytes Might be tricky wielding the stylus...
@Frozenbytes
It is the reality, who else should use it ?
The idea of using a camera phone to speak what it sees is a simple yet ground breaking concept that renders the need to develop expensive artificial eyes obsolete until the (latter) technology is affordable. Why didn't anyone think of this before? Sourcing from location based information (GPS, augmented reality technology) would enable distant objects and landmarks to be spoken too. "Orange juice, 500ML, £1.50." or "St. Paul's Cathedral, 250 Metres to your right. Road in front of you. Proceed with care." Etc.
@Oflife Ah, missed the video before my earlier post. Says it all, brilliant!
@Oflife
Indeed. I'm not blind, but I can't imagine something like that to be anything other than fantastic for someone who is. It's like gaining a new dimension.
@Oflife
This isn't a new concept. Do a bit of research and you will find others doing the same. GPS for people who are blind also exists.
...Because a blind man would buy a smartphone(or any touchscreen phone)
Seriously, unless they equip dumphones(maybe of a certain brand -- aimed for blind people) with this technology, I don't see it getting used by visually impaired people.
@Exbloder
I have a lot of blind friends... they have smart and dumb phones. Why would they not use a smart phone? This is one aspect of accessibility... there are screen readers for phones that tell them exactly whats on the screen, just like JAWS does for Windows.
@Speakerfy Well...that particular smartphone (an HTC Tilt 8925 I think) has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, and with third party apps it's pretty easy to function map apps to a given key so you wouldn't HAVE to use the touch screen. The user could turn the app on and off at will with a reasonable setup and learning curve. Though I'd agree a device with a more pebbly/tactile keyboard like an old Treo or Smart Q would probably be better all around for a blind person...
While the function is really useful, in my opinion a dedicated hardware would be much better. on a normal smartphone, maybe it's more useful for dyslexics.
how do parents punish a blind kid?
rearrange his furniture...
@detonator
Dedicated hardware puts things at an astronomical price (which isn't completely new in this arena). Its much, much cheaper and can be just as effective to put software onto an existing device. Personally, I'm excited to see what people develop for the iPad that are similar to this.
This is an already fantastic technology for the blind and visually impaired, and I can only imagine what future developments in the areas of text recognition, text-to-speech, object recognition, location recognition, haptic feedback, etc., will make possible.
I have that phone. Its a 3g Att Tilt (Htc Kaiser) 3.0 megapixel autofocus cam with winmo 6.1. Att took out the front facing camera though
@Einlander I have that phone as well, in its imported TyTn II form, front facing camera intact... you're not missing much.
Why did they steal the logo from Engadget?
They're doing this kind of the long way around, probably because they have other motives / intentions for the technology once developed.
What they should do is tag each label of every product with a bar code like identification that allows the phone to look up the product name from the code. Instead of the standard practice of placing the bar code in black and white on the back, or placing it in multiple colors like the Microsoft version, perhaps they can develop one that's only visible to the CCD's. Or, maybe every label has a transmitter like the anti theft things every garment comes with.
Anyway, I'm glad they're working on something like this.
@Please forgive me
Yeah, because putting a bar code on every existing product is the short way around.
Seriously?
@Please forgive me
So developing and putting a new label or electronic tag on every item in the world is the short way around on this?
Seriously?
If just they could find that app's icon...
Looks like they have been working on this for a while! They went from a Tilt to a FUZE to a Tilt 2!
the only reason i stopped to look at this article/photo was the Earl Grey from Peets!!!
that explains why the guys holding a tytn! *rimshot*....cuz...blindness...*crickets*
So what Engadget is telling us here is that this software will finally make Windows Mobile useful to someone.
How do blind people know where to point it at?