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The Daily Grind: Are /follow commands taboo?
Earlier this week, World of Warcraft patched out a surprising mechanic present in the game for a very long time: the /follow command in battlegrounds. Blizzard community guru Bashiok explained that the primary goal was to curb botting in PvP, although apparently the team isn't too sad about the detrimental effect the change will have on at-the-keyboard multiboxing, either. What Blizzard doesn't appear to have anticipated was the effect the tweak would have on visually impaired players who rely on /follow commands to kick butt. World of Warcraft isn't alone in shunning the /follow command; Guild Wars 1 famously limits following, and Guild Wars 2, to the delight of some players, omits it entirely, which is sort of a pain in the butt when I need to go AFK and can't just follow on my guildies for 30 seconds as we run to the next orangie. I'm annoyed at that, so I can only imagine how upset people awesome enough to PvP blind feel at having their lifeline to fun stripped away after so many years. So what do you guys think? Is this a good change for WoW and other MMOs? Do you think the potential for harm to blind players or legitimate AFKers should outweigh the potential for harm by botters and multiboxers? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Blind player Ben Shaw on raiding and WoW for the sightless
It was World of Warcraft's feel-good people story of last year: Ben Shaw, the energetic young British serviceman who, astonishingly, continues to perform at peak efficiency in endgame raiding with the help of a "guide dog" guildmate. Our interview with Davidian, Ben's in-game guide, went viral and was seen on gaming websites and general news publications across the globe. Blizzard took notice, commemorating the duo's partnership with a set of in-game helms. But after attacking Mists with a new pandaren rogue, Ben said he found himself craving more WoW than ever. By the end of the year, he was ready to reach out for a new guild home, where he's now Shadowstepping into heroics with the best of them. How does a blind WoW player maintain competitive DPS and utility in endgame content? In an era when making a jump to a new raiding guild can be a challenging proposition for any player, how does a guy who can't see bump to the front of the line? (Hint: It's not PR power.) Ben and I pulled up a virtual chair in a phone conversation across the ocean to talk about the challenges of playing a video game when you're completely blind. Visually impaired gamers: Check the end of this interview to learn how to connect with Ben's new initiative to share his experience and resources with other blind players.
Breakfast Topic: Have you ever wanted to make your own machinima?
Most people know that I play a discipline priest in World of Warcraft. I play holy and shadow a lot too, but nothing really beats hopping around, casting bubbles on people, and preventing near death experiences. In League of Legends, I pretty much do the same exact thing, minus the hopping. In League I play a support champion named Janna, and most of what she does is float around, cast bubbles on people, and prevent near death experiences. I guess I just like bubbling things. I've always suspected it had something to do with the fact that the first game I ever owned as a kid was Bubble Bobble on the NES. Want to know what you do in that game? You hop around blowing bubbles at things. Anyway, ever since Wrath, I've wanted to make a video where my disc priest starts out shielding the raid on the heroic Lich King encounter, before accidentally falling through the platform and into a 2-D platform game (similar to Bubble Bobble). There she would have to use her bubbles to navigate levels and fight monsters. The problem is I don't really think I have what it takes to make machinima. Sure, I can hit the record button and film my character running around on a live server, but I don't think I have the patience or artistic talent to do stuff like Percula or the Hackleman Brothers. What they do is closer to animation, and animation is pretty intimidating to a second-rate artist like myself. Still, it doesn't stop me from dreaming. Maybe one day ... What about you? Have you ever wanted to make your own machinima? If so, what would it be? A short spoof, a feature length movie, or an ongoing series? Furthermore, what would it be about? Would it be the love story of your blood elf mage, or an epic war drama starring your human paladin?
Where Are They Now? 2012 personalities, including the blind player and his 'guide dog'
At last, our look back at five years of WoW personality interviews rolls around to the duo everyone's been asking about: Hexu and Davidian, the British soldier blinded in Iraq and his redoubtable "guide dog" guildmate who steered him through full participation in current raid content. Their story exploded across the internet after we interviewed Davidian here on WoW Insider, and Blizzard recognized the dynamic duo with in-game helms with flavor text alluding to their inspiring bond of friendship. Hexu and Davidian are both still playing World of Warcraft -- but the duo is together no more. As of the new year, the ever-energetic Hexu has been raiding on a new rogue, Dirtypawz, in Unqualified on Stormrage (EU). "I know!" he replies to my unspoken exclamation of surprise and sadness. "It was just that people were only raid logging, and it got boring -- but it was all amicable and cool. I still speak to people in Die Safe. I just wanted to do more than raid three nights a week." Hexu/Dirtypawz says a "very nice bloke" named Vatic is serving as his current raiding "guide dog" helper. "The people in the guild are all nice people," he adds, "and there [are] always things going on." We'll visit with Hexu/Dirtypawz next month about how he's settling in and dig into his tips for the many sight-disabled players who've written to us during the past year trying to reach him for advice. Meanwhile, Davidian reports that the year since we interviewed him has been packed with recognition and encouragement. "The publicity was just unreal," he says. "Even to this day, I get people coming to our server just to say how much the story inspired them and restored their faith in the gaming community. The biggest thing of all, though, was the fact that it made its way to Blizzard, and myself and Ben got signed copies of the collectors edition of Cataclysm signed by at least 50 members of the Blizzard team, and [we] received in-game pets also. Then to top it off, having in-game items with our names on them was just outstanding -- I mean, to be immortal in a game that we love to play is just, well words couldn't possibly describe it." All good people connecting to play a game that's close to our hearts ... Keep reading for more updates about people who love World of Warcraft, from our interviews during 2012.
5 Apps: The best camera apps for blind and visually impaired iPhone users
After yesterday's post showing Tommy Edison's video demo of Instagram from a blind user's perspective, we thought it would be helpful to check with an expert and get some suggestions on other camera-centric apps for blind iPhone users. Today's 5 Apps guest post is from Chancey Fleet, an adaptive technology instructor at Jewish Guild Healthcare. -- Ed. With the right apps, the iPhone's camera solves a slew of problems that blind people have traditionally relied on bulky, single-use devices to handle. For the vexatious wad of unidentified cash in a pocket, purse or wallet, there's LookTel MoneyReader. This US$9.99 app uses object-recognition technology and the iPhone's bright LED flash to recognize currency almost instantaneously, even in low light or in a moving car. MoneyReader is savvy enough to recognize several different countries' bills, including the US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Canadian Dollar and Australian Dollar. Object recognition is also at the core of OMoby, which is designed as a visual search engine for products. This app excels at identifying tiny, identical-feeling toiletries; sugar packets; and, if you get your hand in the frame, "hand." OMoby is a free app, serving as a technology demo for the IQ Engines "visual intelligence" search API for developers. Any blind person will tell you that rumors about the death of hard-copy print are exaggerated: from restaurant checks to office memos, there's still plenty. Blindsight's TextDetective captures document images and turns them into plain text, which can be read with Voiceover using speech output or Braille. The process takes only seconds and provides great results if you have a clearly printed document, good lighting conditions and a steady hand. (The first "reading machine," created in 1976 by legendary inventor and new Google staffer Ray Kurzweil, cost $50,000 and weighed 350 pounds. TextDetective costs $9.99. iPhone not included.) Although several apps are purported to identify colors, they do a mediocre job compared to standalone devices like the ColorTest, which occlude all light around the object being tested, report patterns by playing fluctuating tones and recognize hundreds of shades. Trying to sort laundry? Digit-Eyes updates the classic strategy of labeling clothes. Traditionalists do this with anything from safety pins to metal Braille tags: Nancy Miracle, Digit-Eyes's designer, suggests you do it with washable bar codes, which cue the Digit-Eyes app to play back an audio recording or text note you've made that corresponds to the specific code for each item. The $19.99 Digit-Eyes app also looks up commercial bar code information, complete with package directions and nutrition facts; it also allows a user to print QR codes with embedded text. For blind workers who need a serious tool for fast and accurate inventory management, Ms. Miracle has helpfully reviewed two Bluetooth laser scanners from Serial-IO that read bar codes more quickly and in more diverse lighting conditions than does the iPhone camera. [We reviewed Digit-Eyes on TUAW in 2010. –Ed.] No matter how much technology you have, it's a fact of life: sometimes, you just need to borrow a pair of functioning eyeballs. VizWiz can help with that. Simply take a photo, type or speak a question, and a web volunteer will get back to you -- usually within minutes -- with an answer. You can also opt to post your picture and question to Facebook, if you dare. You can read more about Chancey and her experience of navigating New York City in this feature story on WNYC.
What WoW art do you show off?
As a new father, I didn't really go out and paint the town red for New Year's Eve. Instead, my family joined our neighbors to quietly sip some beer, enjoy some chili, and watch YouTube videos on a big screen. Being the nerd that I am, I insisted that we watch BLIND. The family we were visiting hadn't seen the video, since they don't play WoW, but they were suitably impressed by the animation and fun. The video actually inspired them to maybe check out the game; I felt my work there was done. When you find yourself wishing to share a bit of our Azerothian culture, what do show non-players? Is it a song? A machinima? Maybe a favorite picture? What's the anthropologic relic you use to represent us as WoW players?
'Sonar Vision' system touted by researchers to help the blind hear what they can't see
Scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a prototype system that could one day aid the congenitally blind by converting video into auditory cues. The "Sonar Vision" works in a similar way to a bat's echolocation system, but instead of chirping, uses a video camera embedded in a pair of glasses. A laptop or smartphone then converts the images into sound, which is transmitted to a headset. After 70 hours or so of training, that allowed users to identify objects like faces or houses, position objects in space and even identify individual letters. Surprisingly, researchers also found that after only several hours using the device, regions of the cerebral cortex dedicated to sight became activated for the first time in the congenitally sightless. That could possibly let doctors "wake up" regions of the brain never before used, according to the team, "even after a lifetime of blindness." [Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]
Qualcomm develops eyes-free smartphone for the blind and visually impaired, calls it Ray
Smartphones have made juggling multiple single-purpose gadgets a thing of the past for many, but the blind and visually impaired often use a raft of devices built with eyes-free use in mind. Qualcomm and Project Ray, however, are aiming to consolidate phone calls, text messaging with voice read-out, navigation, object recognition, audio book reading and more for the visually impaired in a system built on an off-the-shelf Android phone. To navigate the smartphone, users leverage a handful of simple finger movements that can be started at any point on the handset's touch screen. Voice prompts and vibration provide feedback to users, and the UI adapts to usage patterns and preferences. Currently, Ray devices have access to Israel's Central Library for the Blind and are being tested by 100 folks in the country. For the full lowdown, head past the break for the press release.
WoW Moviewatch: Craft of War: BLIND
It Has Been 5 Months 0 Months Since Michael Gray Last Posted BLIND. Since the last time Percula's classic Craft of War: BLIND graced these pages, two WoW Insiders have had babies (not together), a new expansion has let out, we've endured a non-stop presidential campaign, sent a robot to Mars, and garnered lots of new readers. So, to those new folks, welcome to Craft of War: BLIND. It's awesome and will spoil you for most other machinima that you may ever see. Don't worry. You'll still like other stuff. But you'll look back on BLIND the same way you remember your first love. To you long-time veterans, yeah. Rogues still don't play this way. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an email at moviewatch@wowinsider.com.
"Guide Dog" player and sightless guild-mate honored with in-game items
Back in January, Lisa Poisso posted a touching story about two players, Hexu, an enhancement shaman played by British Army soldier Ben Shaw, who, while serving in Iraq, was involved in an incident with a roadside bomb in Basra. He suffered multiple shrapnel wounds and had to have both eyes surgically removed. Despite this, Hexu has accepted many challenges, including WoW raiding. But how does a sightless player raid? Well, that's where Davidian comes in. Davidian is a Death Knight, played by a Scotsman named Owen, and is Hexu's in-game guide. He uses a series of macros, both on Hexu's machine and his own, to help Hexu perform in-game actions from repairs to killing Deathwing, the two even ranking side by side in DPS. Why are we repeating this story? Well, Blizzard has honored Hexu and Davidian with two in-game items: Hexu's Amplifying Helm, and Davidian's All-Seeing Eyes. The item descriptions on the tooltips are particularly touching: "A man with a friend is never without vision" and "Sharp enough to see for two men" respectively. I was really touched by this, and so are Hexu and Davidian's guild, Die Safe, who have posted a thread on the EU forums thanking Blizzard for this recognition.
Fleksy is an alternate text input tool for the visually impaired
Fleksy is an interesting take on alternate text input for the iPhone. Designed for those whose eyesight is bad or nonexistent, Fleksy records the taps on the screen and makes a guess based on your patterns. It then says the word, enabling you to quickly construct sentences without even looking at the screen. Does it work? Absolutely it does, and as proof I found it was far more accurate when I didn't look at the screen than when I tried to type quickly while looking at the "keys." Fleksy is simple enough, with a text area up top and modified keyboard below. As you type, it guesses what you're trying to type. When you go to the next word by swiping right, Fleksy reads the word it guessed, allowing you to delete it (swipe left to delete), ask for another suggestion (swipe down), or continue by typing again. What's incredible is the speed and accuracy of the app while not looking at the screen. If you're familiar with the basic QWERTY layout on an iPhone's screen, you can tappity-tap on the screen, pretending you're seeing the keys, when Fleksy is actually making several educated guesses about what you're wanting to write. Fleksy is free to test, and I highly recommend you do so to understand what's going on. My video below is but a tiny sample of how good Fleksy is at guessing your keystrokes. To unlock the ability to use this text outside of the app, it'll cost you $9.99. If you are visually impaired, it's a decent bargain, even though Apple continues to make iOS more accessible.
Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide
Most digital Braille devices are built on the assumption that the legally blind already know how to write in the format -- if they don't, they're often forced back to the analog world to learn. PDT and Perkins hope to address that longstanding technology gap with the Perkins Smart Brailler. Going digital lets Perkins build in lessons for newcomers as well as provide immediate audio feedback (visual for writers with borderline vision) and text-to-speech conversion to give even an old hand a boost. Logically, the leap into the modern world also allows transferring documents over USB along with traditional Braille printouts. Smart Braillers will cost a weighty $1,995 each when they first ship in September, but it's hard to put a price tag on mastering communication and fully joining the digital generation.
Georgie app offers up Android features and voice-guided menus for the blind: we go hands-on (video)
Phone options for the blind previously been pricey hardware based solutions -- or feature-light (physically-heavy) handsets. While the functional abilities of smartphones have expanded out wildly from the mobile devices we used to use, accessibility options have remained firmly in the past. Enter Georgie, an Android app that offers up a blind-friendly interface to open up the likes of maps, Twitter and email. It also includes an OCR function that can both re-display text in larger fonts and offer an audio version for listening. You can even store these photos for listening to later. Navigation through the app is steered by holding your finger to the screen, hearing the menu described and giving haptic feedback to confirm your choice. Keep reading to see how the app developed and our impressions on how it all works. You can also check out our hands-on video, which includes a glimpse at the app's OCR read-out feature and a quick demonstration from its co-creator Roger.
Fujitsu, NICT create indoor navigation for the blind using ultrawideband, Android phones, kind hearts
There's no shortage of navigation outdoors, and even a little bit of help indoors, but there's been precious little aid for the blind indoors -- leaving them little choice but to move cautiously or get outside help. Fujitsu and Japan's NICT have crafted a system that gives the sightless a greater level of autonomy inside through ultrawideband-based impulse radio. A grid of UWB radios positioned around a room gauge the distances between each other and transmit the data to a PC, which then talks to the traveler's Android phone. The device then gives spoken directions based on a 12-o'clock system and far subtler distances than GPS can manage: the positioning is accurate to within a foot. While the indoors navigation is only just getting a demo this week, it's already being refined to detect objects in the room as well as to help even the fully sighted. If Fujitsu and NICT have their way, buildings ranging from hospitals to malls will have their own turn-by-turn navigation. For some, the freedom of movement could be a life-changer.
Blindsquare uses Foursquare data to guide the visually impaired
Blindsquare is giving guidance systems for the visually disabled a new twist with user-generated Foursquare data, text-to-speech, GPS and some OpenStreetMap mojo. While users are out and about, the app narrates their trip via headphones with information about nearby places, intersections or guidance to their destination. One shake of the iPhone or iPad gives users their current location and a second shake checks them in on Foursquare. The app can also be controlled via a Bluetooth remote while the device sits in a pocket or backpack. After going from concept to completion in six months, it's now out of beta and available on the App Store for $14.99. Sonar gauntlets won't let you check-in to your haunts? Hit the source link to step up that location-based social networking.
iPhone apps help the blind in all kinds of ways
We've heard of the iPhone being used in all kinds of situations, but here's a new one for me. Blind iPhone users are making wide use of the device for identifying objects visually. This writeup over at The Atlantic has more, telling the story of two blind women who use Apple's little mobile phone to do things like identify the color of clothing, scan money bills for their values, and even tell them where they are, via GPS and voice controls. The Audible app will also read books out loud, and there are apps to tell the user where they're pressing on the screen, and even "speech texting" through HeyTell, which is an app that I know a few sighted people use as well. In the future, these blind users would like even more, specifically better integration of Siri with voice controls (which is something that I think everyone would like), and even more location features. They mention an idea where a phone will buzz or vibrate if you happen to be near a certain location. Still, it's amazing how much having a powerful little, location and camera-equipped pocket-sized computer has been able to change the lives of the blind.
LG gives away 2,000 specially modified phones for the blind
Skipping on the LTE, HD IPS screen or dual-processor is usually not a recipe that will land your phone on the pages of Engadget. But, these LG-LU2700Ss are not just any unspectacular flip phone. The handset has been specially modified for use by the blind and visually impaired. The manual is printed in braille and, rather than require the constant mashing of buttons, the phone is controlled primarily through voice commands. 2,000 of the devices were given away as part of the company's donation program. Now if only they would mass produce them, LG would earn some serious cred.
Android devs: if you can't use your app with your eyes closed, open them and read this
Google's doing a lot to bolster its Android developers guide at the moment, with fresh design tips we covered yesterday and then a new section on accessibility arriving shortly after. The latter provides a bunch of suggestions on things like minimum button size (48dp or around 9mm), and also explains how to make use of free components like TalkBack, which gives a spoken description of an app's UI, and Eyes-Free Keyboard, which many users find easier than regular touch-to-click. These stock services work best with apps that have been designed with them in mind, so if we were presumptuous enough to command all devs to look at the source link, then we probably would. (Do it. Do it.)
Indie Royale's St. Patrick's Day bundle is partially blind for now
Indie Royale's St. Patrick's Day bundle is semi-blind -- but don't worry, it's more like one of those trips to the eye doctor where you leave wearing giant, ugly, flimsy plastic sunglasses and are told to not look directly at the sun for the afternoon. It gets better, is what we're saying.Indie Royale has opened pre-orders, at a $4 minimum, for four slightly mysterious titles in its St. Patrick's Day bundle, the actual day of which is Saturday, March 17. If you plan on being even a tad sober any time on Saturday, the games are teased as follows:"An explosive FPS with a future-leaning setting," "next up the flagpole is a jaunty Windows and Mac adventure game," "a brainy Steam-enabled Windows and Mac title 'dispensing' RTS action," "an acclaimed satirical platformer, plus a bonus DRM-free Windows RPG overhead shooter from the same creator."Pre-orders and those who pay over the minimum once the bundle is released will get O.S.T.: Original Soundtrack from Daniel Capo.
App turns Android tabs into math tools for the visually impaired (video)
Two high school students are taking part in a bit of an experiment at Vanderbilt University. The college's Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory (MED Lab) is working on an Android app that turns tablets into a teaching aid for the visually impaired. Areas of math that rely heavily on visual elements, such as algebra and calculus, prove problematic for students with poor eyesight. A common solution involves pipe cleaners, a cork board and push pins, to recreate graphs, but the method is quite slow. The MED Lab is looking to haptic feedback as a way to help the visually impaired identify lines, graph points and other data that is normally represented visually. For more details about the project check out the video after the break.
