Innovative ways to make the blind rejoice worldly pleasures

A consortium of research institutes and Universities is developing a system prototype, which with the help of clever algorithms and technology to convert spatial information into 3D acoustic maps would enable the blind see. For real-time image processing, Boffins from the University of Bristol have designed an algorithm that helps identify objects and obstacles. While researchers from the University of Laguna, Spain, have devised a technique to transform that visual image into 3D pictures of sound. Read more.

Haptic Reader concept, when placed on the book, with its flat glass surface converts the text into Braille and then displays it on the flat surface on the upper side of the device. An added characteristic of the Haptic Reader is that it scans the text and then converts it into a voice message, which the impaired can hear through the device’s built-in speakers. Read more.

to open new doors of internet to the blind, researchers at the North Carolina State University have readied a prototype hydraulic and latching mechanism to revolutionize the way the impaired use the internet and computers. The mechanism made in electroactive polymer would provide the Braille dots raised to a particular height which would every swiftly detect the weight being applied by a person’s fingers and thus respond instantly – allowing the users to surf the web more ably and quickly. Read more.

Britain’s Royal National Institute of Blind People has worked out a talking chipset (that reads on-screen text) to help the visually impaired access TV menu, programs and other displays features. The devised system works in different languages and can be individually adjusted according to the user’s needs, which makes it a versatile system capable of being used by any kind of ailing being for comfort and required assistance. Operated via a remote control console, the talking chipset is based on multiple, high contrast color schemes with fonts varying in size. Read more.

B-Touch by designer Zhenwei uses a touchscreen display for Braille. Including voice systems and programs to function as a phone, the B-Touch also supports a system for navigation along a book reader and an object recognizer. This touchscreen phone also provides book reading facility for the visually challenged. Read more.

A Braille codification for emotions has been devised in a thesis project at Umeå University in Sweden. The project uses a tactile display and a webcam to assist the blind “see” emotion as they are displayed on a subject’s face. The visual information of subject’s facial emotions is delivered through tactile sensation on the forearm sleeve as a gesture is carried out into the Web cam. The person has to adapt to the tactile sensation and understand what is what – and to make this simple for the user the researchers are working on easiest ways to convey facial and non-verbal cues as data to computers, which could read and translate into tactile data. Read more.

Braille Phone concept designed by Seonkeun Park uses Electric Active Plastic to fabricate Braille code on the screen of the phone, which makes it easy for the visually impaired to use. Shaped like a traditional television remote, the Braille phone collects the Braille information on the screen, where the user can touch it to access it. Because the keypad too is written out in Braille, the phone is bound to make text messaging easy and fun for the blind. Read more.

The BrainPort is a vision device funded by the National Eye Institute, which provides information to blind individuals via a neuro-stimulating array placed on the tongue. This unique device provides immediate benefits to its blind users in the areas of safety, mobility and recreation, and opens up a new world of sensory experience and exploration. The BrainPort operates by acquiring an image stream from a camera, similar to a camcorder. Like a camcorder, the moving images are sent to a display, which, in this case, is the electrode array on the tongue. The image stream is displayed on the tongue by converting light information to electrical stimulation, which feels like microscopic bubbles to the user. With minimal training, users learn to interpret the images on their tongue as information about the scene in front of them. Read more.

Researchers from the University of Chile with counterparts from Harvard Medical School are taming three audio-based PC games to allow blind people navigate a labyrinth, a subway system and real-world buildings based on audio signals. The game built for teach blind children, works by interpreting information generated by spectral sounds like footsteps and door knocks – this in the virtual essence of real building, so that the user learns to build a spatial cognitive map of that surrounding, a navigate it easily when in the actually building in the real world scenario. Read more.

Intel has developed an electronic reader specifically to read aloud to the blind. The Intel Reader as it is called, is priced fairly high at $1,499, but is a researched based intelligent digital book reader which can read digital files aloud, and using the 5MP camera can also capture high-resolution images of any printed material and then using its text-to-speech software can read the same aloud in a host of listening speeds. Intel Reader works efficiently with the web pages and e-books that have been formatted online for visually-impaired. The reader has a four-inch color display to show and read text in DAISY, plain text or MP3 file formats. The Intel Reader doesn’t support Wi-Fi but does stuff in it an Intel Atom microprocessor and 2GB of flash memory. The device has some third-party software for scanning and reading aloud while it runs Linux, the fully charged battery is good to read aloud for four hours. Read more.

With a laser range finder and an instant voice command interface embedded into a retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy, the blind could be able to steer it around, making it the first car ever to be driven autonomously by the blind. This breakthrough buggy developed by the Blind Driver Challenge team from Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory lets the blind driver steer, break and accelerate without any external human assistance. The blind can maneuver the car based on precise information delivered by a computing unit, which supported by a sensory unit gathers data from the laser view finder (virtual eyes for the driver). The voice commands and a vibrating vest (worn by the driver) function as guides to help the view finder and the system function adequately. Read more.

In order to get the visually impaired into the world of 3D porn, Lisa J. Murphy has written a book, the Tactile Mind, which is an erotic book for the blind. Murphy a photographer and a professional in Tactile Graphics, has been involved in creating touchable images of animal for visually impaired children, now she has extended her prowess to fill the void of availability of such (erotic) books for the blind. This artisanal concept book contains explicit softcore images raised from the pages featuring Braille text and photos. Murphy blew up the used photos and used a layer of clay, to get the 3D effect in the images. Read more.