[accessibleimage] sculpture, painter, GPS, fashion design

article:
Blind carve statue
Blind Artist Uses His Memories For His Paintings
Ga. Tech researchers work to improve navigating people
Partially-sighted fashion designer unveils Paris debut collection
Interview With Dan Kish

site links
World Access for the Blind * *http://www.waftb.org/
links article
http://www.mk-news.co.uk/news/milton%20keynes/2006/oct/4/blind%20carve%20statue.lpf

http://www.wcsh6.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=42614
also video

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/15655459.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060921/lf_afp/afplifestylefashion
http://www.manwithoutfear.com/interviews/ddINTERVIEW.shtml?id=Kish

Blind carve statue

By Rob Gibson

A statue crafted by the blind has been unveiled at the gardens of Inter Action MK.

The stone carving took sevenand- a-half hours to create and was designed by local sculptor Nicolas Moreton who created ‘The Conversation’ landmark at thecentre:mk.


Tall order: Members of the BAB group with the sculpture of a woman they helped to create
The Bucks Association for the Blind and partially sighted people (BAB) teamed up with Inter Action to create the sculpture during seven workshops.

Each member of BAB had their own stone block to chisel and they were then joined together to create a seven-foot tall woman, named BABs.

Paula Suchy and Veronica Dry are two of the keen artists, both registered as blind, although they are partially sighted.

Veronica, from Old Farm Park, said: “We wouldn’t be able to do this without the help of our volunteers.

“It was quite a challenge but we are very determined people.

“Now it is finished there’s a sense of extreme satisfaction as we have created something permanent for the garden.” Paula, from Eaglestone, said: “It was a big challenge not being able to see the end of the chisel but we did have people helping us. It was a challenge for Nicolas too, to work with us but once the blocks were put together it suddenly all came to life.” BABs is now on display at Inter Action’s centre, in Peartree Bridge.

The project has clearly had a huge impact on the group as they have now formed their own art club, Eye For Art. Anyone interested in joining or volunteering to help can get in touch through Inter Action on 01908 678514.


article

Blind Artist Uses His Memories For His Paintings

Miranda Grossman

A visually impaired man from Bangor is getting attention for his artwork. Jim Powers has been blind for more than a decade, since infections and viruses deteriorated his eyesight.


After losing his vision, he began painting. Powers says he never had any formal training.

Friends help him set up the colors he uses, so he knows where each one is. Then he says, he sees the painting and colors in his mind.

"Where my eyes do not register yellows, browns, grays, colors on that spectrum, I can still use my memory of those to do it," said Powers.

His artwork is on display at the Bangor public library.


article

Ga. Tech researchers work to improve navigating people

ATLANTA - The latest satellite-based navigation systems can pinpoint directions for motorists from high above, saving bumbling drivers countless hours and extra trips to the gas station. Helping people navigate - from firefighters to the blind - has been much more challenging.

Global Positioning System technology can narrow within 10 feet of a target, which fine for cars searching for the next right turn but not close enough for pedestrians seeking a front door. The system's range is limited indoors, and since it can't tell the difference between a building and a park, its path could lead right into a brick wall.

Georgia Tech researchers are trying to pick up where GPS left off. They've developed the System for Wearable Audio Navigation, or SWAN, which is a headband packed full of sensors that they hope can tell the difference between a room and a road.

Aside from a pendant-sized wireless GPS tracker, there are light sensors and thermometers that can help distinguish between indoors and outdoors. Cameras will gauge how far away objects and obstacles are. A compass establishes direction. And an inertia detector will track the roll, pitch and yaw of the user's head.

All the data are crunched by a tiny computer lodged in a backpack, which relays high-pitch sonar-like signals that direct users to their destination.

Bruce Walker, an assistant psychology professor who helped develop the system, said in a few years it could be used to help navigate the blind, first-responders or soldiers through unknown territory.

It's a challenging prospect, which explains why only a few companies have tackled the tricky business of helping people navigate on a small scale.

HumanWare, a company with headquarters in Montreal and New Zealand, markets a GPS system that attaches atop a computer organizer and pipes in directions to blind users. The $1,700 device has limited range indoors and its accuracy can vary, but it improves every year, said Nicolas Lagace, the company's marketing manager.

"It's a revolution for blind people," he said.

A new rival could lead to more precise navigation. Galileo, the European Union's answer to the U.S. military-controlled GPS, promises to improve accuracy of up to a few feet for some users. By 2008, consumers are expected to be able to buy receivers that can switch back and forth between GPS and Galileo, similar to how callers seamlessly switch between cell phone networks.

The venture, however, won't be fully functional until 2010 and could still be saddled with some of the same limitations as the GPS, such as constraints on indoor tracking.

Walker and Frank Dellaert, a computer professor, hope their use of sensors makes up for those drawbacks, leading to more precise navigation for users.

Like a sonar device, the SWAN system sends out blips that quicken as users draw closer to a preprogrammed target and slow as they get further away. The subtle sound of a hinge opening plays as it passes by a door, and other cues could signal bathrooms, restaurants, stores, parks and other attractions.

The signals are sent through bone-conducting headphones, specialized devices that are worn behind the ears to appease blind users reluctant to have their ears covered.

"This is not intended to replace a guide dog or a white cane," Walker said. "This just supplements it."

It requires a huge database to work effectively, relying on detailed maps and floor plans that mark each sidewalk, door, hall and stairwell.

A quick test of SWAN's song shows how useful it could be.

A cloud of swarming blue dots, representing a blind SWAN user, floats down a sidewalk on a computer screen, the system's sensors constantly adjusting its path. A red line, marking the path the GPS would track without the additional sensors, snakes alongside.

At a right turn, the blue dot safely maneuvers around the black square of a building. The red line, meanwhile, runs right through the wall.

"It's going to take time," Walker said. "But getting floor plans for buildings is possible. We're trying to show that given a map, we can show the blind how to get places."

Blind advocacy groups, such as the Washington-based American Council of the Blind, are hopeful.

"We all know that GPS is a marvelous addition to our array of options," said Melanie Brunson, the council's director. "But it does have limitations as far as its accuracy goes. If they could come up with some way to make the system more accurate, it would be appealing to a lot of people."

ON THE NET

Georgia Tech: http://www.gatech.edu

American Council of the Blind: http://www.acb.org


article

Partially-sighted fashion designer unveils Paris debut collection

Thu Sep 21, 10:55 AM ET

Against the odds, a partially-sighted Cameroon-born designer has overcome the tragic circumstances of his early life to unveil his debut collection on a Paris catwalk.

Mason Ewing, 24, who is now French, sent out Braille-printed T-shirts so that the sight-impaired can discover the colour through touching them, on his first runway late on Wednesday.

On the front or back, the tops, paired with wide jeans, also depicted the brand's logo, the letters M and E, or alternatively its emblem -- a black baby with blue eyes and blond streaked hair.

"It's the symbol of innocence, of purity, of tolerance," Ewing said, on the sidelines of his presentation whose guests included supporter, Olivier Lapidus, the French couturier.

The designer, who works from his apartment in Meaux, in France's northern region of Seine-et-Marne, said he wanted to pay tribute to his mother Marie, a former model who died in Cameroon when Ewing was four years old.

Sent to live in France, the boy suffered physical and psychological abuse and ran away, ending up roaming the streets. Then, aged 15, he suffered another heavy blow -- the loss of his sight.

But Ewing, who had inherited his mother's love of fashion, was undeterred.

"What pushed me on was my mother. It's a beautiful inheritance, a beautiful richness that she left me. And I'm here today thanks to her," he said, adding that the wedding dress in his collection, with its long white cascading train, was created as a "goodbye" to her.

The gown was crafted by another young designer but inspired by Ewing.

The French designer, who heads a team of about 15 people, has succeeded despite not having any formal training as a designer in the highly-competitive world of fashion.

"The only training I have, it's the confidence I have in myself, and that of the people who have believed in me."

His fashion heroes include French heavyweight names Yves Saint-Laurent, Christian Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier.

And Ewing hopes his catwalk debut in the French capital will be just the "first stage", with further fashion design projects in the pipeline, as well as a plan to write his autobiography.

"Everyone really wants me to succeed. I've had a lot of luck compared to many designers who are setting out," he commented.

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