[blindza] Re: FW: New technology to help blind people text using touchscreen mobile devices has been developed.

This would be cool, since aside from touch screen navigation, etc., I think 
quite a few of them use virtual, onscreen keyboards generally.

Stay well

Jacob Kruger
Blind Biker
Skype: BlindZA
'...fate had broken his body, but not his spirit...'

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Estie Van Zyl 
  To: blindza@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 9:26 AM
  Subject: [blindza] FW: New technology to help blind people text using 
touchscreen mobile devices has been developed.






------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: petra burger [mailto:petra.burger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
  Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 9:16 AM
  To: Estie Van Zyl; 'Pieter Swanepoel (Kempton Park)'; 'Coetzee Pieter'; 
'Wilna du Toit'
  Cc: 'Therina Wentzel'; 'Koenraad Burger'; 'Karen Smit'
  Subject: FW: New technology to help blind people text using touchscreen 
mobile devices has been developed.


  Liewe Vriende, 

   

  Inligting met betrekking tot nuwe tegnologie vir jul aandag. 

   

  Vriendelike groete 

   

   

   

  Petra Burger

   

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  "SUCCESS is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the COURAGE to continue 
that counts." - Winston Churchill. 

   



   

  App helps blind to send text messages


   

  New technology to help blind people text using touchscreen mobile devices has 
been developed.

  Researchers at Georgia Tech produced the app - to be made available on Apple 
and Android devices - based on the Braille writing system.

  It is claimed typing with the app is up to six times faster than existing 
methods for texting without sight.

  Access to technology for the visually-impaired is a growing issue due to the 
proliferation of touchscreens.

  Experts say currently available tools, such as Apple's Voiceover technology, 
are functional but too slow to be used effectively.

  Brailletouch, which the team hope to release in the next couple of weeks, 
uses a system that is controlled with six fingers and, crucially, does 
notrequire any movement of the hands.

  "Users who know how to type Braille well never move their hands," explained 
Mario Romero, lead researcher on the project.

  "When users hold the phone they hold the phone with the screen facing away 
from them in landscape mode.

  "They wrap the index, middle and ring finger in each hand around the phone.

  "It's not like the Qwerty keyboard where you move up and down. That's why 
this thing works - we can get away with only six keys."

  Continue reading the main story

  "Start Quote
    This is not for texting and driving"

  Mario RomeroLead researcher
  Eyes-free kit

  Brailletouch will be free and open-source, its makers say, and it is hoped it 
could even become an "eyes-free" solution for fully-sighted people who want to 
text while visually pre-occupied with something else.

  "Learning to type Braille is learning to memorise where the the dots fall," 
Mr Romero told the BBC.

  "It took me and my colleagues a few hours to memorise things so we could 
start typing at around 10 words per minute. It's not something that takes years.

  "We're hoping that, if not Braille, a similar system may solve the issue of 
having too many keys that are too small that force everybody to look at the 
screen when they're typing."

  However, Mr Romero was quick to dampen any possible hopes that the software 
could be used to text while behind the wheel.

  "They need to concentrate on what they're doing. This is not for texting and 
driving," he said.

  'Truly blind'

  Mr Romero highlighted a growing anxiety shared among the blind community that 
the widespread adoption of touchscreens for many machines and devices is making 
them "truly blind".

  "There is extreme concern about this new trend.

  "A lot of equipment today - from copying machines to machines at the gym - is 
all coming with touch screens."

  He added that while research into tactile screens - which give users feedback 
by moulding - is taking place, we are still some way from having touchscreens 
which adequately cater for the visually-impaired.

  "Blind people say I 'see' things with my fingers," Mr Romero said.

  "But on touchscreens they are truly blind."

   

  -- 

  'Happily Disabled'." 

  " I like my life as a disabled person," "This life is not a matter of choice, 
it's a matter of how it is.

  I am a full time wheelchair user, I try to live a full life as anyone else 
and like to think I fight for what I believe in, which is sometimes more 
challenging than it should be .

   

   

   






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