Well, Glenn, I think the number of blind people to trial so far is very small. It's one thing to sit with a tin of baked beans ... but quite another to find a shop front in a crowded area when you can't see at all to aim the camera! <Smiles>
Anyway, along with others, I shall watch this with interest and thanks for your further explanation which I do understand, at least to a point, which is good enough for the moment.
-- Carol carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx On Twitter: http://twitter.com/songbird49a ---- Original Message ---- From: "Glenn Tookey" <Glenn.Tookey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 9:18 AM Subject: [access-uk] Re: LookTel smartphone software
Hi Carol et al The issue is not the capacity of the phone, it is streaming real time video back to a base station - normally your home pc which is also online connected to the internet to allow the connection between the phone and the pc which holds the library. If you had a million pictures in your library then it would take a long time to search and find the image that it recognised, most people would have hundreds , then it would work quickly in real time. In terms of recognition of place / shop fronts - it is not really impacted much by weather, the phone I am using has no flash and only a 3mb pixel camera, it is more about seeing an image that the phone / base station recognise as something that it has seen before and has been tagged with a description - training we call it. As George says, the more images you take, the better the recognition. For example, currency is best recognised when you take about 4 /5 images - as the differences between UK notes is really down to the number on the note and the colour. It is not completely foolproof, taking pictures of shop fronts depends upon you arriving at a place that you have taken an image of before and the system recognising that view again. It works, but is less capable of a correct response than for example a tin of baked beans which you have imaged from a couple of views and would recognise next time by holding it in your hand. I have not been able to put it through its full paces yet, so we'll have to wait a few weeks to get it to full Beta and then we will be out and about getting feedback from the UK market. Remember, over 200 blind people in US have been part of the development programme, especially for the touch screen interface. I am keen to gain UK market feedback, but only when we have moved to a point that everything works reliably, nothing worse than demoing technology and finding it is not doing what it should. As for costs, we are regularly told that the capital cost of products for this industry are out of the reach of the normal person. A subscription model would remove upfront cost and should help more people gain access. Remember, this is not a stand alone product, it is a real time service - like your electricity or telephone service, it has to be up an running 24 X 7, it has to have support in place 24 X 7 - so it incurs costs from the service providers in real time to support the service. This is the first of new services and business models for a group of people who have traditionally had to be one step behind technology development. Hopefully over time with a service like this, this group of people can move alongside their sighted peers. Sermon over (Smile) Glenn -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carol Pearson Sent: 27 April 2010 23:14 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: LookTel smartphone software So does that mean that the number of items you can store depends on the capacity of your phone to keep "real time video"? It's getting more interesting by the minute ... but who can justify those prices? -- Carol carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx On Twitter: http://twitter.com/songbird49a ---- Original Message ---- From: "Glenn Tookey" <Glenn.Tookey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2010 6:08 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: LookTel smartphone softwareThe answer is yes, once you have trained it to recognise something then whenever it sees it again (and the phone is in recognition mode) then it will announce the title that you have given to the object. It does not matter where you are in the world as long as you have a data connection back to your base station library it will give you the information. The response is very quick. If you are in a place a long way from your base station and want to train an object you can do it locally on the phone and attach a voice tag from the mobile phone. This is transferred back to your base station. Next time it sees the object, it announce it using your own voice tag rather than the system voice that it uses for tags typed in on the base station. So, you go into the hotel and tag your hotel door number (remember it has to be something unique, every hotel door is the same apart from the number) and then just have to know where to point it at the hotel door to find out which is yours. You do not have to take a picture, it is real time video, so you just move the phone about until it makes the recognition. Not foolpoof, but dammed clever really! Glenn -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Amro Bilal Sent: 27 April 2010 17:27 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: LookTel smartphone software Quite, George. A question about the product itself. I gathered from Glen's email that LookTel can be trained to recognise places as well as objects. Is that right? And if it is, then I can, say, take it with me overseas and train it to recognise the number on my hotel room door? Have I got this right or I'm fantasising now? If that level of recognition can be achieved with LookTel, and LookTel can be used basically anywhere that has a mobile phone network coverage, then IMHO this product has a lot of potential. Cheers, Amro -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of George Bell Sent: 27 April 2010 1:02 PM To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: LookTel smartphone software Quite simply because what may be right for the American market, is very often not suitable for the U.K. market, even given the fact that 200 blind users in America have been working with the developers for the past year or so. And having now seen the LookTel myself, I can quite understand. This is why Glen Tookey, quite understandably, is regarding the U.K. version as an "Alpha", rather than "Beta". Many things do have to be Anglicised. Suffice to say that when Glen and his team feel the product is ready for the UK market, it will be revealed, and will not necessarily be the final version either, thus allowing any changes potential users may deem essential. All I will add is that what I saw was most impressive, to the point where having kept out of the phone market, I'm sorely tempted. It won't suit everyone by any means. If you have a sophisticated phone now, the extras offered may, or indeed may not, tempt you to upgrade. George. -----Original Message----- From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Peter Beasley Sent: 27 April 2010 09:54 To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [access-uk] Re: LookTel smartphone software Why are they only testing Alpha software in this country because thee-mail I forwarded referred to Beta software. ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 5065 (20100427) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. 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