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Mobile Phone for the Blind

Posted by michael on from the ringtone dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Owasys - a Spanish company - is launching a mobile phone for the blind next week. No visual display as a speech synthesiser reads everything that appears on the screen out loud. Also speaks the name and number of incoming callers."

9 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. I stand corrected. by Locky · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here I thought Mobile Phones couldn't get anymore annoying.

    1. Re:I stand corrected. by KarmaPolice · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's exactly what I was thinking. But just think: Now when you hear people's cell phones during a movie, [...]
      Blind people at the movies?? Are you drunk?

  2. Hopefully it'll sell well! by SkOink · · Score: 3, Funny

    I mean, those guys a must be pretty deep in the hole after trying to market that cell-phone for the deaf... ::ducks::

    --
    ---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
  3. Slight privacy issue by RighteousFunby · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just imagine...at home, wife and kids asleep, when all of a sudden your phone bellows:

    "DIALLING QUICKDIAL 1: HOT HORNY HOUSEWIFE LINE"

    Or if you're playing away from home...

    "Contact MISS PERT BREASTS is calling!"

    in front of wifey.
    Oh, the possibilities :)

    --
    If you're happy and you know it read my blog
  4. Done before... by admbws · · Score: 4, Informative

    BTexact did something similar ages ago (SMS for the blind, actually).

  5. This should make Messaging Spam entertaining... by Maestro4k · · Score: 4, Funny
    I can see it now, you're sitting in the board room, the CEO is giving a talk about how the company's needing to cut costs and suddenly your phone beeps with an incoming message which it proceeds to read to you...

    "Incoming message: 'Did you know you can increase your penis size overnight? ....'"

    Of course then you'd at least be able to prove monetary damages due to the spam, since you lost your job over it....

    Funny, but rather scary too.

  6. Deaf enabled phone by SWroclawski · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, my girlfriend is deaf and carries a cell phone. It works pretty well.

    She has one of those T-Mobile Sidekick ones where you connect the Internet (web browser, AIM, and even an available SSH client).

    It's actually quite useful. She can get her email, AIM and SMS messages in one place. There are even AIM -> TTY services so she can make "voice" calls on the road.

    It's still a phone too. So if there's some sort of emergency and a hearing person is there- they could use it.

    - Serge
  7. I'm surprised this wasn't out long ago by ear2ground · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why is this just making news?

    Sounds like a good idea

    I have a feeling there may be more of a need than for those who drive around with a cell phone in one hand and a latte in the other.

    --
    Subduction leads to orogeny
  8. ALWAYS design for the lowest common denominator! by ebusinessmedia1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    All consumer electronics devices should be manufactured - at base - with the lowest-common-denominator user in mind.

    If a device is made to enable someone with physical challenges, it should be a cinch to use for anyone who isn't challenged.

    From there, a device could be addended with options, for those that want them. In fact, devices built this way would have a much higher "cool" factor than most of the poorly-desogned products we see today. Witness all the excitment every time an "easy-to-use" product comes to market...that alone makes my point.

    If one considers that virtually all consumers will be physically challenged at some point in their lives (broken bones, aging, etc.), why shouldn't manufacturers be building devices with a "fail-safe" user mode that permits limted, but functional use?

    Frankly, this design strategy alone would revolutionize consumer product manufacture in many sectors (auto, electronics, etc), and solve many of the "user-unfriendly" problems that plague consumers today.

    Unfortunately, what we see today is engineering-driven design that frustrates all but the most determined users, and even those face barriers to seamless use that simply should not exist.