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Ask Slashdot: Building an Assistive Reading Device?
RulerOf writes "A few years ago, my girlfriend's grandfather was diagnosed with Macular Degeneration. Ever since, he has had progressively more trouble with daily activities. While his wife and family are able to help him with most things, at the age of 88 and without many living friends left, he dearly misses the ability to read printed text. He was able to get by for some time with magnifying glasses and other basic aids but now even those do not help. Recently, a local clinic which specializes in treatment for low-sight and blind individuals made him aware of and showed him several assistive reading devices that successfully allowed him to read. He mentioned this to his family members, and when I was told about it, I thought that these devices sounded like they were not much more than a camera attached to an LCD monitor or television with a little bit of special software thrown into the mix." (Read on below for more.)
RulerOf continues: "Some investigation online turns up products such as these, and their prices are so prohibitively high ($2400-$3000) that the manufacturer won't even list them on their website. Furthermore, the effects that these devices can apply to the pictures they output look awfully similar to the effects filters built into many webcams, and the ability to zoom and pan a live view of the screen is something that I've done effortlessly for years on OS X, and that I know exists in many Linux desktop environments. My current plan is to try to build something like this with a used Mac Mini, a Logitech HD Webcam with a full-screen view of the camera always up, and a Magic Trackpad to control zoom level and screen position, plugged into a huge LCD TV that he already owns. Have any of you ever built something like this? Am I wrong in thinking that the ease of use would be comparable to the purpose-built devices when configured correctly? Is this something that might work better with a newer nettop device, a digital camera or camcorder, and Windows (where I'm skilled at automating things) or Linux at the core instead?"
One of my work colleges is working on an identical project. You two should talk. Email me at jasonmac404 atsymbol gmail .... and I'll put you two in contact.
If the goal is to be able to read beloved old books that he already has etc, then sure, go for it. But if it's just the desire to be able to enjoy books, then the library available on Audible.com (and others), is fantastic. They're not your old 'books-on-tape' ... great selection, very good readers, and it's very satisfying to have someone read to you. If you've already got the computer and internet service, please check it out.
If he's looking to purchase new books to read - what about a Kindle DX with the font size jacked all of the way up?
I have an EyeClops, basically a toy microscope that hooks up to a TV. This is cheap but would let you get as close as you want to anything. Amazon Link
It might be worthwhile to post this over at makezine.com. Nothing those crazy makers love more than a challenge. Good luck! Maybe some enterprising person can get something mass produced via kickstarter.com
You need to check out IRTI.net
http://lighthouse-sf.org/
Surely his doctors have mentioned these people?
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
This isn't reading, but for entertainment he should look at old time radio. Old Time Radio
Thousands of marvellous radio plays as mp3's, no reading required.
Just the thing for long trips in a car or commuting, too.
Westerns, detective stories, comedies, it's all there. And it's free and legal, too.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
The big crazy right now in classrooms is document cameras (glorified webcams on stands with lights) you can get a basic model that should work just fine for about $300-$400, avermedia makes a pretty good one. Then just hook it to a TV, large screen or projector with a VGA cable. Plus when that time comes and you need to figure out what to do with the device when the time comes, just donate it to your local school (tax write off).
How about one of the new LED projectors and a pdf ebook? Granted you have to read off the wall, but it may be a relatively cheap workaround. Books on tape are an old standby also, I use them while commuting.
When my dad got macular degeneration, I got hold of an old laptop, put linux on it, and set it up so that it loaded fbreader on booting. My dad had never used a computer in his life, couldn't see the keyboard, and wasn't interested in learning how to use a PC. But I put sticky red rubber buttons on the keys he needed to navigate fbreader. After some experimentation, we figured out big white writing on a black background worked well, put a load of ebooks on it, and away he went. He found it very easy to use, and never needed to worry about how the computer worked. He used it a lot, and although he started listening to audio books too, he much preferred being able to read on screen. My dad was into science fiction, and we took up Baen Books' offer of free ebooks for the disabled (see http://www.webscription.net/t-disabled.aspx) so he didn't even have to pay for books.
What about an iPad or android tablet? They tend to have a "downward" facing camera and already have a screen. You could use it as a portable magnifier, for general use, as well as a reader. They have the capacity to do OCR on a book, and could present the text one word, or even one letter, at a time. I'm sure a book holder with a frame to support the tablet wouldn't be too hard to rig up - you could probably make it fold up and portable (fit inside a briefcase, say) with a little bit of thought.
Don't know why this has been modded down, it's very true. Much as I (20-400 vision) would prefer an Android device, this is something that Apple have done a pretty good job on, and my iPhone has been an invaluable accessibility device to me. The iCanSee app has become my magnifying glass that I take everywhere, with the added advantage of being able to invert the colours.
The long-term result of macular degeneration is that he will lose the ability to focus on anything in the center of his vision, and will eventually hit the point where he only has (blurry) peripheral vision. When this occurs, he will not be able to read at all. Any items which magnify text will be a very temporary solution for him.
Focus on finding audio solutions that work, spend time researching them and then becoming familiar with using them, because anything you create now that magnifies text will be very quickly obsolete.
Check this out:
I just checked the facts now, and Ray Kurzweil (AI + future-tech guru/genius/entrepreneur/benefactor/cyborg ) has a whole company specializing in assistive reading technologies.
K–NFB Reading Technology
http://www.knfbreader.com/
The original OCR reader for blind people he developed is presented here:
http://www.knfbreader.com/products-classic.php
This product is no longer in development, because they have moved to using cell-phones (you just gotta love this cell-phone age we're in). BTW, don't waste your time looking at products made by people without the expertise in this field of AI and assistive technology. You need a real solution for a real problem...
For reading and using the computer, advanced software exists (Windows platform - don't let anyone make you waste your time with open source, it's not for grandpa - yet). If he can identify elements in the screen and is able to locate where text is, he can just use something like TextAloud.
As macular degeneration progresses, though, he will want to move into software specifically tailored for the blind. In fact, I would suggest getting acquainted with the following software before total blindness. JAWS is the major-league player in this category.
http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp
I wish all the best for your girlfriend's grandfather. Tell him he's not the only in that situation and that there are solutions out there.
I hope this helps.
May you score many Internet Points points with your future father-in-law, too ;-)
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
Could get him a Kindle with audiobooks. Also, call Amazon and talk to a rep and ask to speak with someone there with experience in the blind using Kindles. It may be a small number of users, but they really need to support it, even if they can't read text books without getting into fights with the audiobook people. Or better yet, just an ipod shuffle. Good luck. The world can be quite an awful place for the blind, and they get shafted while other minority groups (of race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or lack of, drug legalization advocates) get all of the attention these days. It is sick, imo, that they get treated so poorly.
I used to work in the same building as these people. I even worked with a couple of them on different products.
While I have not used/seen their products, they may offer something useful.
http://www.gh-accessibility.com/
I used to work for these folks. Their products are quality, have a good warranty, and they have a 30 day return policy they honor well. Order one directly from them, if the product doesn't work well for your needs, just send it back (Shipping costs to return the item are on you.)
Bierley Inc
The device is $198 and comes in two mag levels and there is a color model. Check out their website. I will also email you too.
Their basic, entry level product:
Bierley Monomouse
You forgot to put a </nerdrage> at the end of your post. Always close your tags or it'll mess up Slashdot's formatting.
The smartphone of his choice (iOS pretty definitely, Android probably) should apps available that will let him image some text, OCR it, and then either zoom in on it or speak it to him.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
I know some who basically did this with a cheap digital camera that had a Camera to TV set cable. I think, from memory it was a Kodak Camera. Put the camera on a stand with a lot of lighting, and enough shielding that the lights used to illuminate the book are not going to interfere with someone with poor eyesight being able to see the TV screen clearly.
That said, I also know several people with strong levels of visual impairment who have found the various iDevices to be game changers for them in the past few years, particularly when on the go. In this case, if electronic texts of favorite works are available I can think of ways of scripted conversions to movie files to play via an Apple TV. Basically compiling a movie file of text (sized and fonted for easy reading) playing at an appropriate reading speed.
The general problem here is that parts of the visual field are missing in the affected person. There is no direct analogue to other experience, but it is somewhat like you have a lace curtain in front of your eyes, so that some areas of your vision are OK, some are poor quality, and some are missing.
Ideally, what you want is something that warps the visual field around these areas, while preserving the missing content. To a person with negligible degeneration, the displayed image would look horribly distorted; however if it contains all the information, the mind of the affected person will learn to re-integrate it into a sense of normalcy (or so the theory goes).
The second bit of technology is determining the geometry of the lace curtain. The geometry of this is, necessarily, tied to the distance they are viewing from - be it disco-bondage-headgear, lcd screens or projections.
So, yes, the commercial offerings may be little more than a camera, a screen and some software; but that description covers everything from ipods to medical imaging equipment. There is some straining in the quality and application.
No offense intended, but why don't you get your gf's grandpa the best of what is available in your budget, then take a look at making a better one. It would be quite sad if you came up with a reasonable replacement two days after he died.
"Time to marry her and start fucking her in the ass."
You are clearly inexperienced if you think the first enhances opportunities for the second.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Open source screen reader http://live.gnome.org/Orca This package can be used to operate a computer for people who are totally blind, read content etc etc.
You already mentioned Mac OS X for screen magnification, but maybe he can learn to use VoiceOver, which is also built in.
http://bookshare.org
The "lace curtain" analogy is that the lace curtain is glued to your eyes - shifting your eyes does not affect the relative positioning of the curtain. To affect it you have to shift your head.
That is the purpose in distorting the visual field to map around these 'holes' - so your eyes can pick up everything in front of them.
I know you said audio books were not your preferred solution but you should checkout the talking book program from the National Library Service, http://www.loc.gov/nls. The materials and equipment are provided free of charge to US residents and citizens living abroad. Another good source of information is the daisy consortium, http://www.daisy.org./ Daisy has developed standards and tools for accessibility. There are commercial products as well Humanware is probably the best known manufacturer but as I'm sure you are finding out these solutions can be quite expensive. A less expensive Android device could be another alternative as there are apps now being developed for assitive reading. Although, honestly iOS curently does a much better job of being accessible. I have heard the next version of Android will offer accessibilty improvements but that is probably 6-12 months away.
The people funding the Occupy and Tea party movements really don't want to talk about cuts to the high quality US medical care.
UK style age based medical care withdrawal is really harmful to a lot of peoples interests in the US.
Think of the age care specialists, the nursing homes, all the workers, the hospitals warehousing wings.
A lot of funding flows in to keep "one" person alive and local communities get to enjoy the trickle down funding.
All that quality infrastructure that could end up like parts of Detroit if easy 'flip the switch' laws are passed.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Here's a magazine about assistive devices for the visually impaired that's having a special on-line Q&A event this very week:
http://www.familyconnect.org/calendar.asp?EventID=2955
Ask the AccessWorld Experts! Special Online Event November 14-18
Dates: 11/14/2011 - 11/18/2011
AccessWorld iconFamilyConnect and AccessWorld Magazine are excited to announce a special opportunity for families to interact directly with some of the foremost authorities on accessible technology—from cell phones to ebooks, screen readers, classroom adaptations, and more.
Simply visit FamilyConnect's Ask the Experts blog anytime from November 14-18 (Monday-Friday) and leave your questions or concerns in the comments. Our team will be on hand to respond to your inquiries.
AccessWorld's accessibility experts include:
Lee Huffman
Tara Annis
Brad Hodges
Janet Ingber
Deborah Kendrick
J.J. Meddaugh
Ike Presley
John Rempel
This one-of-a-kind opportunity allows families to have their questions and concerns about assistive technology addressed by leading experts. Join us November 14-18 for this exciting online event!
Contact: Lee Huffman
E-Mail: accessworld@afb.net
URL: http://www.familyconnect.org/experts
And here's AccessWorld:
AccessWorld
Technology and People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired
http://www.afb.org/aw/main.asp
I knew some people at the American Foundation for the Blind. At that time, they had a research department of a couple of engineers creating assistive devices. You might contact the AFB or other blindness organizations and find an engineer to talk to. You might well find somebody who will be enthusiastic about your project.
You're one of the foul-smelling "Occupy" retards, aren't you?
So, I take it some kind of stereotyping and group affiliation is your substitute for explaining why you disagree?
God damn, do you have any idea how pathetic that is? Try forming your own position based on truth as you perceive it. See if that doesn't work out better for you than assuming I am a member of some group I never even mentioned.
Sounds like when I asked "or do you just emotionally knee-jerk like most idiots do" your honest answer would be "fuck yeah I do, that's SO MUCH EASIER than actually putting forth my own ideas and explaining why I think they're better!" You are everything that is wrong with public discourse. Congratulations, you fucking lemming.
Now go wet your finger so you can hold it up and determine which way the wind blows, you soul-less ball-less piece of follower shit.
Yeah, sounds like the OP pegged you.
Or you could you, just a thought I'm throwing it out there, actually give them assistance BEFORE they get sick as dogs then they wouldn't cost a tenth as much as they do? how about that?
My mom worked her whole life as an RN and I don't know how many times she told me about some poor person getting a total valve replacement because they had a bad tooth and the infection had spread to the heart and destroyed the valves. Now which do YOU think is less expensive, paying to pull a tooth or a quadruple valve replacement? Or times when they wouldn't give a dime to have a relative take care of someone but WOULD pay to have home health drive out there, even if the relative was completely qualified to do the job at hand. Again which do YOU think was the least expensive option?
The problem with health care in the USA is NOT the services but the "penny saved pound foolish" attitude that infects it like a cancer. Little things that would cost a pittance are disallowed while insanely expensive things are routine. Its not for the doctors, frankly it frustrates the hell out of them, its just bean counter Dilbert PHB bullshit.
As for TFA, why not a nice fat tablet or eReader? Why do you want to go through all the work when the new eReaders have frankly insane font sizes on them and one can get a nice 10 or 12 inch droid based for pretty cheap. nearly all have an easy to use magnify option, it'll let him get all the news he wants from the web, not to mention huge amounts of books from Amazon or even free from Gutenberg project.
When it doubt, go for the simplest route. It would be easy for him to handle, give him the WWW at his fingertips, you can load it with family photos, books, even movies, seems like a perfect solution to the problem to me.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I've had some success with scanning and OCR software on my iPhone... http://www.creaceed.com/prizmo/iphone/
Have you looked at the Intel Reader? It's a fairly affordable OCR/TTS handheld device with a custom camera and strobe, targeted to blind, low-vision, and dyslexic users. It also comes with a transforming briefcase that turns into a docking station for capturing entire books. I had the privelidge of working on the team that developed it and would be happy to answer any questions about it offline.
I mean, did you take even a moment to think about the differences in situations there? Or did you just emotionally knee-jerk like most idiots do?
In fairness, he replied in the spirit of "fuck that sort of person, give their resources to this other sort of people" found in your original post.
I'm all for "when I start to get too senile to be useful, please let me perform an orderly shutdown" but that is my choice and is not something I would want enforced on others (or myself for that matter). What you are suggesting (offing people based upon their perceived utility to society and/or resource draining potential) is a particularly unpleasant slippery slope.
In some places for every young person would has a full life ahead of him/her being useful to society there is one who take whatever they can and give sweet FA, using up a damn sight more resource from the social security net than that 88 year old ever has and ever will. I'm assuming you don't want to go there.
Off-topic I know, but some forms of macular degeneration respond really well to eating lots of spinach and similar leafy vegetables: http://www.macular.org/nutrition/index.html
This may or may not work, but eating spinach isn't a hard thing to try and has little if any downside.
Slashdot just ate my original comment...
Worth starting with a Linux distro that's aimed at visually impaired users, such as Vinux: http://wiki.vinuxproject.org/index.php?title=Main_Page - Ubuntu 10.04 based, and includes full screen magnification that might 'just work' if you point a webcam at a paper book. Also this would support Chrome which is a good way to use the Amazon Cloud Reader, for Kindle ebooks (easier than using a Windows VM).
The Vinux community can also probably help in other ways with your specific requirements.
I agree with the poster upthread that JAWS is powerful (and Kurzweil has been a standard for years), but in my experience it is also pretty complicated for a novice user.
Have a look at what the Trace R&D Center has to offer on the topic. In addition to developing accessibility standards and technology, they are an amazing resource for information on AT in general. They used to have a very good "information and referral" service, though I'm not sure if that's part of their mission now.
A couple of other good resource are ABLEDATA assistive tech database, and assistivetech.net.
If you live in the upper midwest and feel like shelling out a few bucks to have your mind blown by current trends in AT, make a point of attending the Closing the Gap conference in Minneapolis next October.
Probably this is more information than you were looking for, but it does make for interesting reading!
hth
.
You can use the Calibre application (free from http://calibre-ebook.com/) to load any external documents or ebooks onto the Kindle. You don't have to buy DRM'ed books if you don't want to, as there are lots of non-DRM sources of information out there that are easily converted. My main reason for getting the kindle was because I had exhausted all the technical audiobooks ($$) worth buying and with Calibre I can load almost anything onto the kindle including scientific reports, technical journals, which you can not get in ANY audio book format at any price. What it would not do well for him is poetry (its temporally challenged), mathematics (can't read the symbols), and programming languages (they are not dictionary words) since the text to speech, although its the best I have ever heard, isn't quite perfect.
As others have suggested above that you could simply increase the font size to the maximum until that becomes impractical, and then use the text to speech feature when his eyes get tired, or until he can no longer has good enough vision. It would be the best plan to get him started and familiar with the device before he looses all his vision so that he knows how to navigate the menus. I wish him the best of luck. My Dad is having similar problems but vision is not his main concern at the moment.
88 years old, going blind, no doubt collecting Social Security that some unemployed young person could also use... have you ever thought of euthanizing him?
Dunno, but I bet your parents hought about euthanizing you, you psycopathic shit bubble.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
iPhone, iPod Touches, and iPads are pretty good for people with disabilities
Submitter's aged relative is disabled, not retarded.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
I agree that audio is probably a better long-term solution for someone with MD. But to the extent that magnification and enhanced contrast help, the devices you've found can be useful as well. To help you understand the sticker shock of $3000 for a combination of what is basically off-the-shelf consumer technology, you have to understand that these devices are developed and sold as medical devices, and this is how our medical economy operates.
Detailing how simple consumer technology can cost $3000 when packaged and sold as a medical device would require a Master's thesis on Economics. I'm sure it has something to do with the relatively high unit cost for research, development, marketing and support in such a small and specialized market. That, together with how medical reimbursement is handled in our country.
But at the end of the day, if a person is over 65 or disabled (your grandfather is both), that person qualifies for Medicare and possibly for Medicaid, which will often cover all or part of the the cost of a medical device like this. Rather than spending hours figuring out how to patch together a low-cost, half-assed replacement to these already-existing devices, your grandfather would be better served by you helping him go through the hoops needed to acquire a reliable device through some kind of medical insurance.
Start with a call to your local State services for the Blind (every state has one) and then go from there. Very few people buy these devices out-of-pocket; most people acquire them through their medical insurance. Your grandfather would be best served by doing the same.
My first gen iPad doesn't have a camera so I can't attest to resolution or field of view, but using my iPhone's camera it only needs to be about a foot from a letter size page to capture the page completely.
You could rig up a stand which held an iPad a reasonable distance from the reading material, maybe with a light for the source material, maybe with a periscope-like arrangement of mirrors.
Not sure if the pinch-to-zoom gesture would be a challenge, but hardware-wise a tablet with a decent camera seems like the easiest place to start.
I was with you everywhere until you recommended the Intel reader. The Intel reader is in every way inferior to KNFB Reader software on appropriate mobile phones. The Intel reader is much larger, has worse battery life, worse software, and is a first generation product whereas the KNFB Reader is the result of much more advanced work. The assistive technology specialists at the universities I know all prefer the KNFB reader solution, though of course none have an affiliation with it, nor do I.
Indeed you can set one up to an extent. The products you are referring to are known in general as CCTV's in the assistive technology/low vision community even though they don't necessarily involve a television anymore. The one thing to keep in mind is that the purpose built and sold products such as the ones you linked to are built with specific features such as contrast enhancement, color adjustment, (and more I'm sure I don't know of), that are effective in helping people with various types of visual difficulties. For example, they can switch a book placed in front of their camera from black on white to display on a screen as white on black, or change it to red on black, etc. Perhaps your girlfriend's grandfather's doctors or specialists could say whether those types of things or other features that these types of purpose built devices have would help or would be able to extend his ability to read printed text. Many also come with a table that slides in the x and y directions to make it easy to move a book around. A large smooth table can work similarly, but it's not as convenient. The other thing to realize is that the reason those devices are so expensive in many cases is that they are built for one purpose and thus are able to qualify for health insurance coverage. That's an unfortunate feature of most health insurance, but they don't want to pay for general purpose devices like a computer, even if it could be used with built in screen reader software like on a Mac (VoiceOver), because that computer could also be used for general purposes. So the result is much more expensive single purpose devices. Go figure. But as explained above, in some cases, they come with features that would either be difficult to duplicate in a DIY solution, or would take quite a bit of research to find out what features are best for a given condition. Maybe your girlfriend's grandfather would qualify for insurance coverage anyway. In this case, given that his condition is degenerative, perhaps, a DIY solution is better if it can work, if it would be cheaper.
Another option is to consider screen reader software such as VoiceOver that comes with Macs or JAWS or WindowEyes that can be purchased for windows. JAWS and WindowEyes are more serious, full screen reader solutions. A screen reader is certainly not an easy learning curve. They replace the standard computer navigation with an entirely new keyboard (and mouse work arounds) and audio based one.
Another option is custom Audio book creation. You can build a DIY book scanner diybookscanner.org/ and ocr any book or page, then use text to speech software to create an audio book. With custom voices they can sound pretty good, though it takes a lot of work to clean up the text input to get nice clean output.
People have already linked the KNFB reader software, which is worth looking into. It's pretty slick, I've seen it in action. It's pretty well optimized and runs on a Nokia cell phone.
My Grandfather has a year up on yours but.....
I thought exactly the same thing as you did. That one could just strap together a web came or what have you, and LCD monitor etc. And you sure can. But here where the difference lies. For $3000 you get a drastically simplified that an 80+ year old can handle. It has buttons that they can actually feel, remember, they can't see the little camera buttons. They get some one to call when they have problems, that isn't you. And chances are given his age, he may have barley been in the tail end of WWII, and the VA will pay for these things, and show them how to use them. Over the years I have gone through this same thing, and just have your family get together the money and get something nice. You can probably save a little on the LCD.
I have to make a big subject change because I just heard this Johns Hopkins podcast about Lucentis being used to stop and somewhat regress MD. This may be equally useful knowledge to having aids: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/audio/podcasts/ You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for Lucentis to find it. There's a power point presentation on the subject, too.