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Georgia Tech iPhone App Could Help Blind Users Text
MojoKid writes "Researchers at Georgia Tech university have built a prototype app for touch-screen mobile devices that is vying to be a complete solution for texting without the need to look at a mobile gadget's screen. In theory, it should greatly help the blind interact with mobile phones, but it could help just about anyone looking for a more efficient way to interact. Research has shown that gesture-based texting is a viable solution for eyes-free written communication in the future, making obsolete the need for users to look at their devices while inputting text. The free open-source app, called BrailleTouch, incorporates the Braille writing system used by the visually impaired. Early studies with visually impaired participants proficient in Braille typing have demonstrated that users can input up to 32 words per minute with 92 percent accuracy with the prototype app for the iPhone."
more people driving and texting~
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Why don't you learn braille? It's much easier for you to learn braille, than for blind people to learn how to read a newspaper!
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
I thought the iPhone supported most assistive devices, like braille keyboards, and "reading sticks" (those that can pop up a line of braille using small nubs, dunno what they're called in English) already?
uses an older flip phone with an old-fashioned dialing pad. He texts by sound and feel, and faster than I can on my keyboard-less smartphone. Oh, and he paid $100 less for his phone and $20 less per month thanks to the fact that he doesn't NEED an iPhone or a data plan. While I feel like the research might have its heart in the right place, a much simpler solution appears to already exist.
...and I can't even come close to 32wpm on my smartphone (I tend to fat-finger my letters and spend more time back-spacing or looking for auto-completed words than typing). I've tried all the various gimmicks such as Swype and T9, but if this system is really netting users 30+wpm, I think it's time for me to learn Braille.
Some alternate forms of communication are fairly hard since they are a whole new language. Sign language is like that. You have to learn symbols for words, and the grammar and vocabulary are not the same as English. So learning it is as difficult as learning a foreign language, more perhaps since it is visual not auditory.
However Braille is just character mapping. Things are spelled the same, they are just using a different character set. So all you have to do is learn how to understand the characters, or rather the feel of them, and you are good.
There are some abbreviations for more advanced Braille, but that comes later. The basics are just what dot patters equal what letters. Really not very hard to learn.
There are already several versions available on android.
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2011/10/18/new-app-turns-a-tablet-into-a-braille-keyboard/
And specially this one:
http://www.ankitdaf.com/projects/BrailleType/
Georgia tech is basically ripping off this guy.
It's the Georgia *Institute* of Technology, not a university. /pendantic /alum