Hello Listers,
I came across this article and am pretty shocked by it, I did not know that
there are people and apparently organizations out there who consider guide
dogs as providing an "involuntary" service which they apparently consider to
be animal cruelty. I don't really have the connections and the time, but I
hope maybe some people on this list do advocacy sort of work and may look
into this. The biggest joke is that this research seems to be geared towards
getting around inside buildings which of course would be great, but
apparently these folks don't think much about how much a dog helps in
getting around outside. Here is the article (hope the mods don't object
since the article refers to "smartphones" and not "iPhones", but of course
we all know how many accessible smartphone choices we have and I assume
something like this, were it available, would not be a Windows Phone app!)
Smartphone-Friendly Innovation Holds Promise of Freeing Dogs From
Involuntary Service
For Immediate Release: May 14, 2012
Contact: David Perle 202-483-7382
St. Paul, Minn.
The University of Nevada-Reno (UNR) science team working on smartphone
technology that will help blind people navigate on their own, even gauging
their pace and warning them far in advance of obstacles such as a stairway,
will present its invention at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics
and Automation in St. Paul on May 15 (the second day of the conference). The
team, headed by researchers Dr. Eelke Folmer of the Player-Game-Interaction
Lab and Dr. Kostas Bekris of the Robotics Research Lab, has won a PETA
Proggy Award for Leadership in Ethical Science. PETA's Proggy Awards
("Proggy" is for "progress") recognize animal-friendly achievements.
"This new technology promises not only to give blind people the independence
they want but also could mean that dogs will no longer be bred for this type
of service," says PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk. "We commend the UNR team
for developing 'eyes' for the blind that are both user-friendly and
animal-friendly."
The low-cost system would enable blind people to navigate around buildings
using nothing more than a smartphone. Its software is based on the same
technology that enables robots to navigate but uses the person's stride
length to track his or her movements. The system uses two-dimensional
digital maps and the smartphone's built-in components, with the phone able
to communicate what it "sees" using synthetic speech. Upon initial use in a
particular environment, the user touches certain landmarks. The smartphone
remembers the information and is able to give the user directions on
subsequent visits.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
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