thank you for sharing. On Thursday, January 14, 2016 at 7:10:47 PM UTC-8, M. Taylor wrote: > > Hello Everyone and Happy New Year, > > As the following article includes iOS apps, I am cross-posting it to both > the V iPhone and Mac Visionaries mailing list. > > The URL to the original article is located at the end of the text. > > Enjoy, > > Mark > > 5 Amazing Inventions That Are Helping the Visually Impaired > By Robert Siciliano > April 27, 2015 > > In articles about leadership, we often talk about the importance of having > vision. You need an idea of where you want your company to go and how > you'll > get there. You need to know the trends in your industry before they happen > in order to stay on the cutting edge. > > The innovations below prove that, and then some. They're designed to help > some of the 6 million Americans who have a visual disability, making it > easier for them to go about their daily lives. > > From shoes that tell you which direction to turn to an app that makes your > iPad Braille-friendly, here are five of the coolest innovations that are > helping the blind and visually impaired. > > 1. > Shoes that guide you in the right direction > if you're walking somewhere new, you no longer need to focus on the > audible > directions from your smartphone. Let Lechal shoes or insoles be your guide > instead. The insoles of the shoes connect with the corresponding app > (available for iOS, Android and Windows) via bluetooth. Then, as you walk, > a > vibration will alert you when you need to turn. A buzz in your left shoe > will signal you to take a left -- the buzzing gets stronger as the turn > nears -- and a vibration in your right shoe means to turn in that > direction. > If you need to turn around, both feet with vibrate at once. > > While the footwear can't yet help you avoid obstructions in your path > (this > feature is expected in the next model), it allows the 285 million people > around the world with visual impairments to focus more on your > environment. > "Touch is such a valuable sense, and it's underused," says Krispian > Lawrence, the founder of Ducere Technologies, which makes the product. > "Most > tech today that's available for the visually impaired gives them audio > feedback, but if you're visually impaired, your primary sense is your > sense > of hearing, so the feedback is more of a distraction from letting you > focus > on what's around you." > > The shoes, which an estimated 30,000 people have pre-ordered, are expected > to start shipping early this summer. Bonus: they're also great for > navigating hiking trails. > > 2. > Glasses that help the color blind see color > Although they look like typical sunglasses, Enchroma Lenses help > colorblind > people see all different hues. Color blindness results from spectral > overlap, which is when the photopigments (aka: light-absorbing molecules > in > retinal cone cells) absorb more light than they should. Usually, of the > three types of cones in the retina, one absorbs green light, one absorbs > blue light and a third absorbs red light. If a green cone absorbs too much > red light, for example, that spectral overlap means that the person will > have a difficult time distinguishing those colors. > > The good news is that in the large majority of cases of red-green > colorblindness (over 80 percent), the amount of overlap is not complete, > making it possible for the lenses in EnChroma shades to help. The exact > technological process is tricky -- it involves computer algorithms and > linear programing before the filter was even created -- but the Cliff's > Notes are that they help to separate the crossing signals between cones, > creating more color variation. This article talks more about it. > > 3. > A bionic eye > You may have seen the video of a man who sees his wife for the first time > in > years through the use of the Argus II, a so-called bionic eye. Dr. Robert > Greenberg, CEO of Second Sight, worked for 25 years to make that one > recorded moment possible. > > Greenberg is the man behind the Argus II, which is designed to help > patients > with retinal pigmentosa -- a degenerative disease that leads to blindness > -- > to have some form of vision. The system received FDA approval in 2013; > Greenberg received 300 issue patents of technology in the process. > > First, in an outpatient procedure, patients are implanted with a small > device that sits on their retinas. The passive device is only activated > when > the patients wear the corresponding glasses, which has a camera. Then, > when > the glasses are on, the signal from the camera gets turned into electrical > impulses on a patient's eye. These impulses allow the patient sees a spot > of > light corresponding to what's in front of them. > > Dr. Greenberg says the resulting image is low-resolution and in grayscale, > though he has figured out how to produce color and says the device could > be > upgradeable. He compares it to lights on a scoreboard or pixels on a > monitor. > > More than 100 people have used the device, which retails for just under > $145,000 (plus surgery and physicians fees), and the responses are > universally positive. "We hear many stories about being able to see a > loved > one again and move about independently," he says. > > 4. > An app that points out who and what's around you > Although this is the second directional product on the list, this one is > an > app that relies on audio rather than vibration. Guide Dots, the result of > a > collaboration between three different teams spanning three continents, is > different in that it works with social networks and crowdsourcing sites to > provide extra information. In addition to connecting with Facebook to see > which friends are nearby, or informing you of points of interest with > geotagging, the app lets you check in to places and also responds to > simple > voice commands. In 2013, the beta version of Guide Dots was shortlisted at > the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It's free for > Android. > > 5. > An app that brings a Brailler to your tablet > Before he mentored students in a summer engineering program at Stanford > University, Sohan Dharmaraja went to the Stanford Office of Accessible > Education looking for his next idea. He found it when someone showed him a > Brailler, the laptop-sized, typewriter-esque device that people with > blindness use to write up documents. > > The only direction given for the summer program was that participants had > to > "do something on a tablet," so Dharmaraja thought of making a modern > brailler that can be used with today's tablet technology. > > Meet iBrailler Notes. He worked with an associate professor of mechanical > engineering Adrian Lew and with Adam Duran from New Mexico State > University > to create a prototype in just two months. The free iOS app -- meant only > for > the iPad -- is a flat-screen brailler. By placing both hands on the > tablet, > the app calibrates to put the keys under a user's fingers. To recalibrate, > the user just lifts their hands off the screen, them places them down > again. > Using the standard finger combinations of a physical brailler, a user can > type notes or documents. Other features include one-click access to Google > (the search results are then read aloud with Apple's VoiceOver option) and > the ability to edit the documents using cut-and-paste. Moreover, the app > can > be used to express mathematical formats, supports multiple Braille > standards > and offers three different colorblind-friendly palates as well as large > text > for users who retain some vision. > > As Dharmaraja told the Stanford Report, "Being born with a disability > shouldn't mean you get left out of today's technology revolution." > > Original Article at: > http://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/245443 > > >
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