Regards,
Alan Please click on: HTTP://WWW.home.earthlink.net/~alanandsuzanne/ There, you'll find free files of my arrangements and performances played onthe Yamaha Tyros 1 keyboard. The albums in Technics format formerly on my website are still available upon request. Thanks for listening!
----- Original Message ----- From: "Maria and Joe Chapman" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, January 17, 2014 9:55 AM Subject: Re: App Turns Smartphone Into Virtual Cane HI. the app your describing sounds like blind square? regards Maria and crew from australia email: [email protected] check out www.95-the-mix.com where we play lots of great musicOn 17 Jan 2014, at 4:31 am, Alan Paganelli <[email protected]> wrote:
I was thinking the same thing. In museums, art centers etc. There is another app called There was another app that did something also pretty nice. It announced points of interest near by. I don't remember if the app name was near by or around me. Anyway, it would read to you about the points of interest as you got near them. I had only one problem with the app. It was self voicing and that interfered with Voice over. Of course you could turn voice over off but that would be like putting blinders on. Anyway this app also let you create your own points of interest. There is also a national database and you could load in POIS for that State or local. anybody can add to the database. I spent several days fooling around with it listening to all the points of interest around me. I've lived in Las Vegas 31 years and they had places I had never been to or even knew existed.Regards, Alan Please click on: HTTP://WWW.home.earthlink.net/~alanandsuzanne/There, you'll find free files of my arrangements and performances played on the Yamaha Tyros 1 keyboard. The albums in Technics format formerly on my website are still available upon request. Thanks for listening!----- Original Message ----- From: "Julie Dawson" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2014 7:27 PM Subject: Re: App Turns Smartphone Into Virtual CaneI wonder if this ap could be usedoutside and programmed with routs outside. What terrific idea for an ap!Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply, Speak kindly And leave the rest to God! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Bowers" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2014 3:16 PM Subject: App Turns Smartphone Into Virtual CaneApp Turns Smartphone Into Virtual Cane for the Blind MIT Technology Review January 8, 2014A smartphone app inspired by Greek mythology has the potential to help theblind navigate indoors where GPS is unavailable. It's easy to imagine that being blind or visually impaired more or less excludes people from using smartphones or tablets. But nothing could befurther from the truth. App stores have a dizzying variety of products that help the visually impaired access all kinds of information much more easilythan would otherwise be possible.These apps offer audio books, match clothes by colour and even offer games played by hearing and touch alone. But the apps designed to give directionsall suffer from the same drawbacks-audio directions are helpful but alsoscreen out other audio such as conversations or the sound of traffic nearby.What's more, GPS does not work indoors so these kinds of systems are of little use in homes and other buildingsNow Pierluigi Gallo and buddies at the University of Palermo in Italy have come up with an alternative which offers the blind navigational help withoutany form of audio distraction or the need for GPS.The approach is surprisingly simple and inspired by the famous Greek myth of Ariadne and Theseus. In the story, Theseus volunteers to kill the Minotaurwhich lives in a labyrinth on the island of Crete. To help him, Ariadnegives him a sword to kill the beast and a ball of thread to help him findhis way out when the deed is done. Gallo and co take a similar approach with their prototype smartphone app called Arianna, the Italian name for Ariadne. (It's also short for "pAthRecognition for Indoor Assisted NavigatioN with Augmented perception.) Their idea is to map out a route through a building by sticking coloured tape onthe ground.The user then switches on the smartphone camera and points it towards theground, while placing a finger on the screen. He or she then waves the camera back and forth, scanning the ground for the line.In the meantime, the app analyses the frames produced by the camera, picking out the line as it moves across the screen. When the line passes under theuser's finger on the screen, the app causes the smartphone to vibrate, providing a tactile indication of where the line falls.Scanning the smartphone back and forth allows the user to follow the line in the same way as he or she might use a cane (see diagram above). At the same time, QR codes placed on the ground can give the user other information such as the location of places such as toilets, water coolers, shops and so on.Gallo and co say they tested their virtual cane in December at workshop inBoston organised by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and say it works well.And they plan significant upgrades in future. One idea is to use infrared lines that are not visible but can nevertheless be picked up by smartphonecameras which are sensitive to infrared. This infrared sensitivity is currently an under-used feature of most smartphones, they point out. And that raises the possibility of games and challenges that are equally accessible to the blind and sighted. All in all, this software could be a significant help to the blind and visually impaired. Hi-tech aids for this disability tend to be expensivebecause they have to be specially designed and manufactured for a relatively small group of people. But with smartphones widely available at affordableprices, much of the technology necessary for Ariana is available off-the-shelf.Gallo and co don't say when their new idea will be available as a commercial app or how much it will cost but it has the potential to be significantlycheaper than a bespoke device.So: useful, simple and potentially cheap. Not a bad combination for an app.--You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group.Post a new message to VIPhone by emailing [email protected].Search and view the VIPhone archives by visiting http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/.Reach the VIPhone owner and moderators by emailing [email protected].Unsubscribe and leave VIPhone by emailing [email protected].More VIPhone group options can be found by visiting http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. 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