Welcome to the world of the 1.3 million Americans who are blind. For them, the world of personal computers, office automation and the Internet offers mixed blessings. That world wasn’t designed for them, but with the right assistive technology, they can take part in it. When everything works well, they have access to an ocean of information vastly greater than anything previously available to the blind. But pitfalls and maddening frustrations are a constant reality.

Blind computer users mainly rely upon screen-reader software, which describes the activity on the screen and reads the text in the various windows, explained Gayle Yarnell, owner of Adaptive Technology Consulting Inc. in Amesbury, Mass. Yarnell is blind.

Screen readers cost between $500 and $1,000, although there are also freeware screen readers, she noted. (Windows XP and Vista come with a screen reader called Narrator, but even Microsoft Corp. says it’s not powerful enough for serious use.)

The screen reader’s output can be sent to the computer’s speakers as a synthesized voice or to a Braille display. The latter uses tiny push pins to create a pattern of raised dots that can be read by a moving finger. A unit with an 80-character line (enough for one full line of text) costs about $10,000, and Yarnell said that most blind people use a 40-character unit, which costs closer to $5,000.

Braille displays are better than speech for editing because individual characters can be isolated, she noted, and they are a necessity for the deaf-blind. She also said that it lets her silently read e-mail while talking to someone else.

Source: ComputerWorld

Richey is one of 17 deaf or hard-of-hearing employees at the Library of Congress who have begun using video-relay service (VRS) technology. The system allows them to communicate with one another using sign language or transmit a message in sign language to an interpreter, who relays it to a hearing colleague via a standard phone line.

Library of Congress officials say the program, which started earlier this year, represents a significant improvement over older text telephone systems that required deaf employees to type their messages.
“With this new video-relaying system, it’s much faster,” said Richey, who was born deaf. He participated in a phone interview using VRS.

“Everything just happens simultaneously, and the transmission time is really quick,” Richey said, adding, “I’m hooked, I’m addicted.”

Unlike other solutions the library has tried, VRS doesn’t have a programmable computer, which alleviates concerns about hacking normally associated with peer-to-peer videoconferencing systems, officials say. The system’s equipment was supplied free by Sorenson Communications, a VRS company that is compensated from a fund established by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Library officials say they hope other agencies will consider the public/private partnership model as an example of how to expand access. About 13,727 employees who are deaf or hard of hearing work in the federal government, according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Heidi Burghardt, vice executive director at Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Government, an employee support group, said security concerns have caused some resistance to VRS technology. However, agencies that have implemented the technology have found ways to manage the security risks, she added.

Burghardt said her group is conducting a survey of its members to determine which agencies offer VRS technology.

Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C., which specializes in meeting the needs of deaf students, has been a leader in the use of VRS. King Jordan, former Gallaudet president, said the technology has drastically changed how deaf and hard-of-hearing people communicate.

“It’s absolutely life-changing,” he said during a phone interview using VRS technology.

Jordan, who lost his hearing as a young adult, said he could not begin to describe how many times people had hung up on him before he began using VRS.

“If the technology is cumbersome, people are not as likely to fully communicate,” said Eric Eldritch, access programs manager at the library’s office of workforce diversity. “This technology is leveling the playing field and allowing people to communicate as naturally as possible between two languages that used to be mutually exclusive.”

Times have changed for Richey, who began working at the Library of Congress more than 40 years ago when the only way to communicate was by writing. “There’s a huge difference,” he said. “It’s so much better now. There’s always going to be a communication barrier, but this is a way to bring it down.”

Source: FCW.com

Using its laser scanners to identify potential obstacles, Stair 1.0 rolls out of the room and into the lab’s central workspace, a rectangular area bordered by desks. On one side is a kind of robotic graveyard, a jumble of decades-old industrial arms. A poster of the NS-5 humanoid from the movie I, Robot seems to taunt the researchers from its spot on the wall: Try building me, punks. Quigley and computer scientist Andrew Ng, who directs the Stanford AI Robot (Stair) project, walk behind their robot, watching.

Stair 1.0 searches the rows of workstations, then locates the stapler. The robot moves forward and stops. If it had lungs, it might take a deep breath, because this is the hard part.

Up to this point, Stair hasn’t done anything all that impressive. Plenty of robots can move around a room — or, as the Darpa Grand Challenge unmanned vehicle race proved, navigate far-more-complex terrain, like the open desert. But now Stair is going to switch from observing and navigating the world to interacting with it. Instead of just avoiding obstacles, the robot is actually going to manipulate something in its environment.

Read full article at Wired

Design engineers, working with medical professionals, are devising solutions to all these challenges, in large part by implementing cutting-edge motion systems. Engineers at Johns Hopkins University, for example, are leading a global effort to design the most sophisticated bionic arm ever.

In Massachusetts, two young MIT engineering grads have devised a motorized brace to re-educate muscles in stroke victims. And at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh, an engineering professor has developed a micro-robot that can literally crawl across a heart to perform medical procedures.

All these systems, as the following case histories show, pioneer advanced motion control, actuation and sensing technologies that promise to help patients, as well as spawn new ideas for engineers in other applications.

Read more on Designers News

The AIA members also will collaborate on engineering projects to increase interoperability between existing technologies, deliver new technologies and work to create better developer guidelines, tools and technologies, and lower development costs, Microsoft said.

The group initially will focus on four areas: Consistent keyboard access; interoperability of accessibility APIs; user interface automation extensions; and accessible rich Internet application suite mapping through user interface automation, AIA officials said.

In addition to Microsoft, founding members of AIA include software and solutions companies such as Adobe, BayFirst Solutions and Novell, hardware companies such as Hewlett-Packard, and assistive technology companies such as Claro Software, Dolphin Computer Access, GW Micro, HiSoftware, Madentec, Texthelp Systems and QualiLife.

“Today, developers must work across divergent platforms, application environments and hardware models to create accessible technology for customers with disabilities,” Rob Sinclair, director of the Accessibility Business Unit at Microsoft, said in a statement.

“The AIA is an opportunity for the entire industry to come together to reduce the cost and complexity of accessibility, increase customer satisfaction, foster inclusive innovation and reinforce a sustainable ecosystem of accessible technology products.”

Source: eWeek

The Software and Hardware Architectures of this noninvasive eye-tracking system differ significantlyfrom those of prior such systems in ways that enable this system to operate at much higher speeds.
Most of the prior commercial noninvasive eye-tracking systems rely on standard video cameras, which operate at frame rates of about 30 Hz. In a typical system, the video-data stream is processed either in the central processing unit of a host computer or in a digital signal processor on a framegrabber board. Such a system is limited to slow, full-frame operation in which the burden of processing the full-frame image data is placed on the host computer.

In the present system, most control functions and processing of image data are performed by firmware on an onboard field-programmable gate array (FPGA). This aspect of the design relieves the host computer of much of the burden of transferring full-image data via the host bus (which is typically a slow operation) or the need to process the full image data after transfer to the host PC. The firmware for the FPGA is relatively easily extendable to the design of a compact application-specific integrated circuit that could be mass-produced. It is envisioned that with further development, the architecture of this system could progress to that of an affordable, portable, stand-alone computer-peripheral unit similar to an optical mouse.

Read more on NASA

Never mind that the 31.5-inch-tall, 29-pound machine could scoot on two wheels, get on its knees to move on four wheels and even lift its foot about an inch to step over thresholds and bumps.

The red and white robot, designed to work as a guide and run errands in offices, wasn’t prepared for the jam of lunch-break wireless and Internet traffic at Hitachi Ltd.’s research center and smashed into a desk right in the middle of a demonstration.

Watching reporters gasped and a demonstrator reached out in the nick of time to catch the robot by its winglike handles before it toppled over, unable to receive the wireless commands from the person controlling the robot by remote from a nearby laptop.

Robots are mostly used as industrial machinery and entertainment gadgets. But Hitachi’s new robot is the latest attempt by several Japanese companies to develop one that can play roles as assistants in daily life.

Engineers are working hard to create robots that run smoothly and safely so that people aren’t hurt.

In 2005, Hitachi had shown the robot’s 51-inch-tall predecessor. The original EMIEW, which stands for “excellent mobility and interactive existence as workmate,” packed all the computer functions internally but weighed four times as much.

The improved EMIEW 2 shed some pounds to become safer to be around people. It’s designed to be light enough for a person to carry around. Its key feature is its ability to shift from moving on two wheels to a more stable position on four wheels.

But the new remote wireless control function was at the heart of its collision problems.

Japan is among the world’s leaders in robotics, and the government is pushing major companies like Hitachi to develop robots for practical use.

Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. also have developed human-like robots that reporters have seen working as guides at the Japanese automakers’ facilities.

Other electronics makers such as NEC Corp. and Fujitsu have shown robots, but Sony Corp. has discontinued the Aibo dog-shaped entertainment robot.

Hitachi declined to say when the robot would be ready for commercial use. It refused to say how much the robot cost or how much it spent on its research.

EMIEW 2 did its job perfectly for a while, wheeling around, cocking its red, caplike plastic head and waving its arms in a room at the Hitachi research center.

It also showed voice recognition capabilities, appearing to understand human speech in Japanese.

When a person asked where a certain Mr. Nakamura was sitting, it responded in a boylike electronic voice: “I will take you there. Follow me.”

But seconds later, when it tried to maneuver between two desks, it smashed into one of them.

Reporters had to wait for an hour until after the lunch break to watch the robot repeat the demonstration, this time smoothly making its way between the desks.

Developers said the robot had performed fine on test runs but acknowledged kinks had to be worked out so it can properly receive wireless commands. Besides the collision, it also suddenly stood motionless at one point.

“We are studying what hurdles need to be overcome to make robots practical,” said Hitachi researcher Takashi Teramoto. “One characteristic we feel we need to ensure for robots is safety.”

EMIEW 2 robot comes with a gyrosensor to maintain its balance, lithium ion batteries for an hour worth of power before recharging and a laser radar to map out its surroundings in its computer brain, according to Hitachi.

It can also dodge human-size obstacles in its way, the Tokyo-based company said.

Source: FoxNews

Source: myomo.com

Nevertheless, for most users, the mouse is nearly the same as it’s always been — a point-and-click tool so much a part of everyday computing it’s practically an extension of your hand.

With Footime, from Bili, the mouse moves from the desktop to the floor. The Footime mouse is controlled with a user’s foot instead of his or her hand.

Bili promotes the Footime mouse primarily as an option for people with hand or arm disabilities, including the hundreds of thousands of office workers with carpal tunnel syndrome. But it seems to us that moving the mouse to the floor offers a lot of potential for nondisabled computer users as well. After all, why should we have to keep taking one hand off the keyboard to find the mouse while our feet sit idly under the desk?

The two-part device employs both of a user’s feet. There’s a slipper-shaped pointer controlled by one foot and a pedal with mouse click buttons, a scroll roller and definable buttons controlled by the other foot.

“Some may wonder: Can feet really handle it?” asks Bili’s on-line advertisement. “Believe it or not, feet are smarter than many people think. For example, car drivers can skillfully control car pedals for gas, break and clutch by foot without even looking at them. Foot control for computer input is a feasible solution. As Bili’s slogan goes, ‘Trust your feel, trust your feet.’ ” Bili also offers a foot-controlled page turner for musicians using digital music programs.

Source: GCN

Currently, people who are blind access computers either through screen reading software which speaks the output or expensive Braille displays that can only handle text. “We’re trying to make a cheaper device that would receive information tactilely and also be able to receive graphic information,” said Dr. Ilona Kretzschmar, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at The Grove School of Engineering at CCNY and principal investigator on the grant.

The project is titled “A Dynamic Tactile Interface for Visually Impaired and Blind People.” It proposes to use an electronically addressable and deformable polymeric film to develop the interface device.

The interface will consist of three layers: The bottom layer will be a touch screen connected to a computer for audio feedback to communicate the position touched on the screen. The middle layer will have embedded isolated electrodes to address segments of the polymer top layer. The top layer will consist of an electro-active polymer film covered with a thin gold film. Segments of the top layer can extend out from the surface as voltage is applied from the corresponding electrode in the middle layer.

“In a world that increasingly depends on graphical, pictorial and multimedia technology, visually impaired and blind people have struggled to keep up,” Professor Kretzschmar said. “If we can develop a viable dynamic tactile interface that allows graphic and pictorial information to be presented in real time in tactile rather than visual space, the amount of information available to visually impaired and blind individuals will increase dramatically.”

Professor Kretzschmar is producing Janus particles – particles with two halves and named for the Roman god Janus – to be added to the polymer film to increase its electro-active properties and run mechanical functions. The film will then be tested to measure its addressability, maximum elongation, durability and readability.

Through focus groups with both sighted and blind individuals, researchers expect to obtain feedback on how touch can best convey visual graphic displays, how much the material needs to change for optimal tactile detection and what is the best way to receive the information. Further studies will test tactile interface parameters and fine-tune those parameters for optimal apprehension and interpretability. By the end of the third year, the team expects to have built a prototype dynamic tactile tablet.

Development of a dynamic tactile interface will result in deeper understanding of the touch sense, its relation to vision and sense substitution, the researchers say. The tactile polymer technology could find application in other areas that rely on tactile perception, e.g. sensory materials used in virtual reality, robotics and medical applications.

In addition, it has the potential to be inexpensive and widely applicable to undergraduate engineering student design projects. Some of these could lead to other custom-designed devices for people with physical disabilities.