Well, as you thought, this is not a new idea. But you are right, the practical use becomes more likely because of the availability of all this new hardware and software (you named some) and infra-structure.
At the Smith Kettlewell Institute, they are developing software that will automate the recognition of the camera picture. But this is the next step in the use of a camera for the blind. The first step is, ... ,have some portable camera and some way of getting the picture to be described to you over a distance, e.g. by a human being with sight via the telephone. We have the camera's, we have the communication bandwidth.
The idea of using a camera as an eye substitute is of course very old.
Hans Riesebos
ALVA BV, The Netherlands
[log in to unmask]
>>> Martin Tibor <[log in to unmask]> 04/04/00 01:26AM >>>
I can't believe that I am the first one to think of this but here goes.
Sorry if this old news. I was thinking about some the support issues when
assisting visually impaired users with tech support issues when I thought
why not use a webcam to view the screen, printer or whatever the offending
device might be. This could be very helpful for silent error dialog boxes.
All it takes is a cheap webcam which now can be had for under $50 and
setting up an account with Microsoft Hotmail and downloading Microsoft Net
Meeting. The service is free but if it works a visually impaired individual
could easily contact someone on the internet and point their webcam at
anything they may need support with or might be curious about. If anyone
wants to try it you can contact via my account at MSN Messenger Hotmail is
[log in to unmask] Point your camera at something and I will tell what it
is assuming I can identify it. You will need a webcam, and download MSN
Messenger and Microsoft Netmeeting (they are free downloads).
Marty Tibor
Synapse
Speech Recognition and Adaptive Technology
3095 Kerner Blvd., Suite S, San Rafael, CA 94901
toll-free 888-285-9988
http://www.synapseadaptive.com
-------
40 page accessible text formatted catalog
http://www.synapseadaptive.com/txt/synapse1999.txt
-------
40 page Adobe Acrobat format catalog
http://www.synapseadaptive.com/pdf/Synapse40p.pdf (requires Adobe Acrobat
Reader ver. 4)
-------
http://www.naturalspeak.com
Providers of adaptive and assistive technology solutions.
-------
http://www.unixspeech.com
UNIX, mainframe and Mac speech recognition
-------
Speech recognition technical assistance
Synapse hosts the Dragon NaturallySpeaking Unofficial Information Pages
http://www.synapseadaptive.com/joel/default.htm
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
|
