This article does not discuss that in fact there are several competing
standards for this technology.  so if one town in an urban area installed
sign talking technology from one company and another city in the same
region installed the same technology from a different company, one would
need two receivers because different companies use different frequencies.
Also, the technology has not been tested in cold climates with snow, ice
and below freezing temperatures.  Would people really pull receivers out
of their pockets in sub-freezing temperatures?  Additionally, there has not
been studies conducted comparing various types of audible traffic signals
in the same city?  Why is this technology considered best by the article?
What's wrong with audible traffic signals that the user can hear without a
receiver?  Have blind people actually had the chance to compare
technologies?  

kelly 



Transmitters "announce" traffic signals, landmarks to visually impaired 
Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, May 10, 1999 
©1999 San Francisco Chronicle 


Damien Pickering stands on the edge of the curb, listening intently for the
red light to change. 

Blind since childhood, Pickering relies on a small plastic box he holds in
his hand like a TV remote control. The box repeats a scratchy, computerized
voice that says, ``Wait, Polk Street. Wait, Polk Street.'' 

After the light changes to green, the voice says, ``Walk sign, Polk. Walk
sign, Polk.'' Without hesitation, Pickering steps off the curb and quickly
crosses the street. 

``This is a technology that holds a lot of promise,'' Pickering said of the
receiver-transmitter system that is called Talking Signs. ``Everyone points
to new technology these days, and there are products that come and go. But
this one gets my vote for something that can really make a difference.'' 

Since 1995, San Francisco has become a real-life laboratory for Talking
Signs, which uses microprocessors and infrared beams to give
vision-impaired people a voice description of signs and landmarks in their
vicinity. 

There are about 900 Talking Signs transmitters throughout the city, at key
crosswalks, inside the newly rebuilt City Hall, throughout the main library
and in the Powell Street BART station. 

There even are transmitters atop 20 of the city's fancy J.C. Decaux
automatic public toilets. 

So far, though, only a handful of visually impaired people like Pickering
use the Talking Sign receivers to get around. 

But there increasingly are signals that the technology has made a
breakthrough from being an experiment to being a promising commercial
product. And it also has the potential to help sighted people find their
way around an unknown place. 

Talking Signs, marketed by a small Baton Rouge, La., company of the same
name, now are also installed at intersections, museums and train stations
in New York; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Austin, Texas; and Mashantucket, Conn. 

``We're seeing accelerated interest all over the country,'' said C. Ward
Bond, president of Talking Signs Inc. 

Last week, Luminator Inc., a Texas company that makes the electronic
destination signs found on buses throughout the country, launched a new
product that incorporates Talking Signs to broadcast destination and route
information for riders who are visually impaired. 

Next week in San Francisco, Mayor Willie Brown's disability advisory
committee is expected to approve a resolution making it the city's official
policy to install Talking Signs transmitters in every new or remodeled
public facility. The proposed resolution also suggests that private
buildings have at least one installed, when possible, at entrances. 

And a unit of giant Mitsubishi Corp. now is producing new Talking Signs
devices as part of a year- old deal with Talking Signs Inc. to market the
transmitters and receivers throughout Japan. 

``The market of this orientation device will expand rapidly in the near
future,'' Hajime Sone, general manager for corporate planning for
Mitsubishi Precision Co., said in an e-mail message. 

``We plan to market for public place(s) first, such as government offices,
hospitals, libraries, museums, train stations and others,'' Sone said. 

But Mitsubishi said it also is eyeing more universal uses of the devices by
private businesses like hotels, department stores and supermarkets. 

The Mitsubishi deal ``makes us optimistic that these units will be
everywhere,'' said William Crandall, a scientist with San Francisco's
Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, which originally invented Talking
Signs. 

The basic technology has existed for years. A voice description of a sign
or landmark is digitally recorded on a microchip. Light-emitting diodes
transmit the message on an invisible infrared beam in the same way a TV
remote control works. 

The person using the receiver presses a button to hear the message, either
through a speaker on the device or with an earphone. The strength and
direction of the signal itself is useful as a homing beacon to find the
sign or landmark. 

Talking Signs users like Jerry Kuns of San Francisco say the devices
replace constantly having to ask strangers to become guides. 

``I travel all the time, and for me to go from here to Los Angeles, I
probably have to ask and be handled by a dozen people,'' said Kuns, who
lost his sight during childhood. 

``It's a demand on me socially, and it's a demand on me psychologically,''
he said. A sighted person ``can just look up, see a sign and just head for
it.'' 

Braille signs on elevators and ATM machines are fine, said Kuns, a sales
manager for a company that sells products for the visually impaired. But
for a visually impaired person, Braille signs are useless if they cannot
even find the elevator or ATM. 

Kuns said he can find his way without any help around places like the
Powell Street BART station, which has Talking Signs transmitters at fare
gate entrances, ticket machines, rest rooms and telephones. 

``The independence and the dignity provide me with a great deal more
comfort and happiness,'' Kuns said. ``The freedom of choice is very
important.'' 

A recent study by the University of California at Santa Barbara showed that
Talking Signs made a profound difference for visually impaired transit
riders. 

During the study, members of one group of visually impaired people took
five minutes or more to locate an express bus stop, if they found it at
all, said Reginald G. Golledge, a University of California at Santa Barbara
geography professor who conducted the experiment. 

``With Talking Signs, they were all doing it in a minute or a minute 20
seconds,'' Golledge said. ``The difference was really night and day.'' 

Talking Signs may get a boost from recent federal legislation. The sweeping
Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 mandates that people with
disabilities have equal access to buildings and services. 


And a $230 billion Transportation Equity Act passed in 1998 includes a
provision to install audible signals and signs at certain crosswalks, Bond
said. 

In the past, cities such as Oakland have installed audible street signals
that chirp like birds to indicate a green light. People who are visually
impaired say the chirping helps but can be confusing. That's why Bond said
the bill has increased interest in more-sophisticated technologies like
Talking Signs. 


Yet cost remains a barrier. Currently, Talking Signs cost about $1,000 per
transmitter and $250 for each receiver. 

Bond, whose privately owned company has yet to turn a profit, hopes to sell
transmitters to government agencies and private businesses, while providing
receivers to the visually impaired at little or no cost to them. 

But so far, only a few municipalities have installed the devices, and the
cost scares off private businesses. 

And receivers won't be in great demand until there are more transmitters. 

``We're trying to bring the chicken and egg along at the same time,'' Bond
said. 

But the agreement with Mitsubishi, which received a small stake in Talking
Signs, gives Talking Signs fans hope that the cost of the devices will
decline. 

Also, Talking Signs proponents hope other creative uses that benefit
sighted people will surface. For example, the devices could be programmed
to receive in different languages, so tourists who don't speak or read
English can find their way around a town. 

And the $135 million Mashantucket Pequot Museum in Connecticut uses Talking
Signs to guide blind visitors through its Native American exhibits, but the
same technology also could be used by sighted visitors for self-guided tours. 

Meanwhile, Richard Skaff, Mayor Brown's special assistant for
disability-access issues and former access coordinator for San Francisco's
Department of Public Works, said the city continues to install Talking
Signs transmitters at city facilities like the Yerba Buena Gardens and a
new public pool at Hunters Point. 

Some of the transmitters already installed were funded through corporate
donations or, in the case of City Hall and the main Library, included in
overall publicly funded construction costs, Skaff said. 

As far as Kuns is concerned, the cost is more than justified. 

``Who says sighted people should get all the benefits of the world?'' Kuns
said. ``I pay taxes so that everybody who drives can use the streets. We
all need to share in making the world a kinder and more accessible place.'' 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----



HOW TALKING SIGNS WORK 

. 

TRANSMITTER 

The Talking Signs transmitter inside a 4-inch-by-4-inch plastic box placed
at a destination point or landmark, such as a building entrance or street
crossing sign. 

The transmitter plays a voice message about the sign or destination
prerecorded on a microchip. The signal is transmitted on an invisible
infrared beam of light, which starts at a narrow point at the transmitter,
but spreads out in a cone-shaped beam that becomes wider the farther it
gets. The beam can adjusted for length and width, but is typically about
100 feet long for outdoor locations and 40 feet long for indoor spots. 


RECEIVER 

The beam is then picked up with a hand-held receiver, about the size of a
Walkman, which plays the audio message. 


For more information: Visitors to San Francisco's City Hall or the main
library can borrow a Talking Signs receiver for use in the building. Also,
the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired has
receivers available for an extended loan with a $25 refundable deposit. For
information, call (415) 431-1481. Talking Signs Inc. has a Web site at
www.talkingsigns.com. 

©1999 San Francisco Chronicle  Page B1 


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