Tag Archives: Blindness

Uber settlement protects travel with your guide dog

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Uber has made some effort to accommodate passengers with special needs, but it certainly hasn't been perfect: in 2014, the National Federation of the Blind's California branch sued Uber for denying rides to poor-sighted passengers with guide dogs and...

Student Invents Ultrasound Shoes For The Blind

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Blindness is, obviously, quite debilitating. But there are people out there working on developing tools that might make the lives of those deprived of sight just a bit easier. Argentinian student Juan Manuel Bustamante has developed a pair of shoes that uses ultrasound to help a blind person navigate his environment, removing the need for a cane. Dubbing his invention ‘Duspavoni’, the shoes feature sensors on the front, side, and back. They establish a 25-inch (63.5 centimeter) perimeter and will vibrate when a solid object is detected within it, vibrating the part of the shoe that corresponds with the location of the object. The closer the wearer gets to this object, the stronger and faster the vibration is, allowing them not only to know the direction but also the approximate distance to their obstacle.

The batteries that power the shoes are rechargeable, with a 5 hour charge lasting between 3 to 5 days. Unfortunately, there isn’t any information about commercialization or availability.

[ RT Article ] VIA [ DamnGeeky ]

The post Student Invents Ultrasound Shoes For The Blind appeared first on OhGizmo!.

First Braille phone debuts in UK, made using 3D printer

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Being blind is no longer going to be a reason for the blinded to not use cellphones because thanks to the UK phonemaker OwnFone, the world’s first Braille phone has been announced which has been...

Watch For The Blind Features Ball Bearings To Tell The Time

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Whether you’re unable to see or just have an aversion of looking down at your wrist, the Bradley watch will let you tell the time without ever even having to open your eyes; that’s why the makers want you to call it a timepiece, and not a watch. It uses two ball bearings to indicate the hours and minutes, one on the face and the other around the periphery, in special tracks. Magnets hidden inside put the ball bearings in the right place, so that all you have to do is touch your watch to know what time it is. The face features clearly textured hour markers to make it even simpler to find your way around. A $128 pledge to the Kickstarter campaign will get you one, with delivery in November.

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[ Project Page ] VIA [ Medgadget ]

Microchip implant lets blind patients see shapes, skip the prosthetic

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Microchip implant lets blind patients see light, skip the glasses

An eye-implanted chip from Retina Implant has restored patients' ability to discern light during its latest trial, according to German researchers. The device works in a similar fashion to the newly FDA-approved Argus II retinal prosthesis to return limited vision in patients with photoreceptor cell diseases like retinitis pigmentosa. Unlike that system, however, light is picked up via 1,500 pixels on a retinal implant instead of an eyeglass-mounted camera. The signal is boosted by a coil implanted in skin behind the ear and sent back to so-called bipolar cells still active on the retina, which in turn send an image to the brain through regular neural circuits. A small battery mounted behind the ear -- the only external sign of the device -- contains controls for brightness and contrast. The recent trial let 8 out of 9 patients see in varying degrees, with three in the study even able to read letters and see the faces of family members. Given that the Argus II finally crossed the FDA's bionic eye barrier, hopefully we won't have to wait nearly as long for research like this to become a product.

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Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: Royal B Society

FDA clears Argus II ‘bionic eye’ for sale in the US (video)

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FDA clears Argus II 'bionic eye' for sale in the US video

Those in the US suffering from blindness due to retinis pigmentosa (RP) will now be able to regain some vision bionically for the first time ever, thanks to Second Sight's Argus II retinal prosthesis. The device was just approved by the FDA for sale stateside after surmounting the same hurdle in Europe almost two years ago -- though it was first launched long, long before that. RP is a rare genetic disease that inflicts 100,000 or so Americans, destroying photoreceptors in the eye while leaving other cells intact. By implanting a device on the retina that receives a signal from the eyeglass-mounted camera, those cells can be stimulated as if receiving light, causing them to transmit an image to the brain. Due to the limited number of electrodes, patients would only be able to discern light or dark, but most have reported better functionality with the device -- being able to make out the shape of a curb while walking, or discerning between light, grey or dark colored socks, for instance. The Argus II has been certified by the FDA for "humanitarian use," meaning there's "reasonable assurance" that it's safe, and should start popping up in specialized clinics by the end of the year.

[Photo credit: Associated Press]

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Via: CNET

‘Sonar Vision’ system touted by researchers to help the blind hear what they can’t see

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Scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a prototype system that could one day aid the congenitally blind by converting video into auditory cues. The "Sonar Vision" works in a similar way to a bat's echolocation system, but instead of chirping, uses a video camera embedded in a pair of glasses. A laptop or smartphone then converts the images into sound, which is transmitted to a headset. After 70 hours or so of training, that allowed users to identify objects like faces or houses, position objects in space and even identify individual letters. Surprisingly, researchers also found that after only several hours using the device, regions of the cerebral cortex dedicated to sight became activated for the first time in the congenitally sightless. That could possibly let doctors "wake up" regions of the brain never before used, according to the team, "even after a lifetime of blindness."

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

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Via: Ubergizmo

Source: CEA

Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide

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Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide

Most digital Braille devices are built on the assumption that the legally blind already know how to write in the format -- if they don't, they're often forced back to the analog world to learn. PDT and Perkins hope to address that longstanding technology gap with the Perkins Smart Brailler. Going digital lets Perkins build in lessons for newcomers as well as provide immediate audio feedback (visual for writers with borderline vision) and text-to-speech conversion to give even an old hand a boost. Logically, the leap into the modern world also allows transferring documents over USB along with traditional Braille printouts. Smart Braillers will cost a weighty $1,995 each when they first ship in September, but it's hard to put a price tag on mastering communication and fully joining the digital generation.

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Perkins Smart Brailler helps the blind learn to type, closes the digital divide originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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