Hello Pasting an article which did not get to the list. Harish Kotian Quoting:
Math by touch New app turns touchscreen tablets into a geometry and algebra tutor for the visually impaired, subjects that are difficult to learn without normal vision By Mumbai Mirror Bureau Posted On Wednesday, March 07, 2012 Without looking down, Kira runs her index finger across the screen of an Android tablet that she is holding in her lap. When her finger touches a line drawn on the screen, the tablet vibrates quietly. Scanning her finger back and forth and feeling the vibration come and go allows her to trace the line's path. When her finger reaches a pink dot, the tablet gives off an electronic tone and she grins delightedly. Kira is one of two visually impaired high school students who are testing a new app, one designed to assist students like her in mastering algebra, geometry and other subjects that are hard to learn without normal vision. The app is the brainstorm of Jenna Gorlewicz, a student at Vanderbilt University, and her adviser Robert Webster, a professor. Given the enthusiastic reaction of Kira, her classmate Quinn and their teacher, her innovation could have a major impact on how science, technology, engineering and math are taught to the blind. "When I began reading articles about haptic tech being incorporated into these new touchscreen devices, I realised that the people who really need haptics are people with impaired vision because they heavily rely on their sense of touch to 'see' the world." Gorlewicz said. "I love math and I love teaching, so I immediately thought of using them to teach math, because it has such a strong visual component." Gorlewicz's app vibrate or generate a specific tone when the student's fingertip touches a line, curve or shape displayed on the screen. The devices can generate vibrations with a number of different frequencies and hundreds of different sounds. This allows her to assign different tactile or audio signals to different features. For example, in an exercise that includes an X-Y grid, she can set the horizontal and vertical lines to vibrate at different frequencies and set points with a tone. In this way, it's easier for the students to distinguish between the gridlines and the points on the grid. According to Kira and Quinn, there is a little bit of a learning curve with the new device. "At first, I didn't think this would help me," Quinn said. "But after I started using it I found that it can be very helpful." According to Kira, "The biggest obstacle was getting the correct mental images. However, once you get the knack, it gets fairly easy." Copyright 2008 Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. . All rights reserved http://youtu.be/Bv5aypfqyrQ ________________________________ Notice: This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, use, review, distribution, printing or copying of the information contained in this e-mail message and/or attachments to it are strictly prohibited. If you have received this email by error, please notify us by return e-mail or telephone and immediately and permanently delete the message and any attachments. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The Reserve Bank of India accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
