Hi,
What I found interesting about the original design of the iPhone was
that Apple was able to put a version of their Mac OS X operating
system on it, even though it's running in limited fashion. When I was
reading the Multilingual Mac pages I found out that the iPhone and
iPod Touch support handwriting input for Chinese characters. That
means that if you change the input keyboard language, there's an
option under the Chinese keyboards for Handwriting, and you can use
your finger to write the characters on the screen and the iPhone tries
to recognize it, and gives you a set of possible matches to select and
confirm from. It appears that other people have picked up this code
in the SDK and used it for experimental recognition of English words
from what people "write" with their fingers on the screen.
(Apparently these independent efforts aren't quite as good as the job
that Apple did for Chinese input). Anyway, I bet you could customize
your own inputs this way and "train" the iPhone to interpret what you
drew on its surface.
If you know someone who has an iPhone or iPod Touch here's another
neat thing: one of the apps, called Number Key, turns the screen of
the iPod into a numeric keypad. So I tried this on a MacBook that was
wirelessly paired to an iPod Touch that was running this app. When
you run VoiceOver and turn on keyboard practice mode with VO-k, you
hear every key on the 19-key "keypad" announced when you touch its
location on the iPod Touch surface. And if you go into TextEdit all
your inputs register and are announced. Pretty cool.
I know that at least some of the list readers have family who have
these devices. Check this out.
Cheers,
Esther
On Jan 26, 2009, at 9:07 AM, william lomas wrote:
Hi all,
Whilst I appreciate fully the efforts, by the time it appears
though, it is probable that Apple will have a new product out to
replace the IPhone, so what is the point?
will
On 26 Jan 2009, at 18:34, Chris Blouch wrote:
It's just a research project at University of Washington AIM
(accessibility interaction mobility) research group.
http://depts.washington.edu/aimgroup/mobility.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/wobbrock/pubs/assets-08.pdf
Could be a while before this appears on an iPhone near you.
CB
David Poehlman wrote:
well, Id didn't send a text message, it didn't make a phone call.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Eickmeier" <[email protected]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac
OS X by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 12:42 PM
Subject: Re: iPhone Accessibility
Wow, the iPhone sounds totally accessible from what I've heard in
this
video. Is this something that Apple is eventually doing to make it
accessible? If so, hats off to them yet again.
On Jan 26, 2009, at 11:26 AM, Chris Blouch wrote:
The Youtube demo is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=496IAx6_xys
There video is not described but basically the screen is blank and
everything they touch gets announced as their finger drags over the
iPhone's surface. Then a second finger is used to gesture that you
want to do something with thing just announced. Slick. Wonder when
this will move out of the labs.
CB
Victor Tsaran wrote:
Also, if you search for a university research project called
"Sliderule", you may just find something interesting. There is a
also a video demoing this technology on Youtube.
On 1/9/2009 10:01 AM, E.J. Zufelt wrote:
Not sure if you all are familiar with these three articles
regarding
iPhone / cellular accessibility. These are courtesy of a post on
another
list.
"Here is something that I saw last month about a possible solution
for
the current iPhone.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/01/silicon-touch-an-iphone-case-for-the-visually-impaired/
Here is something that's been around for a while but doesn't
seem to
have developed much.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/apple-envisions-tactility-on-touchscreen-keyboards/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/06/nokia-shows-off-haptikos-tactile-touch-screen-technology/
"
Thanks,
Everett
