[AI] need info on road tax examtion

2016-06-02 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all
hope all are doing fine
as the subject line says, recently a notification have issue taking
road tax exumtion
for disable persons
since this notification is based on for those who physical disability,
that made for specially design vehicle.
but I have doubt that, can a Visually Impaired person can also clame
for exumtion?
for perchasing any 4 wheeler, if so? are their any other criterias have
such as annual income, Vision Impairment percentage or any other criteria.
Pls share any notification or guied line links for showing such
document to 4 wheeler deeler.
Thanks and Regards

Wahid Raza



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[AI] Any work around, on latest FireFox update?

2015-12-23 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all
hope all are doing well,
as the subject line says, is their any work around?
since last night FireFox was suddenly it self get updated
as we come to know that, latest version doesn't support 3rd party
addOns such as, WebVisum
unless the developer it self register to FireFox site for its addOns
though it seems a lenthy process, besides that
is their any other way? that we indivisually can do so to continue
work WebVisum with FireFox
does any buddy trying to install previous version for the same?
or any other possibility for same, this problem for all windos 7 and
later versions
have come up, all those who have update there FireFox suddenly or accidently.

Regards
Wahid
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Re: [AI] Webvisum.xpi needed

2015-12-23 Thread Wahid Raza
Hey
I've also try WebVisum is again enabled
thanks MR. Bikrum sir
for giving instructions for same
and I apologies for creating traffic for my last mail
I should read this, before sending the same queri on my last mail.
thanks to Bikrum sir, and apologies to list for my last mail
Regards
Wahid



On 12/23/15, Dinesh thole  wrote:
> Hello,
>
> It's working fine now.
> Thanks a lot.
>
> Thanks and Regards.
>
> Dinesh Thole.
>
> -Original Message-
> From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf
> Of Bikram
> Sent: 22 December 2015 22:27
> To: AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issues concerning
> the disabled.
> Subject: Re: [AI] Webvisum.xpi needed
>
> Hi,
>
> If you've followed the steps correctly, then Firefox should allow the
> Webvisum Add-on to run. If not, then please provide the error message or
> other such instructions if any. It might help me to have a detailed look at
> the specific issue(s) that prevents you from using the add-on.
>
> Please note that you need nothing to panic about the security vulnerability
> caused by disabling that security feature. You are completely safe as long
> as you do not install add-ons from untrusted sources. If you're uncertain
> about any add-on or toolbar, Do not allow the installation of such stuffs
> that come bundled with several third party applications. You might end up
> installing such annoying applications if you keep on clicking "next" while
> installing softwares without looking at the options to accept or reject the
> optional components.
>
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2015 at 1:59 PM, mukesh jain 
> wrote:
>
>> hello,
>> i have followed the instructions exactly  as mentioned in the mail and
>> it worked like charm!
>>
>> so tuns of thanks,
>>
>>
>> On 12/22/15, Dinesh thole  wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > I have done as per your instructions.
>> > However, firefox still doesn't allow to install XPI files.
>> > I have also tried installing through open file option.
>> > Please guide.
>> >
>> > Thanks and Regards.
>> >
>> > Dinesh Thole.
>> >
>> > -Original Message-
>> > From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On
>> Behalf
>> > Of Bikram
>> > Sent: 21 December 2015 20:52
>> > To: AccessIndia: a list for discussing accessibility and issues
>> concerning
>> > the disabled.
>> > Subject: Re: [AI] Webvisum.xpi needed
>> >
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > There is an option to override this security setting. In order to do
>> > so,
>> > you
>> > need to change that option through Firefox configuration editor. Please
>> > note
>> > that you should only proceed with the following steps if you assure
>> > yourself
>> > that you're not gonna make any unintended change/modification in the
>> > configuration settings. Because accidental modification of the values
>> > of
>> > these advanced settings can be harmful to the stability, security, and
>> > performance of your browser. So, please do it at your own risk!
>> > 1. Type "about:config" without the quotes in your browser address bar.
>> > 2. Click on "I'll be careful, I promise" button.
>> > 3. Type "xpinstall" without the quotes in the search box.
>> > 4. Use the arrow keys to get the option called
>> > "xpinstall.signatures.required".
>> > 5. Press the application key to bring up the context menu options.
>> > 6. Choose toggle from that menu and press enter. You would discover
>> > that
>> > the
>> > value is set to "false" which was initially "true".
>> > 7. Restart Firefox in order for the changes to take effect.
>> > 8. After implementing the change in the configuration settings as
>> suggested
>> > above, You could enable Webvisum again.
>> > You can repeat the steps above to revert back to your default settings.
>> In
>> > that case, click "toggle" or "reset" to set this value to "true".
>> > Hope that helps.
>> >
>> > On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 6:32 PM, gufran ahmed <
>> gufran.ahmed2...@gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> >> hi amar, if your firefox has been updated to v 43.0.1, then you will
>> >> not be ale to use webvisum. because now mozzilla is only authorize
>> >> those addons which are signed by mozilla team. hence we should wait
>> >> for the webvisum to get it sign by mozilla or we should write to
>> >> webvisum. i am also facing the same issue.
>> >>
>> >> On 12/21/15, Amar Jain  wrote:
>> >> > Hi List,
>> >> >
>> >> > Post upgrading to Windows 10, my Firefox reported that Webvisum is
>> >> > not compatable hence disabled. In order to enable it, something went
>> >> > wrong and it got uninstalled.
>> >> >
>> >> > Due to firewall limitations,, I am unable to re-install from the
>> >> > server directly.  Greatful if someone can send the .xpi on my e-mail
>> >> > id: amarjain2...@gmail.com
>> >> >
>> >> > Regards
>> >> > --
>> >> > Amar Jain.
>> >> > Website: www.amarjain.com
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> > Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list 

[AI] Fwd: Apple Watch info, about accessibility

2015-04-14 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine,
sharing with you a peace of intrusting article, given subject line above
if its already have shared, pls accept my apologies for creating
traffic on the list.

regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

 thought some of you may find this blog interesting. It was written by
David Woodbridge. Very nicely written.

Thursday, 9 April 2015

 Pre-Release notes of my experience with the Apple watch April 8th 2015
Pre-release notes of the Apple watch looking at accessibility

When I spent a few hours with the Apple watch on April 8th 2015, I
jotted down notes about the Apple watch’s physical description,
general overall points, low vision and speech features, hearing, Siri,
and Apple watch functions I am most looking forward to using.
At the end of this document, I have included a summary from Apple in
regards to the Apple watch accessibility features

Some initial points


In a recent podcast of mine looking at the click wheel on the iPod
nano 4/5th generations, and the touch screen access on the iPod nano
6/7th generations, VoiceOver access on the Apple watch has far
exceeded my expectations.


It is important to note that the Apple watch is a companion to the
iPhone and is designed to work in conjunction with the phone.

This is the first truly accessible main stream smart watch for people
who require various types of accessibility options such as large
print, speech output, mono audio etc.

When the Apple watch is available for pre-order on April 10 2015
(online or via the Apple Store app), you will be able to make an
appointment at an Apple store to look at the different Apple watch’s
and associated bands to sort out which combination is wright for you.
In addition, you will be able to discuss various features of the Apple
watch.  Once the watch's are shipped on the 24th of April, you can
either get online or in store assistance to personalise  and setup
your Apple watch.

Now on to my notes:

Physical description of the Apple watch:

1. The Apple watch is Rectangular in shape with rounded edges.
2. With the Apple watch on your left wrist, holding your arm in front of you:
Right edge: round Digital crown at top, and oval side (friends) button
at bottom.
left edge: across from the digital crown: speaker, and across from the
“Friends” button: microphone.
Top face:  touch screen with the screen ending at the curved sides.
Back face: raised convex housing in the middle which contains the
magnetic charger plus the sensors.  Two pin holes on either side near
where the bands connect to allow the bands to be detached by pressing
in on them.  I.e. the bands fill like they have slotted in to the
Apple watch rather than being attached on either side by band pins.

General points:

1. During my brief play with the Apple watch, I did not have the
opportunity to set the watch up itself: either using the Apple watch
and the Apple watch app on the iPhone.  In addition, I was more
looking at the low vision and VoiceOver experience when navigating the
interface, rather than using the apps which are accessible.
2. The Apple watch feels very very nice in the hand, like a smooth
square peace of glass.
3. The Digital crown was extremely easy to turn/press,  and the
friends button just as easy to press.  The digital crown does not
click when turned, but has a very smooth action.  The digital crown
itself is bevelled.  In actual fact, rather than turning the digital
crown around with two fingers, I just found myself using one finger on
top of the digital crown to move it.
4. Easy to connect the magnetic charger to the Apple watch.   The side
of the charger that connects to the Apple watch has an indented edge
and the magnet moves the connection to the correct place.  Not a hard
connection click, quite gentle.
5. I only had an opportunity to look at the leather loop band and the
rubber band. The leather loop band felt quite nice, but had some
difficulty in doing it up due to the fact that I had to put it on my
wrist and then do it up.  The rubber band wasn’t a problem putting on
as with the leather loop as it was more a point of sliding the band
through to get to a point where you could put the pin through, and
then tuck it in to the slot on the band to hide the end.
6. The touch screen of the watch is the full face of the watch and
stops as you come to the curve around the edges: very easy to
identify, and certainly had no problems using gestures on the face of
the watch.  i.e. didn’t go off the edges when using gestures.
7. Much preferred the wait of the Apple watch over the Apple Sports.
The sports is quite a bit lighter.  I just prefer a bit of weight on
my wrist.
8. As far as using the glass surface on either the Sports or the Apple
watch, it didn’t really make any difference in performing gestures.
9. For me, the 42 millimetres Apple watch was a good size, and did not
feel to big on my wrist.  You can tell the size difference between the
38 and the 42. It may be better for low 

[AI] Fw: GW Micro Expands Its Accessibility Services - GW Micro Now Provides Web, Software, and Document Compliance Testing

2014-05-01 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine,
sharing an intrusting news, thought it may intrusted to all.

Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

GW Micro Expands Its Accessibility Services - GW Micro Now Provides Web,
Software, and Document Compliance Testing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fort Wayne, IN (April 28 2014) - GW Micro (www.gwmicro.com) announced today
that it has expanded its services beyond software and hardware for people
who are blind or visually impaired.  It will now be offering services to
organizations who are required to develop, procure, maintain and use
electronic and information technology (EIT) that is accessible to people
with disabilities.  GW Micro's accessibility services will also be available
to any person or organization who is interested in making their websites,
documents or software accessible and compliant with Section 508 standards,
the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), or the internationally recognized
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

Many organizations are required by law to have accessible EIT as mandated by
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA. We continue to see an
increasing demand for accessible websites, software, and documents, said
Dan Weirich, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for GW Micro.  There are
few companies who have the knowledge and experience to help resolve these
issues, and we know GW Micro can fulfill this need.

GW Micro develops and sells a screen reader, Window-Eyes, which makes the
computer accessible via speech and Braille to a person who is blind or
visually impaired.  Weirich noted that GW Micro is the only screen reader
company to provide these services.  Many times, organizations will be
required to do testing and determine if their website can be accessed by a
screen reader user, and since we develop the technology, this is a great
fit.

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) has recommended GW Micro as a Web
Accessibility Consultant (WAC).  We are excited to see GW Micro add their
expertise to this area of the marketplace, said Anne Taylor, Director of
Access Technology for the NFB.  We have had a long-term relationship with
GW Micro and are happy to recommend them to organizations that need to
ensure they are compliant.

Parties interested in receiving a free initial consultation can call GW
Micro at (260) 489-3671 or email accessibil...@gwmicro.com.  For more
information about GW Micro's accessibility services, please visit:
http://www.gwmicro.com/Accessibility_Solutions/.

Contact:
Dan Weirich, VP of Sales and Marketing
d...@gwmicro.com
(260) 489-3671

###

___



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through this mailing list..


[AI] Fwd: Ai Squared and GW Micro Join Forces - Assistive Technology Leaders Merge to Expand Opportunities for Computer Users Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

2014-05-01 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all
forwording an article, which get from another list.

Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --
Ai Squared and GW Micro Join Forces - Assistive Technology Leaders Merge
to Expand Opportunities for Computer Users Who Are Blind or Visually
Impaired

Manchester, Vermont and Fort Wayne, Indiana (May 1, 2014) - Ai Squared
http://www.aisquared.com, the maker of ZoomText and sitecues
http://www.sitecues.com; and GW Micro http://www.gwmicro.com, the
creator of Window-Eyes, have merged into one company. With this merger,
the companies will combine their talents to better assist computer users
who are blind or visually impaired.

ZoomText is the world's number one screen magnifier and text-to-speech
software package that allows people who are visually impaired to use a
computer with ease. Window-Eyes is a popular screen reader that enables
people who are blind to be fully independent on the computer by
translating visual information into speech and/or Braille.

Our mission is to provide a full family of computer accessibility
solutions for users who are low vision or blind, whether they access
digital information via their desktop, the web or their mobile device,
said David Wu, CEO of Ai Squared. Earlier this year, we commercially
launched sitecues, a product which enables website owners to build
accessibility tools right into their websites. Today's merger with GW
Micro rounds out our mantra of 'We've got accessibility covered' - with
our combined forces, we can now deliver an even wider range of computer
access solutions.

The need for assistive technology continues to grow. According to the
World Health Organization, over 285 million people in the world are
considered visually impaired; 39 million of those are blind, and 246
million have moderate to severe visual impairments. The merger of Ai
Squared and GW Micro brings together two companies that offer great
solutions for the millions of Microsoft customers around the world who
are blind or visually impaired, said Rob Sinclair, Chief Accessibility
Officer at Microsoft.

We are also delighted that Ai Squared will continue to develop and
support the Window-Eyes for Office Offer as many of our customers rely
on this screen reading solution to enable access to Windows, Office and
other Microsoft products, Sinclair said.

Dan Weirich, Co-founder of GW Micro and now Vice President at Ai
Squared, said he is thrilled to incorporate Window-Eyes into the Ai
Squared product family.

It's a natural fit, Weirich said. Combining our companies will
strengthen Ai Squared's global presence in the assistive technology
industry, allowing us to serve even more customers.

Weirich noted that many customers using web and computer accessibility
tools inevitably progress further along the visual impairment spectrum
during their lifetime.  As a result, they will require more advanced
assistive technology as their needs change. With the merger, Ai Squared
will be in a better position to assist those customers, developing
products that provide a seamless transition and user experience as
customers adapt to their changing vision.

Ai Squared will continue to offer Window-Eyes and its related products
as they were previously offered by GW Micro. In addition, a free and
fully featured version of Window-Eyes will continue to be available via
the Window-Eyes Offer for Users of Microsoft Office as part of the
recently announced partnership with Microsoft and GW Micro. The GW Micro
team will remain in Indiana as part of the Ai Squared team, which is
headquartered in Vermont.

About Ai Squared: Ai Squared (www.aisquared.com
http://www.aisquared.com) has been the worldwide leader in assistive
technology solutions for people who are visually impaired for over 20
years. The product line is available in over 20 languages and sold in 45
countries through a network of over 350 global distributors. Ai
Squared's screen magnification and screen-reading products dramatically
improve a computer's usability and friendliness for users who are blind
or low vision, raising their level of productivity, satisfaction, and
independence. The family of Ai Squared products includes ZoomText,
ZoomText Large-Print Keyboard, ZoomText ImageReader, ZoomText Mac,
Window-Eyes, sitecues, the ZoomReader iOS app, and the ZoomContacts iPad
app.

About GW Micro: GW Micro, Inc. (www.gwmicro.com
http://www.gwmicro.com) has been a trusted pioneer in the assistive
technology industry since 1990; it has led with innovative,
customer-driven solutions, and the GW Micro team has always been proud
of its description as the Voice of Vision.
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[AI] Fwd: CPSD RELEASES ORGANIZATIONAL LETTER URGING PRESIDENT OBAMA AND SECRETARY PEREZ TO APPLY THE MINIMUM WAGE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS WITH DISABILITIES

2014-02-04 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
sharing with you all, a peace of info
thought it may intrusted to all of you.

Regards
Wahid


-- Forwarded message --
From: CPSD aw...@thecpsd.org
Date: Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 9:05 AM
Subject: CPSD RELEASES ORGANIZATIONAL LETTER URGING PRESIDENT OBAMA AND
SECRETARY PEREZ TO APPLY THE MINIMUM WAGE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO GOVERNMENT
CONTRACTORS WITH DISABILITIES
To: stephanie.h.del...@vanderbilt.edu


 Having trouble viewing this email? Click here
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=5f30b379-2628-468e-978f-3f0d2a8bfda6c=9d6a6a30-737d-11e3-8881-d4ae5292b9a6ch=9e3422d0-737d-11e3-88bb-d4ae5292b9a6
[image: Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination]
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2013

*Media Contact:*

Allison Wohl

Executive Director

Collaboration for the Promotion of Self Determination

Tel: (301) 789-3565

Email: aw...@thecpsd.org




* CPSD RELEASES ORGANIZATIONAL LETTER URGING PRESIDENT OBAMA AND SECRETARY
PEREZ TO APPLY THE MINIMUM WAGE EXECUTIVE ORDER TO GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS
WITH DISABILITIES *
  *Washington, DC*--The Collaboration to Promote Self-Determination (CPSD),
an advocacy coalition of 21 national groups, sent a letter today to
President Barack Obama and Labor Secretary Tom Perez, stating groups'
profound concerns over recent statements suggesting that workers with
disabilities employed by government contractors will not be covered by the
new $10.10 minimum wage. The 24 national organizations signing the letter
urging the administration to not discriminate against workers with
disabilities in their executive order include both CSPD members
and non-members, among them, the Service Employees International Union, the
American Civil Liberties Union, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the
National Organization on Disability the National Down Syndrome Congress,
and the Japanese American Citizens League.

We must dispel the notion that it is acceptable to pay workers with
disabilities less than the federal minimum wage. These Americans are not
less than and they deserve the same worker protections that all other
government contractors are afforded. Section 14c of the Fair Labor
Standards Act is an arcane provision from 1938 that does not reflect what
we know about the capabilities of workers with disabilities today, said
CPSD's Executive Director, Allison Wohl.



Thousands of workers with disabilities are employed by government
contractors holding 14c certificates from the U.S. Department of Labor Wage
and Hour Division. These certificates, created as an exception to the Fair
Labor Standards Act of 1938, permit contractors to pay less than minimum
wage to their workers with disabilities. CPSD and its partner groups and
allies believe that all Americans should be afforded minimum wage
protections, including those workers with disabilities.



Recent statements from administration officials, including Secretary of
Labor Tom Perez, have suggested that employees with disabilities working
for federal contractors with 14c certificates will be excluded from the new
$10.10/hour minimum wage and will only benefit to a minimal degree in so
far as their subminimum wage compensation will now be calculated as a
portion of the higher minimum wage required by the executive order.



While a broader end to subminimum wage and Section 14c may require an act
of Congress, we believe that the Administration has the authority to end
the use of subminimum wage for employees of federal contractors
immediately, through the use of the same executive order establishing the
new $10.10/hour requirement, said Ari Ne'eman, President of the Autistic
Self-Advocacy 
Networkhttp://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001hHxPnAdt2OWorJN-JqdyAeaLeJ2tk4-TzvE3zSA2ySLnaTYJUa614mZUdLZoXspTa7zRT2c9etfEhS18VJFAANbvdfL48OWGBZwrn-r6NREfz9-OcoDRmuZxu37zMmSCj4bGnT_lG04aHvwlwDEauSwCN-j1ooFst4TO4QfoXGxjGcYah4dyhA==c=YniK0LjMBpPNNxnWL7dvQnshH1uWB1qROzJoVT7124GIIjlRuZegkQ==ch=l_gA3aL_bxGrM9Nh36QF7BoJ4-DMGsET5R40RheCjwBoyF0BIk2ZOw==,
the leading national advocacy organization run by and for Autistic adults.



In the last several years, commitments have been made from Rhode Island,
Massachusetts, New York and Oregon to phase out the use of sheltered
workshops - the primary setting where disabled workers are paid less than
minimum wage. Vermont ended the use of both sheltered workshops and
subminimum wage employment of people with disabilities in 2003. This
progress shows that it is both economically sensible and morally just to
ensure that people with disabilities have access to the same wage
protections as those without.

*CPSD is a national non-partisan advocacy network of 21 national
organizations who have come together to bring about a significant
modernization of the federal adult system of services and supports for
persons with disabilities. To learn more about CPSD, visit
http://thecpsd.org

Re: [AI] AccessIndia Digest, Vol 59, Issue 1218

2013-08-12 Thread Wahid Raza
On 8/12/13, accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in
accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in wrote:
 Send AccessIndia mailing list submissions to
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 Today's Topics:

1. Re: freedom scientific display driver. (SYED IMRAN)
2. Re: Opinion saught for study book reader with navigation
   (Srinivasu Chakravarthula)
3. Re: Dell laptop. (Harish Kapoor)
4. Re: freedom scientific display driver. (bhawani shankar verma)
5. Audiodescribing B.A. Pass! (Asudani, Rajesh)
6. Re: SBI MOBILE BANKING (Sachit Kumar Sahrawat)
7. Conference for introducing single VI persons to possible
   spouces for marriage (Preeti Monga)
8. Re: Huawei E355 Data Card (ratheesh kottakkal)
9. Re: Huawei E355 Data Card (Amit Bhatt)


 --

 Message: 1
 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 10:30:01 +0530
 From: SYED IMRAN syed.f...@gmail.com
 To: 'Dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of
   mobile  phones  and Tabs. ' accessindia@accessindia.org.in
 Subject: Re: [AI] freedom scientific display driver.
 Message-ID: 52086bf0.4187440a.63e5.5...@mx.google.com
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

 Update the display driver from device manager. If you have intel graphics
 card then go to windows update, select optional updates, then select and
 update intel graphics drivers. After that uninstall and re-install jaws
 from
 the scratch

 -Original Message-
 From: AccessIndia [mailto:accessindia-boun...@accessindia.org.in] On Behalf
 Of anil reddy
 Sent: 12 August 2013 10:03
 To: accessindia
 Subject: [AI] freedom scientific display driver.

 hi friends,
 how to overcome the error
 freedomscientific mirror display driver in jaws 14 32 bit.
 i tried installing jaws with internet and also without internet, but
 failed to overcome.
 i even reinstalled display drivers, but no success.
 looking forword for a solution
 --
 choosing hundred wrong persons may not effect your life,
 but missing oneright person will live  with broken heart through out your
 life.
 regards
 Anil Reddy K,
 MOBILE
 9849479718.

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 mobile phones / Tabs on:
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 Disclaimer:
 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of
 the
 person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity;

 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails
 sent through this mailing list..




 --

 Message: 2
 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 11:41:06 +0530
 From: Srinivasu Chakravarthula li...@srinivasu.org
 To: Dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile
   phones  and Tabs. accessindia@accessindia.org.in
 Cc: Dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile
   phones  and Tabs. accessindia@accessindia.org.in
 Subject: Re: [AI] Opinion saught for study book reader with navigation
 Message-ID: 85c53a0f-6b42-421e-b000-f3ec12fb7...@srinivasu.org
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

 In that case a net book would be handy. Easy to carry.

 Regards,

 Srinivasu
 http://srinivasu.org Twitter: @csrinivasu
 Sent from my iPad

 On Aug 11, 2013, at 7:08 PM, Ekinath Khedekar ekin...@gmail.com wrote:

 Dear Pranav,

 Appreciate your kind response. However, i was refering to portable
 small independant device, like in league of Angel pro etc.

 Regs,



 On 8/10/13, Pranav Lal pranav@gmail.com wrote:
 Hi,

 A screen reader running on a pc works nicely for tables. I believe voice
 over can handle tables on webpages but your best bet is a laptop. As far
 as
 I know, specialized players do not handle tables very well.


 

[AI] Fwd: The Blind Community's Fight For A More Accessible Web

2013-07-20 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
forwording a article, thought it may intrusted to all.

Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

The Blind Community’s Fight for a More Accessible Web

By Tim Sampson
July 17, 2013

Imagine being a small business owner who manages a company almost entirely
online. You communicate with clients, process payments, and organize
meetings
all through the Internet. Think about just how many steps would really be
involved.
There’d be countless login screens and dropdown menus to be navigated. And
searching for the right Web pages in the first place could even be a
challenge.

Now imagine doing all that while wearing a blindfold.

That’s the life led by millions of blind or visually impaired individuals
who
navigate the Web every day. The Internet is as critical to these individuals
as it is for anyone else—if not more so, since the Web is often used to
avoid
the challenges and transit that accompanies daily activities like shopping.

But gaining access can often be a costly, frustrating, and litigious matter.

Though using the Internet, a primarily visual medium, can be difficult for
those who lack the power of sight, its not altogether impossible. The
technology exists, mostly in the form of screen reader programs that do just
that: read out the contents of a Web page and convert them into an audio or
braille format. These programs are essential for people like T.J. Olsen, who
are visually impaired but depend on the Internet for their livelihood.

“My business is done almost entirely online,” said Olsen, 26, who works as a
self-employed music promoter and marketer in New York City.

Blind for as long as he can remember, Olsen has been able to trace the
progress of online accessibility since the Internet went mainstream in the
mid-90s. He received his first computer at the age of 8. Back then, the only
way for him to “surf the ‘net” was to copy and paste text into a speech
program.

The screen readers used today are much more advanced and automated than what
Olsen had to utilize back then. The programs automatically decipher pages,
including text, photos, and links. Some can even delineate between headers,
link menus, and body text to help better organize the information for
navigational purposes.

The tools, however, are only as good as the information they receive from
the
websites to which they connect. If a website is designed without
accessibility
in mind, or new features of the site have not be geared for screen reader
interface, it can be a major challenge.

“It’s constantly catching up. The technology that allows me to go online is
always one or two steps behind,” Olsen told the Daily Dot. “Adapting sites
for
people like me is an afterthought a lot of the times.”

The experience of any visually impaired person online will vary based on the
severity of their disability, type of program they use, and other technical
specifications. But most who talked with the Daily Dot say their experience
is
hit or miss. For instance, Olsen said the chances of landing on a site he
can
easily navigate are about “50/50.”

His anecdotal experience is backed up by a study from researchers at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In their study of higher
education
and government Web pages from 181 different U.N. member states, the
researchers found that less than half the websites would receive a passable
grade for accessibility. And virtually all the websites had room for
improvement in some area.

In many ways, accessibility for websites is like accessibility for a
building:
It’s a few key changes that can make all the difference.

Since the early ‘90s, business have been required to meet access
requirements
laid out in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
For brick-and-mortar companies, that’s wheelchair ramps, automatic doors,
and
braille placards. Similarly, courts have found the ADA applies to the
virtual
realm in some instances as well. But instead of focusing on ramps and
automated doors, online accessibility is focused on coding descriptions and
page layout.

“There are lots of little things that can be annoying,” said Meredith
Ballard,
a senior at Appalachian State University in North Carolina.

Ballard was born with albinism and her vision has slowly deteriorated to the
point where she is now legally blind. She said there a lots of slight
glitches
that can prove to be stumbling blocks for the visually impaired online.
“The biggest difference is, we just can’t scan a page for the information we
want,” Ballard said. “If there are a dozen links on a page and we want the
one
at the bottom, it’s going to take listening to all the links be read in
order.”

Other major obstacles can include link and photo descriptions that are often
lacking in clarity. They are usually a byproduct of programmers not taking
the
time to consider how important such descriptions are to a small portion of
their visitors. CAPTCHA security verification can also be a burden if not
formated 

[AI] Fwd: Mobile Speak V5.81 is now available!

2012-11-27 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
pasting below info, which get from another list.

Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Hi everyone,


We are happy to announce the release of v5.81 of Mobile Speak Symbian.
It is another free upgrade for users with a v4.0 or later license.
This version is a patch release which supports new firmware versions
that have recently been released on some devices (Belle Refresh and
Belle Feature Pack 2). In addition, some bug general bug fixes and
improvements have been included (including support for the latest
version of WhatsApp), so all users are encouraged to upgrade to v5.81.
No TTS packages have been changed in this release, so there's no need
to upgrade your TTS version if you already have the latest one
installed.


If you currently have v5.80 installed, then you can go into Configure
Mobile Speak  Options  Product downloads  Check for updates and
follow the instructions to install this release on top of your current
version. Please remember to install to the same memory location where
Mobile Speak is currently installed. If you are prompted with
something like Unable to install. Some applications must be closed
first. Close now?, choose OK and the installation should proceed.
After a few minutes, the installation will complete and Mobile Speak
should be running (a restart of the device is recommended as always).
Alternatively, you can download v5.81 from our web page at
http://codefactory.es/en/downloads.asp?id=348#version_0_106. The
direct link to the installer is
http://codefactory.es/download.asp?file=family_4/product_18/version_106/MobileSpeak_S60_v5.81.sisx.


That user manual has been updated and can be found here:
http://codefactory.es/descargas/family_4/ms581_userguide_symbian.html


Here's a list of all the changes in this release:
  a.. Support for Symbian Belle Feature Pack 2 (FP2). This firmware
has recently been made available on the 603, 700, 701 and 808 devices.
Changes include:
a.. Support for Web Browser. Please check the web browser tips and
workarounds for Belle FP2 in the user manual here:
http://codefactory.es/descargas/family_4/ms581_userguide_symbian.html#_Toc341688819
b.. Support for Email.
c.. Support for Help pages.
d.. Fixed problem on 700 and 603 devices where it was difficult to
unlock the lock screen. This can now be done on these devices by
pressing the Menu key or the Screen Lock key and then doing a swipe
left or right on the screen.
e.. Automatically closing half keyboard when it appears when
entering text, and fixing problem with entering text in Keypad mode.
Note however that the text input mode (e.g. alpha, number or
predictive) may not be spoken correctly due to a firmware bug,
although it can still be changed as always by pressing the # key.
  b.. Support for Nokia Belle Refresh firmware (recently available as
an update on the N8, E6, E7, C7, C6-01, X7 and 500). This will fix the
problems where the web browser and email were not working correctly on
these devices after updating to Nokia Belle Refresh.
  c.. Updated to provide full support for the latest v2.8.22 of Whatsapp.
  d.. Web: Fixed problem where some buttons and images were not being
spoken on some pages.
  e.. Nokia HQ: modified the change made in recent release which
stopped vibrations when Nokia HQ voice was selected. Now, the
vibrations will still occur if the Nokia HQ voice is not speaking at
the time the vibration is meant to occur. However, if the voice is
speaking, the vibration will not occur since it would interrupt the
speech.
  f.. Fixed problem where screen reader was using wrong language
resources when a program was being used which does not support the
current phone language (e.g. Skype in some languages).
  a.. Braille: On Focus Blue devices, fixed stability and performance
with rockers.
  b.. Braille: Added additional commands for EasyLink/BraillePen
devices, to provide an alternative for devices without a joystick:
a.. Enter: Space + dots15.
b.. Dial: Space + dot7(Shift) + dots15.
c.. Hang up: Space + dot7(Shift) + dots125.
  c.. Braille: Added missing commands for Humanware Brailliant devices
(BI32, BI40 and B80):
  d.. Braille: Fixed problem on some devices where Toggle Help Mode,
Toggle Secret mode and Open User Dictionary commands were not working.
  e.. Latest translations.
We hope you enjoy this this latest release!


Regards
Support
Submit Help Desk Ticket at
http://www.codefactory.cat/helpdesk/index.php?a=add
Code Factory
Making mobile phones and PDAs accessible to the blind and visually impaired.
Moving Accessibility Forward!
www.codefactory.es
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/codefactory and on our blog at
http://codefactoryblog.wordpress.com/
To learn more about Mobile Speak 4 visit
http://codefactory.es/en/products.asp?id=318

___

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mobile phones / Tabs on:

[AI] Fwd: Guess What? Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 is Now Available!

2012-10-24 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below short info, which get from another list.

Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Oct-22-2012

If you're subscribed to the GW Micro or Guess What podcast feed, you'll
automatically receive this Guess What in MP3 format.  Check out
www.gwmicro.com/podcast for more information.  If you want to download the
MP3, read this article online, or view more Guess What articles (when they
are released), please visit www.gwmicro.com/beta.

Enjoy!

--

Welcome to GW Micro's Guess What series, an introductory look at the highly
anticipated release of Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1.

Today is the day that you have all been waiting for!  Today is the day that
Windows Safe Mode becomes accessible; today is the day that Window-Eyes
starts supporting JAVA applications like OpenOffice.  Today, you will get
access to Windows 8 and also experience an all new way of accessing the
Internet with Window-Eyes.  The excitement has been building and we know you
are ready to try it out for yourself!

But, before we discuss how to get Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1, there are a few
important details you need to know about the new version, including both
technical and pricing information.  First, let's cover the technical
details.

What operating systems will Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 support?  It will
continue to support all operating systems that Window-Eyes 7.5.4.1
supported, including XP and above.  Additionally, it will support Windows 8
and Windows Server 2012.

As you know, Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 offers support for all flavors of
Windows 8 as well as Windows Server 2012.  If you want to try Window-Eyes on
a Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 machine, you will need to use the full
installation of Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1.

If you are running Window-Eyes 7.5 (including 7.5, 7.5.1, 7.5.2, 7.5.3,
7.5.4, or 7.5.4.1), you can install Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 if you intend to
use a non-demonstration copy.

A demonstration copy of Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 has also been made available,
which does not require Window-Eyes to be already installed on your system.
Please note that there are some limitations to the demonstration copy
version of the beta. For example, you will not be able to use Window-Eyes in
Safe Mode. You will need a full copy of Window-Eyes to try this new feature
on Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1.

If you install Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 and you purchase 8.0 or are eligible
to receive 8.0 as a part of your Software Maintenance Agreement, you will
automatically receive the upgrade via electronic download as soon as it is
available. This is yet another new feature in Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1.  You
will also receive the new version on CD.  For a complete list of all new
features in Window-Eyes, you can find them in the Readme in the Help menu of
Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1.

What is the price of Window-Eyes 8.0?  The retail price of Window-Eyes 8.0
will remain the same and payment plans are still available for U.S.
customers.  Additionally, if your Window-Eyes license is already at version
7.5 or higher, you may still purchase a Software Maintenance Agreement (SMA)
until the official release of Window-Eyes 8.0.  We recommend that you order
your SMA as soon as possible to help your investment in Window-Eyes go even
further. Find out all of the pricing information and other details by going
to www.gwmicro.com/beta.  Additionally, you may contact GW Micro at (260)
489-3671. Orders will be shipped on a first-come, first-served basis, so
make sure to place your order today!  Please note that Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta
is only available for English copies.

And now, for the moment you have all been waiting for, you can download
Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 starting now at
 www.gwmicro.com/beta!

Raymond Bishop, NV9B

Philippians 4:6-7




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[AI] Fwd: Guess What? Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 Has a New Browse Mode!

2012-10-20 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below intresting article, which get from another list.
hope all of you like it.

Regards
WahidRaza

-- Forwarded message --

Oct-19-2012

Disclaimer

The following message includes information regarding Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1.
Please note that Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 HAS NOT been released at this time.
We are, however, providing you with some small glimpses into the features
that Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 will contain. We are currently not answering any
questions regarding the functionality of the beta. The only things we're
going to talk about will be what we have included in our Guess What series,
which will continue up to the beta release date. We will answer all
questions at that time. Please be patient; you will be rewarded.

If you're subscribed to the GW Micro or Guess What podcast feed, you'll
automatically receive this Guess What in MP3 format.  Check out
www.gwmicro.com/podcast for more information.  If you want to download the
MP3, read this article online, or view more Guess What articles (when they
are released), please visit www.gwmicro.com/beta.

Enjoy!

--

Welcome to GW Micro's Guess What series, an introductory look at the highly
anticipated release of Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1.

We'll be covering a new feature in Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 until its release,
so stop by our web site daily (www.gwmicro.com/beta) to make sure you don't
miss any of the exciting new features.

Since the start of the Guess What series, many of you have been asking
Browse Mode. The time has finally come to showcase all of the hard work GW
Micro has been doing to improve your web browsing experience.

New Supported Web Browsers

While it has not yet been officially released, GW Micro is leading the pack
with support for Internet Explorer 10!  This includes IE the program and IE
the modern app when using Windows 8.  So, for those of you who are using
Windows 8, you will be able to use IE 10 with the power of Window-Eyes 8.0
Beta 1.  Window-Eyes continues to support Mozilla Firefox and we have
greatly improved support for both browsers by making web pages load much
faster and field names read much better in both browsers.

The Tab and Shift-Tab keys are now sent directly to the web browser
regardless of whether you are in or out of Browse Mode so that dynamic
content that appears will be simple to access.  In previous versions of
Window-Eyes, the Tab and Shift-Tab keys were intercepted, but this new
implementation will help ensure much better access to dynamic content.

Auto Browse Mode

One of the most noticeable differences you will find while browsing the web
with Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 is that Browse Mode will automatically turn off
when you Tab or Shift-Tab to a form control that requires Browse Mode to be
off.  Instead of hearing Browse Off, you will now hear a sound that
indicates whether Browse Mode is on or off. If you Tab or Shift-Tab away
from the form control, you will be notified with a sound that Browse Mode is
back on, but you can continue to easily navigate the page without the entire
Browse Mode buffer re-loading.  An example of this would be www.google.com.
Google.com puts focus in the edit box as soon as you are on the page.  You
will hear the sound indicating that Browse Mode is off.  If you press Tab
until you are not on a form control, Browse Mode comes back on, but you can
continue to navigate without being back at the top of the page.  You will
know Browse Mode is on or off by the new Browse Mode sounds, which can be
adjusted in the Windows Control Panel.

You can choose to have sounds for Auto Browse Mode when Browse Mode turns on
or off, you can have Window-Eyes say Browse Mode On or Off, you can have
both, or you can turn both of them off. So, if you are a Braille user, you
will still be able to easily tell when Browse Mode is on or off by selecting
the Indicate with Speech setting.  If you prefer to use Browse Mode the
way it worked in previous versions of Window-Eyes, you can turn off Auto
Browse Mode.  This option is called Allow Automatic Form Interaction When
Browse Mode is Enabled under the Verbosity then Browse Mode then Autoload
Settings.

Auto Browse Mode will also help when using the mouse to navigate web pages.
When sighted users try browsing the web with Window-Eyes, they often have
difficulty understanding why text is not placed in an edit box once they
click in it.  This is no longer an issue with Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 because
when the mouse is clicked inside a form control, including edit boxes,
Browse Mode will automatically turn off.

When trying to communicate with sighted users about a web page, it has often
been difficult for sighted users to understand exactly where something is
located on the screen.  This can make it difficult for screen reader users
to communicate important information on a web page to a sighted user.
Window-Eyes 8.0 Beta 1 ensures that the text that is spoken is always
visible on the screen.  

[AI] FW: U.S. Department of Education Announces New App to Identify U.S. Currency, ED.Gov, October 9, 2012

2012-10-10 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
though this related with, USA VI persons
thought it maybe  intrested all of you.

Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Steve Cook
Assistive Technology Consultant
SC Commission for the Blind
Office: (803) 898-8788
E-Mail: stc...@sccb.sc.gov
Subject: [rehab] U.S. Department of Education Announces New App to
Identify U.S. Currency, ED.Gov, October 9, 2012

Link:
http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-new-app-identify-us-currency

Text:
U.S. Department of Education Announces New App to Identify U.S. Currency
U.S. Treasurer Applauds Department of Education's Accessibility Effort
October 9, 2012

Contact:
Timothy Muzzio, Education Department, (202) 245-7458
Darlene Anderson, Treasury, (202) 874-2229


The U.S. Department of Education announced today the launch of the
IDEAL Currency Identifier, a free downloadable application (app) to
assist individuals who are blind or visually impaired to denominate
U.S. currency on some mobile devices.
The IDEAL Currency Identifier was developed by IDEAL Group, IQ
Engines, and the Wireless Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center
(RERC) at the Georgia Institute of Technology through a grant from the
Department of Education's National Institute on Disability and
Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), a component of the Office of Special
Education and Rehabilitative Services. NIDRR is the primary U.S.
government agency focused on disability and rehabilitation research.
Its mission is to generate research knowledge and assistive
technologies while promoting their effective use in improving the
abilities and opportunities of individuals with disabilities in
performing activities of their choice in the community. The initiative
supports the Department of Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing
(BEP) in its mandate to provide increased access to U.S. currency for
persons who are blind and visually impaired.
Dr. Charlie Lakin, the Director of NIDRR, issued the following
statement: Through our dialogue with the BEP, a special opportunity
emerged to fulfill our mission in support of persons who are blind and
visually impaired. The IDEAL Currency Identifier uses advanced image
recognition technology to read a note and, in a matter of seconds,
provides users with an audible response indicating the note's
denomination.
Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios applauded the Department of
Education's role in the app's development. Treasury is committed to
providing meaningful access to U.S. currency and, by using technology,
we can help hundreds of thousands of individuals who are blind or
visually impaired. Our collaboration with the Department of Education
allowed us to be resourceful and, in turn, more individuals will have
the means to independently denominate the U.S. currency they use in
daily commerce.
The app, which interacts with Google's Eyes-Free applications, can
be downloaded for free on more than 1,250 different wireless devices.
The IDEAL Currency Identifier was developed by Apps4Android, Inc., a
subsidiary of IDEAL Group that develops mobile applications.
Android-based devices are produced by 48 manufacturers and distributed
by 60 wireless service providers in 136 countries.
This new app is one of several measures the government is developing
to assist people with vision impairments to denominate currency. In
April 2011, the BEP introduced EyeNote(r), a similar currency reading
mobile app. There have been more than 8,000 free downloads of the
EyeNote(r) app since its introduction.
In May 2011, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner approved three measures
to provide accessibility to U.S. currency for those who are blind or
visually impaired. These measures include implementing a Currency
Reader Program to distribute a currency reader device to blind and
visually impaired U.S. citizens; continuing to add large high-contrast
numerals and different background colors to redesigned currency the
BEP may lawfully change; and adding a raised tactile feature to U.S.
currency unique to each U.S. Federal Reserve note that BEP may
lawfully change, which would provide users with a means of identifying
each denomination via touch. For more information about the IDEAL
Currency Identifier and other accessibility apps, please visit
www.moneyfactory.govhttp://www.moneyfactory.gov/.

--


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[AI] Fwd: Bluetooth shoes

2012-07-18 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below a short article which get from another site.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Footwear for the Blind: Bluetooth shoes
The Economist http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/07/footwear-blind
JUL 14 2012, 9:09 by A.A.K. ~ Mumbai

MORE than 285 million people across the globe suffer from visual impairment.
Yet the tools to assist the blind in walking have changed little since
the 1920s, when their canes started being painted white to make other
pedestrians more aware of their presence. The gizmos that do exist
have tended to be expensive and clunky, and have not caught on. This
may change if Anirudh Sharma, a 24-year-old computer engineer from
Hyderabad, a city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has his way.
His innovation, dubbed Le Chal (take me along in Hindi) pairs a
smartphone app with a small actuator sewn inside the sole of one shoe
via Bluetooth. The user tells the phone his desired destination, which
is translated into electronic commands using voice-recognition
software. The app, which can be programmed to run in the background,
fetches the local map of the area. The phone's Global Positioning
System (GPS) tracks the person's location in real-time, telling the
actuator to vibrate when it is time to turn. The side of the shoe
where the vibration is felt indicates which way to go. Mr Sharma opted
for a vibrating signal because for the blind, who rely on their sense
of hearing to make sense of the environment, audio feedback is a
distraction.
The system does not require constant internet access. Once downloaded,
maps can be stored locally and combined with GPS data. The app uses
Open Street Maps (OSM), an open-source rival to Google Maps. OSM
allows editing, a helpful feature in updating rapidly changing urban
landscapes. A speed-dial function can rapidly retrieve the most
frequently visited routes.
The shoe pod is also equipped with an obstacle-detection mechanism. A
sensor in the tip of the shoe, devised by Mr Sharma's business
partner, Krispian Lawrence,  scans the vicinity using sonar, which
emits ultrasounds that bounce off obstacles, indicating their
presence. The shoe sets off a distinct pattern of vibrations to alert
the person of any obstruction and guides him around it.
For now, the footwear, being tested at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute,
one of India's biggest eye-health facilities, may be most useful in
areas with little or no traffic, such as quiet residential streets or
parks. The challenge, Mr Lawrence says, is to get the algorithm to
tell an uncovered manhole from a flight of stairs, but he expects it
to be able to do so in due course. Dealing with moving obstacles like
cars may take longer, though the pair are working on ways to alert
wearers not just about cars' presence, but also their speed.
To ensure that the final product resembles a regular shoe, fashion
technologists are being consulted to help with ergonomics and design.
Mr Sharma and Mr Lawrence, who started a company called Ducere
Technologies to commercialise their idea, say their high-tech brogues
should not cost more than an ordinary, stylish pair. Many of the
world's visually impaired will like the sound of that.

---


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[AI] Fw: Georgie, a smartphone app for the visually impaired, now

2012-07-14 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another site.
Regards
Wahid


-- Forwarded message --

Georgie, a smartphone app for the visually impaired, now available
  Applications,
  News,
By Chris Parsons  | Jul 13 2012 | 2:44 pm  | 3 Comments

Addressing the smartphone market for the visually impaired is an ongoing task.

Over the years, there have been plenty of advancements in this area with the
introduction of numerous applications, voice technology and on screen
accessibility features but now a new entrant into the market is seeking to help
folks as well. Screenreader, a not-for-profit company, has now introduced the
Android based Georgie app in the U.K where there 1 in every 30 people suffer
from some sort of visual impairment.
Using existing Samsung phones like the Samsung XCover and Galaxy Ace 2, picked
specifically to be easy to use for blind users, Georgie offers a whole new
experience by allowing for such things as managing contacts, using speech input
to send text messages and tag previous routes or hazards (like potholes or low
hanging branches) using navigation apps.
Georgie is available for purchase on the Google Play Store in a number of
different packages. The base package with all features is available for £299
with additional feature sets available for £149. You can look at the full press
release below or check out the source link for video on how Georgie works on
devices.
Source: ScreenReader
World's first smartphone for blind people available today

Georgie, a smartphone designed for blind people, by blind people, is launching
today to transform the lives of the almost 2 million people in the UK living
with sight loss. Developed by not-for-profit social enterprise Screenreader and
available through exclusive partners Sight and Sound Technology, the new
smartphone includes apps built specifically to help blind users navigate
day-to-day obstacles like catching a bus, reading printed text and
knowing their
exact whereabouts in unfamiliar areas. Tasks more commonly associated with
smartphones like using Twitter, reading text messages and taking a picture have
also been updated to be much easier to use and accessible to visually impaired
people for the first time. Georgie is available from £299, or the unique
features are available to download as an app for anyone with an
existing Android
smartphone from £149.

Founded by blind husband and wife team Roger and Margaret Wilson-Hinds,
Screenreader had a clear idea about how a smartphone should be for visually
impaired users, so enlisted Alan Kemp as Chief Technical Officer to bring the
idea to fruition. Georgie, named after Margaret's first Golden Labrador guide
dog, is the work of 18 months of development and testing, working closely with
the blind community for their feedback.

Georgie makes use of Google's Android operating system and existing Samsung
phones like the Samsung XCover and Galaxy Ace 2, picked specifically to be easy
to use for blind users. The large buttons on an uncluttered screen, voice
feedback whenever the screen's touched and an innovative way to select the
desired option also make the basic functions of the phone easier to use for
visually impaired people, as well as those unfamiliar with modern technology.

I was able to send my very first text just earlier this year thanks
to Georgie
said Screenreader co-founder Roger Wilson-Hinds. It's exactly that type of
digital experience we want to make easily available to people with little or no
sight. More than that though, it's also going to help solve every day problems
for blind people so they can be more confident about navigating the real world
and become independent.

Glenn Tookey, CEO of Sight and Sound Technology added Companies like Apple and
Google have done a good job of adding accessibility tools to smartphones, but
Georgie is the first smartphone solution developed with the visually
impaired in
mind. For that reason Georgie offers relevant features which, coupled with our
expertise in offering customer support to the blind community, makes for a
really exciting, well supported product that we're proud to exclusively
distribute.

Out of the box Georgie comes with features to let users dial a number with the
voice assisted touchscreen, manage contacts, use speech input to send text
messages and tag previous routes or hazards (like potholes or low hanging
branches) using the navigation apps. A variety of additional apps are also
available for purchase and bundled into three different packages, Travel,
Lifestyle or Communicate, to add more functions to support different aspects of
daily life that blind people may currently find challenging. These bundles are
available for £24.99 each and include the following extra features:
·   Travel
o   Near me - find places of interest - everything from bus stops and cafes to
the local zoo
o   Buses - know when the next bus is arriving and when to get off
o   Weather - forecasts for 

[AI] Fwd: Introducing the NEW Perkins SMART BraillerR

2012-07-13 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine,
pasting below a short info about the new perkens brailler
which get from another site.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --
Thought this might be of interest to a few of you, but be warned that this
is a very pricey item - the pre-order price is given as $1,995 for orders
from within the U.S., and this is not the APH version that includes the
learning software.

Please don't ask any questions here concerning this product, as this is all
the information I have. Please go to one or more of the links included in
the message for additional information.

-- 
Perkins Products logo
http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=UW4YX_2qGBhQUCUIvCO7_w


HEAR THE WORDS. SEE THE LETTERS. CONNECT THE DOTS.

New Perkins SMART Brailler
http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=47WwegPGT606kPQ3kZZ7ww


We want you to be the first to hear about our new groundbreaking technology,
poised to forever change the world's understanding of braille education.

Perkins Products is proud to introduce the NEW Perkins SMART BraillerR - the
evolution of the Perkins BraillerR from a low-technology, beloved classic to
a high-technology learning and teaching tool. Its built-in video screen
combined with audio feedback shows and speaks letters and words in real-time
as they are being brailled.

The SMART Brailler, developed by Perkins Products in conjunction with the
American Printing House for the Blind, opens the door to a new, more
intuitive way for individuals, both sighted and blind, to communicate, teach
and learn braille together. Now teachers in a mainstream classroom can see
what their students are brailling. Sighted parents can help their visually
impaired children with homework. And students can discover the fun in their
own braille education. Sighted or blind, we can all share the learning
experience and CONNECT THE DOTS!

How does the SMART Brailler do this? It includes:

*   A video screen for instantaneous audio and visual feedback -
displays SimBraille and print
*   Text-to-speech from Acapela Group so the letters, words and
sentences can be read back while brailling
*   Ability to edit, save and transfer electronic documents via USB
*   Headphone jack and volume control
*   Operates as a mechanical brailler for extended use
*   Rechargeable and removable battery

In addition, the APH version of the SMART Brailler also includes the APH
Building on Patterns-Kindergarten software - Braille Learning Exercises
which offer easy lessons for anyone who wants to learn braille.

The Perkins Products version of the SMART Brailler, ordered directly from
Perkins Products, does not include Building on Patterns but does include:

*   The option to use other languages besides English
*   The ability (coming soon) to download braille learning software for
a fee

There is no other product on the market that makes learning braille this
intuitive and accessible. We invite you to view our introduction video
http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=1D2XZRKCP1y90zu-eE2RtA
by visiting our new website,
http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=fIIsqtcShttnReVG_yrpYw
And also to watch our short video on the relevance of braille
http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=PzYkxcINs8lysnmjhOJzWQ
in a high tech world.

We are planning to begin shipments in September of the Perkins Products
version of the SMART Brailler and we are taking pre-orders now. We hope
you'll join us in spreading the news about this latest way that Perkins
Products is unleashing possibility all around the world. Sign up for emails
and check out our Facebook page
http://support.perkins.org/site/R?i=xodkHM3lXmWP0rAVM8rCRQ

Regards,

David Morgan signature
http://support.perkins.org/images/content/pagebuilder/davidmorgan-sign.jpg


David Morgan
Vice President  General Manager
Perkins Products

--


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[AI] Fwd: GW Micro and Independence Science Strengthen Partnership to Make Science Accessible to Blind

2012-06-05 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Fort Wayne, Indiana (May 29, 2012) - GW Micro, Inc. (www.gwmicro.com)
and Independence Science (www.independencescience.com) are proud to
announce an even stronger partnership. Independence Science (ISci) was
the first company to help make science accessible to students who are
blind or visually impaired. Because of the innovative work by
Independence Science, students who are blind or visually impaired now
have access to hands-on science experiments and are able to analyze
statistical data for the experiments they perform.

The advanced screen reader Window-Eyes, used with the Window-Eyes app
for Logger Pro, produced by GW Micro provides the best possible voice
access to the Logger Pro PC application for students who are blind or
visually impaired. Because of the superior support from GW Micro,
Independence Science will no longer maintain updates for JAWS and only
provide support for future versions of Window-Eyes.

We are very happy to provide top-notch support that enables blind and
visually impaired students to access science curricula, said Dan
Weirich, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for GW Micro.

Independence Science is committed to the best possible access for our
customers, which is why we have chosen GW Micro, said Dr. Cary Supalo,
President of Independence Science. They provide the best possible
solution with maximum support. While we have researched other screen
reader companies, none of them have been able to reach the advanced
capabilities of GW Micro.

The partnership between the two companies continues to grow and this
synergy has led to the development of the ISci Lab Solution. The ISci
Lab Solution makes the science classroom more accessible to students who
are blind or visually impaired. These talking solutions will enable
people who are blind and visually impaired to pursue education and
careers in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
fields where they have been traditionally underrepresented. For more
information about the ISci Lab Solution, including a video demonstration
of Dr. Cary Supalo (a blind scientist himself) using the product, visit
http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/ISci_Lab/.

GW Micro has been a trusted pioneer in the adaptive technology industry
since 1990, and continues to lead with innovative, customer driven
solutions.

Independence Science is the leading developer of accessible technology
for students with visual impairments in the science laboratory. ISci
research is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Contact:

GW Micro
Phone: (260) 489-3671
Email: sa...@gwmicro.com
Web: www.gwmicro.com

Independence Science
Phone: (866) 862-9665
Email: i...@independencescience.com
Web: www.independencescience.com



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[AI] Fwd: Find and read text with your iPhone - seeking Beta Testers

2012-05-24 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
Pasting below a short article, which get from another list,
and this is very intrusted for those, who are IPhone user,
please those who are IPhone user, follow the link, which given below,
and sign up.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Hi iPhone users,

Blind sight, a small RD firm in Berkeley, is developing an iPhone
application that can detect and speak out text -  be it a sign around
you or a handout you need to identify. The application uses the built
in camera to capture the area the phone is pointed at. It's patented
text detection algorithm analyzes the video stream and tells you
whether there is text or not. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and
VoiceOver will do the rest and speak the text that was detected - all
within seconds.

You can be the first to use text detection and recognition in your
day-to-day life before anyone else!

Sign up here if you are interested (participation is limited to 50
users): http://blindsight.com/handsight/beta-signup/

-


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[AI] Fwd: indoor navigation system for blind

2012-05-19 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Scientists design indoor navigation system for blind
May 18, 2012


Enlarge

Human-computer interaction researcher Eelke Folmer of the University
of Nevada, Reno, watches as Dora Uchel, a university student,
demonstrates the indoor navigation system for the visually impaired
developed by Kostas Bekris and Folmer of the Computer Science
Engineering Department. She was one of several visually impaired
students and community members who helped test the low-cost accessible
system that operates with a standard smartphone. Credit: Photo by Mike
Wolterbeek, University of Nevada, Reno

University of Nevada, Reno computer science engineering team Kostas
Bekris and Eelke Folmer presented their indoor navigation system for
people with visual impairments at two national conferences in the past
two weeks. The researchers explained how a combination of
human-computer interaction and motion-planning research was used to
build a low-cost accessible navigation system, called Navatar, which
can run on a standard smartphone.

Existing indoor navigation systems typically require the use of
expensive and heavy sensors, or equipping rooms and hallways with
radio-frequency tags that can be detected by a handheld reader and
which are used to determine the user's location, Bekris, of the
College of Engineering's Robotics Research Lab, said. This has often
made the implementation of such systems prohibitively expensive, with
few systems having been deployed.

Instead, the University of Nevada, Reno navigation system uses digital
2D architectural maps that are already available for many buildings,
and uses low-cost sensors, such as accelerometers and compasses, that
are available in most smartphones, to navigate users with visual
impairments. The system locates and tracks the user inside the
building, finding the most suitable path based on the users special
needs, and gives step-by-step instructions to the destination.

Nevertheless, the smartphone's sensors, which are used to calculate
how many steps the user has executed and her orientation, tend to pick
up false signals, Folmer, who has developed exercise video games for
the blind, said. To synchronize the location, our system combines
probabilistic algorithms and the natural capabilities of people with
visual impairments to detect landmarks in their environment through
touch, such as corridor intersections, doors, stairs and elevators.

Folmer explained that as touch screen devices are challenging to use
for users with visual impairments, directions are provided using
synthetic speech and users confirm the presence of a landmark by
verbal confirmation or by pressing a button on the phone or on a
Bluetooth headset. A benefit of this approach is that the user can
leave the phone in their pocket leaving both hands free for using a
cane and recognizing tactile landmarks.

This is a very cool mix of disciplines, using the user as a sensor
combined with sophisticated localization algorithms from the field of
robotics, Folmer, of the University's Computer Science Engineering
Human-Computer Interaction Lab, said.

The team is currently trying to implement their navigation system in
other environments and integrate it into outdoor navigation systems
that use GPS.

My research is motivated by the belief that a disability can be
turned into an innovation driver, Folmer said. When we try to solve
interaction design problems for the most extreme users, such as users
with visual impairments, there is the potential to discover solutions
that may benefit anyone. Though the navigation system was specifically
developed for users with visual impairments, it can be used by sighted
users as well.

For their work on the indoor navigation system for the blind, Bekris
and Folmer recently won a PETA Proggy Award for Leadership in Ethical
Science. PETA's Proggy Awards (Proggy is for progress) recognize
animal-friendly achievements. The navigation system was deemed such an
achievement because it could decrease the need to rely on guide dogs.

They presented and demonstrated their research at the IEEE
International Conference on Robotics and Automation in St. Paul.,
Minn. on May 15 and on May 7 at the CM SIGCHI Conference on Human
Factors in Computing Systems, which is the premier international
conference on human-computer interaction.


More information: For more information on the system, visit
http://eelke.com/navatar


Provided by University of Nevada, Reno

-


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[AI] Fwd: Cell jab restores sight in mice

2012-04-25 Thread Wahid Raza
hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Cell jab restores sight in mice
Published on Wednesday 25 April 2012 16:24


Experimental cell transplants can improve the sight of visually
impaired mice, it has been widely reported. The Independent called the
research behind the news a major step towards cure for blindness,
while The Guardian said the work is the first demonstration that cell
transplants can restore useful vision.

During the research, scientists used mice bred to lack working
light-sensitive rod cells in the back of their eyes. These cells
normally allow us to see in low-light conditions. These visually
impaired mice were then injected with immature cells extracted from
the eyes of young mice with normal vision in the hope that this would
improve their sight. Following treatment, the mice were tested in a
simple maze featuring visual indicators of the location of the exit.
Visually impaired mice that were not treated struggled to find the
exit, while some of those given transplants successfully identified
the exit 70% of the time. The researchers concluded that treatment
with these immature rod cells can improve vision, but that
significantly more research is needed before this treatment would be
suitable for use in people.

This early-stage research supports the continued study of immature (or
'precursor') rod cell injection as a possible treatment for a specific
type of blindness. However, it is unknown at this stage whether
similar results will be achievable in humans. Also, there are many
different causes of blindness and sight loss. Even if this technique
eventually reaches humans, there is no indication it would help with
vision problems that are not related to rod cells.



Where did the story come from?
The study was carried out by researchers from University College
London, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Cornell
University in the US. It was funded by the Medical Research Council
UK, the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, the British Retinitis
Pigmentosa Society and The Miller's Trust.

The study was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature.

Generally, the media reported the story accurately, with the BBC, The
Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail and The Independent all reporting that
research in humans is likely to be years away. They also correctly
emphasised that the mice were not completely blind before their cell
transplants but, instead, lacked the cells needed to see in low-light
conditions.



What kind of research was this?
This was an animal study that examined the effectiveness of eye cell
transplantation for restoring vision in sight-impaired mice.

Within the human eye, two types of light-sensitive cells work together
to enable vision

  a.. rod photoreceptors are responsible for vision in low-light
conditions, or night vision
  b.. cone photoreceptors allow us to see colours and fine details,
and to see in bright conditions
When we look at an object or scene, the lenses of the eye focus light
from what we are viewing onto the retina, a structure at the back of
the eye that is lined with rod and cone cells. As these detect light,
they produce information that is then sent down the optic nerves and
decoded by the brain.

The mice used in the study had a genetic mutation that results in a
lack of functioning rod cells, and these mice serve as a model for
studying genetic night blindness. Mouse research of this type is
commonly used to prove that the concept or theory underlying a new
treatment approach is sound, and that the experimental procedures are
safe. Once this is established, small-scale human studies can be
undertaken to establish the effectiveness and safety of the treatment
in people.

However, as this was an animal study, at this early stage of research
we cannot be sure that the results will also hold true in people. In
this case, it is particularly true as mice see in a slightly different
way from humans. Research suggests they generally have a low number of
colour-sensitive cone cells that enable full-colour vision, and
instead have a higher proportion of rod cells to help them see
nocturnally.



What did the research involve?
The research had two parts. First, researchers examined a group of 29
mice with the genetic mutation that results in night blindness and
compared them to nine normal mice with functioning rod cells. The
researchers then collected precursor rod photoreceptor cells from
another set of normal mice aged four to eight days old with
functioning rods cells. Precursor rod cells are those that have not
yet matured into adult cells, although they have already started to
show some of the properties that adult cells do.

These extracted precursor cells were then injected into the retinas of
both the night-blind mice and the normal mice. The researchers then
compared the two groups of mice in terms of how well the 

[AI] Fwd: Photoreceptor transplant: New Hope For Restoring Eyesight

2012-04-21 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Photoreceptor transplant restores vision in blind mice
Posted by: Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity
18th April, 2012

GOSHCC Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Jane Sowden,
is part of a research team who have shown for the first time that
transplanting light-sensitive photoreceptors into the eyes of visually
impaired mice can restore their vision.

She hopes this exciting development will pave the way for similar
approaches in humans, and clinical trials of new therapies to treat
degenerative and inherited retinal diseases that cause a third of
cases of childhood blindness.

 Transplanting photoreceptors

The research, led by Professor Robin Ali and a joint team at the UCL
Institute of Ophthalmology and the UCL Institute of Child Health (ICH)
(and published in Nature) suggests that transplanting photoreceptors -
the light-sensitive nerve cells that line the back of the eye - could
form the basis of a new treatment to restore sight in people with
degenerative eye diseases.

The type of blindness we've been researching is common, says
Professor Jane Sowden, who heads up the ICH team: Retinal diseases
that cause the loss of photoreceptor cells are one of the major causes
of untreatable blindness, which include inherited retinal diseases
that affect around 1 in 3000 people, and are responsible for around
the third of cases of childhood blindness.



We have been aiming to develop new therapies for retinal diseases
which would involve transplanting new photoreceptor cells to replace
those that are lost through disease. Over the last decade we've been
developing ways to transplant photoreceptor cells into the retina. 

Remarkable tests

In this new study we've been able to show that by transplanting
photoreceptors into the retina of mice who are born with a form of
blindness that the new cells are able to make connections that are
functional.

Not only this, but after four to six weeks, the transplanted cells
appeared to be functioning almost as well as normal photoreceptor
cells.  They had also formed the vital connections needed to transmit
visual information to other cells in the retina, and onwards to the
brain.

Jane continues: We performed a number of different tests, but one of
the most remarkable was the fact that the treated animals were able to
navigate their way through a maze, whereas the untreated animals were
not, demonstrating that the cells were functioning. So the treated
animals were using this visual information to modify their behaviour.

Promise for the future

She thinks this shows exciting promise for future research and
potential treatments: What we've shown for the first time is that the
transplantation of new photoreceptor cells can restore vision. What we
hope is that it will be possible to develop similar approaches for the
treatment of human blindness.

There are many steps we need to undertake before we're in a position
to do that, but based on the similarities between the mouse and the
human retina we think that this may be a future treatment for
currently untreatable retinal disease.

You can view the full Nature paper here.

The research was funded by the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome
Trust, the Royal Society, the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society,
Alcon Research Institute and The Miller's Trust. Professor Jane Sowden
is funded by Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.

watch video clip:

Photoreceptor transplant restores vision in mice - Jane Sowden GOSHCC Professor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Nn7eLFE0wfeature=player_embedded
Uploaded by GOSHCharity on Apr 18, 2012

GOSHCC Professor of Developmental Biology and Genetics, Jane Sowden,
is part of a research team who have shown for the first time that
transplanting light-sensitive photoreceptors into the eyes of visually
impaired mice can restore their vision. She hopes this exciting
development will pave the way for similar approaches in humans, and
clinical trials of new therapies to treat degenerative and inherited
retinal diseases that cause a third of cases of childhood blindness.

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[AI] FW: Freedom Scientific Releases New and Improved OCR Recognition Software for JAWS and OpenBook, @ FreedomScientific News March 30 2012

2012-04-01 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all ,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Freedom Scientific Releases New and Improved OCR Recognition Software
for JAWS and OpenBook, @ FreedomScientific News March 30 2012

Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2012 2:35 PM EDT

Having trouble viewing this email? Click
http://www.freedomscientific.com/news/2012-03-31/fs-releases-new-improved-ocr-software-openbook-jaws.html
 here to view in a browser.


For Immediate Release:


Freedom Scientific Releases New and Improved OCR Recognition Software
for JAWS and OpenBook



Today, Freedom Scientific, one of the world’s leading screen reading
and blindness product makers, has just recently developed and released
a new breakthrough in its line of products of assistive technology for
blind and visually impaired computer users.


Have you ever wanted to take OpenBook® with you at all times anywhere
you can possibly go with it? Or even better, have you always wanted to
be able to pick up a handwritten note on a piece of paper and be able
to read it instantly just like anybody else? Or maybe you are one of
those frustrated students that are inundated with printed or
handwritten material that you can’t read in or out of a classroom
setting and you have to wait even hours or days for somebody to read
to you. Maybe you are at a conference, you are given a business card
or a simple handout that is important, and you need to fill out or
read along?


Well, wish and wonder no more! Freedom Scientific now has the solution!


Due to popular demand, and numerous emails and feedback requests from
our users, Freedom Scientific has decided to step forward.


We have released a new, updated, and improved OCR recognition engine
for both, our Openbook® and JAWS® products. This bran new release
includes many new features, which include, but not limited to:


*   The ability to recognize smaller type font and better recognition of
columns in sophisticated tables, which can easily be confusing to
read.
*   The ability to recognize print on smaller pieces of print paper,
such as note slips or contact cards on the spot, with better print
focus and not the scanner bed or camera.
*   Finally, the ability to recognize handwriting with about 85-90% 
accuracy!


Yes, that’s right! Our new OCR engine has built-in support for
handwriting recognition. That means that you can either scan or place
a handwritten note from a co-worker, a spouse, or from a door, into
your camera or scanner of your choice, and Openbook® will
automatically recognize it and be able to read it with speech and / or
Braille output from your preferred synthesizer or Braille display! Not
only this. You can open a .pdf, .jpg, or .png image that someone sent
you with handwriting over the email on your computer, perform the OCR
recognition command (JAWS 13 and later only), and bingo! You will hear
the handwriting being spoken out to you or sent to your Braille
display. Please note that these new features offered by this improved
version of the OCR engine for JAWS® or OpenBook® software are only
compatible with Openbook versions later than 8.0 and JAWS version 13.0
or later. Please note users of JAWS earlier than 13.0, we will release
a version of the new OCR engine that we released with JAWS 13.0 later
this month, with the same features as the ones offered now, so you
aren’t left out on these new features! This update to the OCR engine
can work with both 32- and 64-bit operating systems.


Want some even more awesome news from our OpenBook® development team?
We have released OpenBook Mobile®, a scanning and reading solution app
for your iOS device! This means that you can use our popular scanning
and reading solution right from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, using
VoiceOver and the camera of your device! Yes, that’s right, OpenBook®
is going mobile, and you will be able to take it anywhere you go that
you find printed material that you cannot read. You will be able to go
on a trip, be given an airport boarding pass, and you will no longer
need sighted assistance to see whether your plane was gone before you
knew it, or to see your flight information. You will be able to go to
a church service and be able to access printed booklets of hymns or
group prayers easily and independently without requesting sighted
help. Even more fantastic, you will be able to walk into a classroom
door that appears to have no one waiting with you, bump into a little
sticky note with your finger below or above the Braille marking of the
classroom number, and not have to wait so many hours and precious
study time trying to find out if the instructor canceled the class or
whatever other scheduling conflict that might have occurred with that
instructor. If you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, you will get it
out, snap a photo of that little sticky note, and you will be able to
find out what’s wrong quickly, independently  and immediately with the

[AI] Need suggestions regarding MTNL brodband

2012-03-19 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
I need some suggestions regarding MTNL internet
1. Does MTNL provide cunsation for Blind persons?
2nd. If yes, how much percent they provide?
I am asking this because, i asked them regarding cunsation for blind
to their offices, they told me that
blind or any other phycical disable persons doesn't get any kind of cunsations
please help me in this matter and if circulares are available in this issue,
pls provide me there lincs or any sites where i can download it, so i
can show them that
cunsations are available in this issue also.
Hope to heare from all of you soon.

Regards
Wahid


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[AI] Fwd: Technology Leads The Blind

2012-03-12 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Technology Leads The Blind
By ANGELO G. GARCIA
March 12, 2012, 3:23am

THREE-IN-ONE - This multi-functional prototype for the visually
impaired can detect obstacles to prevent any accidents and can also be
used as a mobile phone for sending and receiving calls and text
messages with it's own unique Braille keypad.

MANILA, Philippines - Technology has come a long way, even for persons
with disabilities (PWD).

There are mobile applications where speech may be converted to text
and vice versa, thus making it easier for persons with visual
impairment to send and receive text or email messages.

Engineers are also developing the use of robotic exoskeleton to enable
paraplegics to be mobile again.

Recently, a group of graduating Computer Engineering students from the
Mapua Institute of Technology stumbled upon an idea to help persons
with visual impairment communicate better and easier through an
innovative mobile invention.

The students designed the Wearable Obstacle Detection System, a device
that can detect obstacles in front of the user, and the Braille Cell
Phone that is equipped with a Braille keypad.

We saw a blind person using her cell phone and we noticed how she
held the phone by her ear to listen to messages. It took her a long
time to type a message because of repeated mistakes. So we came up
with an idea to make a product that can make it easier for the blind
to use a mobile phone and at the same time help their mobility,
explains team member Girly Perando, 21.


MULTIPLE FUNCTIONS IN ONE DEVICE

The device has three main functions - call, text, and obstacle
detection. It detects obstacles using a simple infrared sensor,
Perando explains.

For five months, they toiled to create the prototype - a box-like
device, the size of a notebook, that is two inches thick. It is
connected to a sensor and attached to a metal cane. It has a mobile
GSM module inside to enable it to send and receive calls and text
messages. The simple box has a numeric keypad in the middle, five
function buttons below it, and a Braille keypad above the numeric
keypad.

The obstacle detection sensor is connected to the box device via wire.
The sensor has two ''eyes or infrared sensors that detect obstacle up
to five meters. It vibrates to warn the user.

On the other hand, the Braille keypad has six small knobs that bob up
and down to create the Braille character. A message that the device
receives is converted to Braille, which can then be read by the user.

The team had a difficult time designing the actual device since it has
multiple functions.

We had a difficult time thinking how we would be able to fit the
components, make it smaller and integrate the main functions in a
single device, explains team member Kristine Emy Matabang, 20.

The team tested the prototype by collaborating with the Give Love
Assoociation for the Blind, Inc.


A WINNING PROJECT

The device is still in the prototype stage and needs a lot of work but
it was interesting enough for the judges of the 8th Smart Wireless
Engineering Education Program (SWEEP) Innovation and Excellence Awards
to choose it to receive the championship trophy.

The team from Mapua was named as the overall champion in the recent
student competition which is an annual search for the most innovative
wireless applications conducted by Smart Communications.

The Mapua team bested 142 other entries submitted by student-teams
from Smart's partner schools under SWEEP. The team received R500,000
as cash prize, while their school received a grant in the same amount.

We believed in the value of our design.  We were so overwhelmed
because it made us feel that hard work really pays off, says team
leader Janiena Roxanne Dirain.

They plan to continue developing their prototype so it will actually
benefit the blind community, the main inspiration for this project.
They hope to see the day when the device is being used by persons with
visual impairment in the future.

To people with visual impairment, you are the inspiration behind our
project. We are doing our best to make it available for you in the
near future, 21-year-old Dirain says.

Since we are all graduating students, we are looking forward to work
on the product even after school. We believe that this will open doors
to greater opportunities, Matabang ends.




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[AI] Fwd: Phone For Blind Uses Braille

2012-03-10 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Phone For Blind Uses Braille
By ELLSON A. QUISMORIO
March 10, 2012, 4:06am
MANILA, Philippines - Girly Perando, Janiena Roxanne Dirain and
Kristine Emy Matabang call it their baby. But it could very well be
the most valuable companion a blind person could ever have.

The three computer engineering students have come with a Braille Cell
Phone for the blind with a dedicated Wearable Obstacle Detection
System.

Last month, the device won for the three Mapua Institute of Technology
students the grand prize in the 8th Smart Wireless Engineering
Education Program (SWEEP) Innovations and Excellence Awards.

The specialized mobile phone allows the user to receive and read
text messages via the centuries-old Braille system in the form of a
small rectangle containing two columns of three dots each. Placed on
top of this rectangle is a traditional keypad.

The phone vibrates when it receives a text message. The message can
be read (by character) with the dots, which raise automatically,
explained Girly, 21.

Incoming and outgoing calls are facilitated through a headset. Like a
normal mobile phone, the Braille phone also uses a subscriber identity
module (SIM) card and is rechargeable.

The main console is quite bulky and must be worn over the shoulder
through a sling bag. But then, it is more than just a communication
device.

Hardwired to the console is a four-inch-long sensor, which by design
is attached to a walking stick-a necessity for blind or
visually-impaired individuals.

If the sensor detects that there is something in front of the person,
or is about to bump into something (like a wall), the phone vibrates
and gives off a buzzing sound, said Janiena, 21, as she waved her
hand in demonstration.

The sensor, the students said, can detect an object as far as five meters away.

The overall concept and design earned the all-female group P500,000 in
cash as top prize in the competition. Twenty-year-old Kristine said
building the phone was not easy. We took it one step at a time. We
tried to finish one phase before moving on to the next, she said.

But more than cash prizes and accolade, the three want their baby to
realize its full potential to be a useful tool for the blind.

Ayra Panganiban, the group's adviser, recalled her initial reaction
upon hearing about the Braille phone. When I saw that their target
the visually-impaired, and that this device would end up helping a lot
of these people, I told them to go for it, she said.

Panganiban said the challenge now is to design and build a more
compact Braille phone, with wireless connectivity to the walking stick
sensor. Voice recognition would also be useful feature.

Dr. Felicito Caluyo, the dean of Computer Engineering in Mapua, said
the school is now moving forward with the students' achievement with
the Braille phone.

We're now in the process of looking for additional investors so we
may be able to produce more Braille phones to be donated to
beneficiaries, Caluyo said. He noted that some foreign investors,
particularly from Canada, have expressed interest.

Apparently, some blind or visually-impaired individuals who sampled
the Braille phone during its testing phase can hardly wait to get one
of their own.

They asked us if the phone was out in the market already. They seemed
to like it. The feedback was good, Girly said.




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[AI] Fwd: App will help visually impaired navigate streets

2012-02-29 Thread Wahid Raza
Dear all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

App will help blind, visually impaired navigate streets
The app tells pedestrians what direction they are traveling.


February 28, 2012
A University of Minnesota researcher is developing an app that would
tell the blind and visually-impaired not only when to cross the
street, but which direction they're going and how many lanes they have
to cross.

The app, which will be free to download, will also tell users the name
of a street if the user taps the phone and points it in any direction,
said Chen-Fu Liao, a senior assistant engineer at the University.

Users tap the phone again to request a walk signal so they don't have
to struggle to find a button to push. The system will tell users when
to cross and how much time they have.

Currently, Accessible Pedestrian Signals help visually-impaired people
know when to cross a street with a countdown.

Liao works at the Minnesota Traffic Observatory on several
transportation studies using Intelligent Transportation Systems and
has developed web-based simulations for transportation courses.

Research for the app began two years ago with a pricetag of about
$100,000 each year, Liao said. To get started, he and a colleague
interviewed 10 visually-impaired people about what they'd like in the
product and what format would work best.

I'm really excited about the whole project, said Ken Rodgers,
president of the American Council of the Blind of Minnesota.

Rodgers said while there are lots of benefits to the app, there are
also drawbacks.

While it gives visually impaired people more information than does the
APS system, not everybody has a smartphone. He said the more types of
platforms that the app works on, the better.

The app will eventually tie right into traffic technology and have the
potential to alert drivers that a visually-impaired person is in the
vicinity, Rodgers said.

The app is a complement to the APS system but is a completely separate
tool. Rodgers said he's afraid that if the app gets too popular,
cities might stop installing APS.

Signals and traffic crossings owned by the city, state or county are
obligated by federal Americans with Disabilities Act regulations to
make the visual elements accessible to people that can't see.

Right now, they do that by installing Accessible Pedestrian Signals,
Rodgers said. The app will not relieve cities of this obligation to
provide alternative ways of accessing the crosswalks, he said.

The prototype of the product will be tested in Golden Valley, Minn.,
beginning in late March or early April.

Linda Spaulding, a certified orientation and mobility specialist,
chose the testing sites.

The crosswalks needed to have stoplights, and one has APS while the
other does not. Both needed to be close to the Twin Cities, she said.

Researchers wanted the testing sites to be close to the Twin Cities
since the people involved in the testing would be visually impaired
and would have difficulty traveling far. Spaulding also worked with
the Minnesota Department of Transportation to determine which
intersections would be safest to use.

There isn't yet a launch date for the app. Research will continue to
improve on its current prototype by looking for ways to help prevent
users from veering while crossing the road, Liao said.

A bigger version would include door-to-door guidance that would help
users get to bus stops, know when buses are coming and when they're
approaching.

I think the app is totally cool, said Rodgers. It will really help
us navigate the streets.




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[AI] Fwd: DrawBraille Is a Smartphone for the Blind

2012-02-24 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below a short and intrusting article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

DrawBraille Concept Is a Smartphone for the Blind
By Joshua Schnell, PCWorldFeb 23, 2012 12:03 PM

[Photo: Shikun Sun/Yanko Design]For many people, smartphones are an
indispensable part of their lives: Email, games, music, a camera--all
instantly accessible wherever you go. But not everyone can fully enjoy
the benefits of a smartphone. For the visually impaired, a lot of the
convenience of a smartphone is lost. That's where a new concept
smartphone comes in: DrawBraille is a smartphone concept that's
tailored for the visually impaired.

The left side of the DrawBraille phone is the display; it has a series
of mechanical dots in groups of six that can display Braille
characters for you to read. There are five rows, each containing seven
groups of six dots. For messages that cannot be conveyed in that
space, there are page up and down buttons to the left of the display
area for scrolling.

The right side of the phone is the input area and contains twenty
touch-sensitive squares arranged in five rows of four. The middle six
squares represent the six possible dots that form a Braille character.
You enter each character by touching the correct squares, sliding your
finger from one to the next either within the six squares that
represent the Braille character, or if the dots are not connected, by
using the outside squares. Lifting your finger completes the
character, allowing you to move onto the next.

Five dots along the side of the device signal battery life, with each
dot representing 20 percent of the battery's charge capacity. In
addition to making calls, you can use the phone for email, music, and
book reading. In this concept, the input area would come programmed
with a variety of commands that would let you navigate a series of
menu options.

Head on over to Yanko Design for lots of mockups of what this phone
would look like.

Voice command functions certainly allow the visually impaired to make
use of current smartphones, but DrawBraille has the potential to
increase functionality and ease-of-use, customizing the experience. It
would be interesting to see the types of apps that could be developed
for such a phone, further enhancing its functionality and perhaps
given it a few advantages over current smartphones.

[Yanko Design via Ubergizmo]

---


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[AI] Fwd: Braille Under Siege As Blind Turn To Smartphones : All Tech Conside...

2012-02-22 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
Folks:
hope all are doing fine
pasting below a intrusting article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Braille comes unbound from the book: how technology can stop
a literary  crisis

Apple is at the vanguard of a push behind technology  that's
helping old-fashioned Braille replace text-to-speech audio
for the  blind - and it couldn't have come at a more critical
time

By Saabira  Chaudhuri
guardian.co.uk
14 February  2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/14/technology-brings-braille-back
-apple

On  a lazy Sunday afternoon, Chancey Fleet reads the menu of
Bombay Garden to  four friends gathered at the back of the
Chelsea-based Indian restaurant in  New York City.

Although she is reading aloud, there are no menus on  the
table. They aren't necessary, because Fleet is blind.

Instead, she  reads using a Braille display that sits
unobtrusively on her lap and connects  to her iPhone via
Bluetooth, electronically converting the onscreen text  into
different combinations of pins. She reads by gently but
firmly  running her fingers over the pins with her left hand
while navigating the  phone with her right.

The iPhone is the official phone of blindness,  she told the
Guardian.

Until recently, technology, especially that  which converts
text to audio, has been hastening the demise of  Braille,
which educators say is a bad thing. Students who can read
Braille  tend on average to acquire higher literacy rates and
fare better  professionally later on. But Apple's push into
the field - coupled with  increasingly affordable Braille
displays - has the potential to bring Braille  back in a big
way.

Fleet's iPhone has a built-in screen reader called  VoiceOver
that works with all native applications. It tells Fleet what
her  finger is touching, allowing her to download the
restaurant menu and read it,  access her email, and do
anything else she needs to with the phone, either  by
converting text into Braille on the separate display or by
reading out  loud to her. (Here's a video of the process at
work.)

Fleet also uses  her display to type, rather than navigate
with her iPhone or computer  keyboard. It has a spacebar and
with eight thumb-sized keys - one that works  as a backspace
key, another as an enter key, and the remainder that  function
as the six dot positions that comprise a Braille  character.

When Apple released the first accessible iPhone in 2009,  it
took the blind community by storm, said Fleet. We didn't
know,  nobody knew, that Apple was planning an accessible
device. The device went  from being an infuriating brick to a
fluid, usable, opportunity-levelling  device in one
iteration.

Apple has shown that devices aren't  inaccessible because
they have to be, but because companies made them with a  lack
of imagination, said Fleet. Apple proved that a blind
person could  use an interface that didn't have physical
buttons.

Anne Taylor,  director of access technology for the National
Federation of the Blind,  agrees.

Apple has set the bar very high, she said. No other  mobile
OS provider, such as Google or Microsoft, has made  Braille
available on their mobile platform.

Apple's iPad, iPhone 4,  iPhone 3GS, and third generation iPod
Touch already support more than 30  Bluetooth wireless Braille
displays. And the company's recent push into  digital
textbooks could greatly reduce the time it takes for  Braille
textbooks to be available to students, not to mention reduce
their  cost and size: a single print textbook must be
transformed into several  volumes of Braille.

Ebooks can be a game changer if they're properly  designed
because it would allow us to get access to the same books at
the  same time at the same price as everyone else, said
Christopher Danielsen,  spokesman for the NFB. Publishers and
manufacturers have to ensure they are  designed to be
accessible to work with braille displays. That's what  Apple
has done. Apple is not perfect but they're way, way ahead  of
everybody else in this area.

The benefits of Braille Apple's  accessibility efforts come at
a pivotal time. For decades now, the number of  Braille users
has been on the decline. Data from the American  Printing
House for the Blind's annual registry of legally blind
students  shows that in 1963, 51% of legally blind children in
public and residential  schools used Braille as their primary
reading medium. In 2007 this number  fell to just 10%, while
in 2011 it stood at under 9%.

While there are  many reasons for the decline of Braille,
technology that converts text to  speech has been identified
as a major factor. In a nationwide sample of 1,663  teachers
of visually impaired and blind students conducted in the
early  1990s, 40% chose reliance on technology as a reason
behind Braille's  decline.

When we experienced the tech boom in the nineties, I was  led
to believe speech was the way forward, that Braille was
becoming  obsolete, said William O'Donnell, a 

[AI] Fwd: Gene Therapy For Inherited Blindness Succeeds In Patients' Other Eye

2012-02-12 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
folks:
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Gene Therapy For Inherited Blindness Succeeds In Patients' Other Eye
February 10, 2012


In 3 Adults, Repeat Dose Safely Improves Vision

Gene therapy for congenital blindness has taken another step forward,
as researchers further improved vision in three adult patients
previously treated in one eye. After receiving the same treatment in
their other eye, the patients became better able to see in dim light,
and two were able to navigate obstacles in low-light situations. No
adverse effects occurred.

Neither the first treatment nor the readministered treatment triggered
an immune reaction that cancelled the benefits of the inserted genes,
as has occurred in human trials of gene therapy for other diseases.
The current research targeted Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a
retinal disease that progresses to total blindness by adulthood.

Scientists from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia led the
study, published Feb 8 in Science Translational Medicine.

Patients have told us how their lives have changed since receiving
gene therapy, said study co-leader Jean Bennett, M.D., Ph.D., F.M.
Kirby professor of Ophthalmology at Penn. They are able to walk
around at night, go shopping for groceries and recognize people's
faces-all things they couldn't do before. At the same time, we were
able to objectively measure improvements in light sensitivity, side
vision and other visual functions.

Other objective results came from brain signals seen in neuroimaging.
When a dimly flickering checkerboard pattern flashed in front of a
patient's recently treated eye, an area in the brain responsible for
vision lit up during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
This finding is telling us that the brain is responding to the eye's
sensitivity to dim light, said radiology researcher Manzar Ashtari,
Ph.D., of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, the study's
co-leader.

LCA is a group of hereditary retinal diseases in which a gene mutation
impairs production of an enzyme essential to light receptors in the
retina. The study team injected patients with a vector, a genetically
engineered adeno-associated virus, which carried a normal version of a
gene called RPE65 that is mutated in one form of LCA.

The researchers in the current study previously carried out a clinical
trial of this gene therapy in 12 patients with LCA, four of them
children aged 11 and younger when they were treated. Exercising
caution, the researchers treated only one eye-the one with worse
vision. This trial, reported in October of 2009, achieved sustained
and notable results, with six subjects improving enough to no longer
be classified as legally blind.

The Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics (CCMT) at The
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia sponsored both the initial
clinical trial and the current study, and manufactured the vector used
to carry the corrective gene. Katherine A. High, M.D., a co-author of
both studies, is the director of the CCMT, and a pioneering gene
therapy researcher.

The research team's experiments in animals had showed that
readministering treatment in a second eye was safe and effective.
While these results were encouraging, the researchers were concerned
that readministering the vector in the untreated eye of the patients
might stimulate an inflammatory response that could reduce the initial
benefits in the untreated eye.

Our concern was that the first treatment might cause a vaccine-like
immune response that could prime the individual's immune system to
react against a repeat exposure, said Bennett. Because the eye is
immune-privileged -relatively isolated from the body's immune
system-such a response was considered less likely than in other parts
of the body, but the idea needed to be tested in practice.

As in the first study, retina specialist Albert M. Maguire, M.D., a
study co-author and professor of Opthalmology at Penn, injected the
vector into the untreated eyes of the three subjects at The Children's
Hospital of Philadelphia. The patients had been treated one and a half
to three years previously.

The researchers continued to follow the three patients for six months
after readministration. They found the most significant improvements
were in light sensitivity, such as the pupil's response to light over
a range of intensities. Two of the three subjects were able to
navigate an obstacle course in dim light, as captured in videos that
accompanied the published study.

There were no safety problems and no significant immune responses.
There was even an unexpected benefit-the fMRI results showed improved
brain responses not just in the newly injected eye, but in the first
one as well, possibly because the eyes were better able to coordinate
with each other in fixating on objects.

The researchers caution that 

[AI] Fwd: new talking glucose meter

2012-01-29 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

New Blood Glucose Meter for Visually Impaired is Available
New Blood Glucose Meter Helps Visually Impaired Test Their Blood
Glucose Levels. Simple Diagnostics, a diabetes supplies manufacturer
that specializes in diabetes supplies for blind and visually impaired
monitor their diabetes, has released a new talking glucose meter,
Clever Choice Voice+ for blind helping them monitor sugar levels
without the help from care takers. According to a recent survey
conducted by Simple Diagnostics, many blinds and visually impaired are
unable to keep their blood glucose levels under control because of
dependency on care provider. English/Spanish talking Glucose monitor,
which is a no code glucose meter helps them over come this obstacle
with little or no help from others. Clever Choice Voice+ offers error
free alternate site testing which enables patients to take blood from
sites other than their fingers. No code feature allows simple
insertion of glucose test strips into the blood glucose meter and
application of blood drop in mere seconds for quick pain free blood
glucose monitoring. This is Simple Diagnostics' second generation
talking blood glucose meter. This device builds on the high standards
seen in the original Clever Choice Voice® glucose meter but also
provides additional benefits and features for patients, based on
feedback we have received from both doctors and patients currently
using a Simple Diagnostics glucose meter. It took us 3 years to deign
this state of the art talking blood glucose meter with the help and
feedback from our clients, their physicians and care providers. says
Larry Sneir, the general manager of Simple Diagnostics. We started
from scratch when we began this project. We went through clinical
trials after trials until we perfected this glucose meter, and were
sure we have a practicle and durable blood glucose meters for our
patients, Our clients demanded quality products and we listened.
Result was one of a kind talking glucose meter, Clever Choice Voice+,
which will serve our clients years after years.

Clever Choice Voice+ talking glucose meter comes with easy to follow
visual and audible instructions.

For more information about talking glucose meter visit SimpleDiagnostics.com

--


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[AI] Fwd: Engineers create touchscreen Braille writer

2012-01-28 Thread Wahid Raza
hi all,
hope all are doing fine,
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Engineers create touchscreen Braille writer
Posted By ScienceFeed On Friday, January 27th 2012. Under Mathematics


Each summer, under the red-tiled roofs and sandstone of Stanford, the
Army High-Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC) invites a
select group of undergraduates from across the country gather for a
two-month immersion into the wonders of advanced computing.
Some of the undergraduates are gathered into teams. Some work alone.
All are assigned mentors and tasked with a challenge. They compete,
American Idol-style, for top honors at the end of the summer.

The competition is made possible in part by a collaboration between
the U.S. Army and several university and industry partners that makes
up the AHPCRC.

Adam Duran is one such undergraduate, a student both lucky and good.
He is now in his senior year at New Mexico State University. Last
June, he came to Stanford at the suggestion of one of his professors.
His mentors were Adrian Lew, an assistant professor of mechanical
engineering, and Sohan Dharmaraja, a doctoral candidate at Stanford
studying computational mathematics.

Originally, our assignment was to create a character-recognition
application that would use the camera on a mobile device - a phone or
tablet - to transform pages of Braille into readable text, said
Duran. It was a cool challenge, but not exactly where we ended up.

Bigger fish

Even before Duran arrived for the summer, Lew and Dharmaraja began to
talk to the Stanford Office of Accessible Education, people whose
profession is helping blind and visually impaired students negotiate
the world of higher learning. It became clear that there were bigger
fish to fry.

While a Braille character reader would be helpful to the blind, Lew
and Dharmaraja learned, there were logistics that were hard to get
around.

How does a blind person orient a printed page so that the computer
knows which side is up? How does a blind person ensure proper lighting
of the paper? said Duran. Plus, the technology, while definitely
helpful, would be limited in day-to-day application.

It was a nice-to-have, not a must-have, said Dharmaraja.

So, the three began to ask questions. That is when they stumbled upon
a sweet spot.

The killer app was not a reader, but a writer, said Dharmaraja.

Imagine being blind in a classroom, how would you take notes? said
Lew. What if you were on the street and needed to copy down a phone
number? These are real challenges the blind grapple with every day.

There are devices that help the blind write Braille, to send email and
so forth, but they are essentially specialized laptops that cost, in
some cases, $6,000 or more. All for a device of limited functionality,
beyond typing Braille, of course.

Your standard tablet has more capability at a tenth the price, said Duran.

So, we put two and two together. We developed a tablet Braille
writer, said Dharmaraja, A touchscreen for people who can't see.

First, however, the student-mentor team had to learn Braille.
Originally developed for the French military, Braille is a relatively
simple code with each character made up of variations of six dots - or
bumps, really - arranged in a 2-by-3 matrix. The blind read by feeling
the bumps with their fingertips.

As any computational mathematician will tell you, such a matrix yields
two-to-the-sixth minus one variations, or 63 possible characters.
These 63 characters are enough for a Western alphabet plus 10
numerical digits, with several left over for punctuation and some
special characters.

Over the years, however, those 63 characters got quickly gobbled up -
through the addition of character-modification keystrokes, the total
grew and now includes chemical, mathematical and other symbols.

Challenge

A modern Braille writer looks like a laptop with no monitor and an
eight-key keyboard - six to create the character, plus a carriage
return and a delete key.

Duplicating the Braille keypad on a touch-based tablet seemed simple
enough, but there was at least one significant challenge: How does a
blind person find the keys on a flat, uniformly smooth glass panel?

Dharmaraja and Duran mulled their options before arriving at a clever
and simple solution. They did not create virtual keys that the
fingertips must find; they made keys that find the fingertips. The
user simply touches eight fingertips to the glass, and the keys orient
themselves to the fingers. If the user becomes disoriented, a reset is
as easy as lifting all eight fingers off the glass and putting them
down again.

Elegant, no? said Lew. The solution is so simple, so beautiful. It
was fun to see.

Beyond the price difference, touchscreens offer at least one other
significant advantage over standard Braille writers: They're
customizable, Dharmaraja noted. They can accommodate users whose
fingers are small or large, those who 

[AI] Fwd: Phone support now offered for NVDA users

2012-01-28 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Phone support now offered for NVDA users
Saturday, 28 January 2012 1:35am
NV Access, organisation behind the NVDA screen reader, has announced
it will provide phone support for its services. The NVDA screen reader
is free, open source screen reader software for Windows computers. The
software can be downloaded to a USB and used on multiple computers.

The NV Access phone-based support will provide training on how to use
the screen reader, including its advanced features. This support for
the NVDA screen reader will further increase access to the internet
for people who are blind or vision impaired and require assistive
technology to use the internet.

The introduction of phone-based support for NVDA will support the
growing number of people who are choosing to use NVDA as their primary
screen reader. In a screen reader survey by WebAIM, the number of
people using NVDA as their primary screen reader increased by nearly
300% over a 14 months period.

The introduction of phone-based support for NVDA will not only benefit
current users but also those who thinking about adopting NVDA as an
affordable alternative to expensive commercial screen readers.

The phone service is charged at a flat fee of $59.95 per hour and a
minimum of 10 minutes phone support is required. The phone-based
support is open weekdays from 9am-5pm. Face-to-face training for
organisations and groups is also available.

A comparison of free and low cost screen readers is available in the
Digital Technology section.




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[AI] Fwd: Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS Device

2012-01-07 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Warm Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS Device helps the blind navigate public
spaces better
By Asmita Prasad   /4 hrs ago


The Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for Device for Blind by designer
Soonjae Kwon uses sound, auditory functions and Braille to allow he
blind with the independence to serve as productive members of he
society. In the U.S. alone, there are over ten millions people who
have lost their sight or who suffer from severely lowered vision. The
number of blind people is increasing at an alarming rate and a high
percentage of them are seniors. However, public spaces are still not
equipped with enough supportive infrastructure to allow the
non-sighted part of the population to serve as regular members of the
society. The Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for Device looks to
ensure social equality to the blind.

 Sonicane by Soonjae Kwon

The Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for Device offers an ease of
usability that lets the blind live independently and productively. The
simple interface of the device allows the blind to maintain their
performance at home and at work and even opens up new career avenues
for them. This helps the blind to benefit from opportunities that have
so far been limited only to people with normal vision. The device
helps people with visual disabilities to develop their mobility and
gives them a distinct sense of independence.


Picture Gallery
Ultimate Sound GPS for Device for Blind

Ultimate Sound GPS for Device for Blind

Using a radio frequency identification (RFID tag) for the purpose of
identification and tracking, the Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for
Device helps the blind navigate public spaces on their own. A 3-step
system of buttons allows uses to push a button backwards and forwards
to obtain pre-information about the next step on their route and
select the ultimate direction they need to proceed in. The Sonicane
2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for Device is fitted with am LED light to allow
the sighted to recognize and identify the user at night. An 8-way
vibrating indicator lets the user decide the direction they need to
move in.

The Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for Device features a telescopic
stick made of 12-56 flexible carbon fiber. The portable stick is
comfortable to use and provides a stable support to the blind while
they are on the move. The core of each refreshable Braille display
device comes fitted with a proprietary technology that uses printed
circuit boards to display information. This allows the users to read
the info on the device and take actions accordingly.

The Sonicane 2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for Device features a plug-in
charge function. The device comes with a niche magnetic battery that
provides more sustainable, simpler and easier charging. The Sonicane
2.0 Ultimate Sound GPS for Device also comes with a silicon rubber
surface that ensures better handling and protects the device from
water.

Via: Coroflot

-


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[AI] Fwd: Free 3 Application Screen Reader

2011-12-29 Thread Wahid Raza
hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Free 3 Application Screen Reader for the Blind

Screen reader applications (screen reader) is the software used to
operate the computer with visual impairment. Unfortunately, the
average price is exorbitant commercial screen readers, so many blind
people who can only feel the demo version only. Well, this time the
author wants to share information about some free screen readers that
blind people can be utilized without the need to pay a dime!

If I may say, a screen reader is the eye for the blind in operating
computers. With these applications, the blind can get information
about the text shown on the monitor screen. Text is converted into
sound using a speech synthesizer technology, so the results can be
heard by blind people.

Thus, it can be ascertained if the access to information for blind
people became more open. Thanks to the help screen reader, they can
browse, work, making presentations, and even enjoy entertainment on a
PC or Notebook.

However, it turns out to obtain a screen reader cost is quite
expensive. The cheapest price is around $ 399, and the most used price
can exceed $ 1,000. For the value of it, perhaps only large
institutions or certain circles who can afford it, while individuals
with visual impairments may have to sacrifice ten or twenty months'
salary to be able to buy it.

As an alternative, usually blind people use screen reader demo
versions of commercial. The demo version allows the visually impaired
use a screen reader for 30 or 40 minutes. After that, the screen
reader will be non-active and to reactivate the computer must be
restarted. Of course this is a practice which is less practical.

Here are some free screen reader that can be used as a solution to the
above problems. Although its features can not complete commercial
screen readers, but it was enough to be used as a tool for everyday
computing activities.

However, the author will not discuss in detail since it would lengthen
this article. The author just wanted to introduce it, so that people
can share this information to the needy.

The criteria that I use in choosing a free screen reader is as follows:

- Always update. Some screen readers have fallen free, so it is no
longer updated, and certainly can not be used on the current operating
system.

- Stable. This free screen reader running smoothly, at least for
computers with the latest specifications.

- Supports the general computing activity (Jump to the operating
system, Office applications, and internet). The author ensures
visually impaired can enjoy the entertainment or working in the office
by utilizing this free screen reader.

1. Voice Over

Voice Over screen reader is made to the default output of Apple
products, both Mac and iDevice. Screen reader can be directly used as
a Mac or iDevice enabled.

For first-party applications such as the program default operating
system, Voice Over run smoothly without a hitch. In other words, blind
people will not encounter difficulty in accessing basic features of
the device.

Mac (iMac, Macbook): Press the shortcut Command + F5 or switch from
the setup menu (accessibility).

iDevice (iPod, iPhone, iPad): Enable the option Settings General
Accessibility. Can also be activated from iTunes through the Universal
Access option (after the iDevice is connected to a PC or Notebook).

2. System Access To Go

System Access To Go is a screen reader for free from the commercial
version, System Access. To be able to use the internet connection is
required, because the screen reader is not installed, it goes online.

To run it, please go to the site www.satogo.com. It will be a voice
that will guide the visually impaired user in installing the System
Access To Go.

System Access To Go can deal with both the existing Windows
applications, and some common applications like Microsoft Office,
WinAmp, and Skype.

Well, the screen reader is very useful when blind people traveling
public facilities such as a library or Internet cafe. System Access To
Go does not require installation, then the computer is used as the
host does not need to be tampered.

However, perhaps be a little difficult when the host computer does not
give permissions to execute the EXE file, because the System Access To
Go need to download and execute the main application file (size 3MB).

Weaknesses of the System Access To Go, of course, lies in the matter
of the Internet connection itself. If the connection is slow or
broken, then the System Access To Go will silence a thousand
languages, and it certainly makes blind people lose contact with his
computer.

3. NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access)

NVDA is a licensed open source screen reader made by NV Access. To get
it, please access its website at www.nvda-project.org.

Although free, the ability of NVDA should thumbs up. In addition to
having functions similar to the System 

Re: [AI] New iPhone a breakthrough for blind people

2011-10-26 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi Shona Man,
answer of your 1st querie
No, I Phone doesn't come any key pad, its a fully touch screen phone
but its inbuilt screen reader Voice over is awsam, but when you
starting using it you may have some difficultys to operate it, because
we always used qwerty key pad phones newly when you  switch to touch
screen phone it will take little bit time to understand the interface
of I phone, but im sure you will enjoy it  much as like qwerty key pad
phone.
I phone 4s which comes talking feature called seeri is not lonch yet in india
if you wait for 2 ,3 months it may be lonch, we can only hope that
Apple lonch it because, in december Apple will going to lonch it about
70 countrys we can hope these 70 countrys include india also but not
sure about it
if you can't wait you can go with I phone 4g which is awsam product,
it already lonched in india about 32 thousand, but if you
can't afort, you can wait or look any other nokia phone,
but pls pls don't buy nokia e7, because it touch interface was not good
and its very big, bulky, not useful so much.
you can go any other nokia handset.
Hope this will helpful for you.
Warm Regards
Wahid

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[AI] Fwd: Braille Keyboard for Tablets

2011-10-21 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Braille Keyboard for Tablets
by Richard Brooks on October 21, 2011


For several years, smooth, sleek touchscreens have dominated the tech
gadget world. Touchscreens are said to me more intuitive than other
input methods, as even infants instinctively know how to use them.

However, the touchscreen revolution has left one group of people
sitting on the sidelines: those who can't see the shiny screen or its
colorful array of icons.  Now, a research team participating in a
development competition at Stanford University has created the
first-ever touchscreen Braille keyboard.

Stanford Professor Adrian Lew, one of three researchers on the team,
told the BBC that the application developed during the competition
could be a big help to the visually impaired once it becomes widely
distributed:

  Imagine being blind in the classroom, how would you take notes?
What if you were on the street and needed to copy down a phone number?
These are real challenges the blind grapple with every day.

The touchscreen Braille writer makes all of these tasks simple. But
how can blind people type in Braille, which depends on texture, using
a perfectly smooth keyboard? The team came up with an elegant
solution: instead of the user having to find the keyboard, the
keyboard forms itself around the user's fingers once they are placed
on the touchscreen.

Team member Sohan Dharmaraja noted that if they can be made
accessible, tablets could have tremendous advantages over the tools
currently available to blind people. As he explained to the BBC,

  Current physical note takers are big and clunky and range from
$3,000 (£2,000) to $6,000 (£4,000). Tablet PCs are available at a
fraction of the cost and do so much more.

In an interview with CNET,  Dharmaraja  noted that another advantage
of the software is that it can accommodate users whose fingers are
small or large, those who type with fingers close together or far
apart, even to allow a user to type on a tablet hanging around the
neck with hands opposed as if playing a clarinet.

There's no word yet on when the software will be available to the
public, but Robin Spinks, the Royal National Institute for Blind
People's manager of digital accessibility, told the BBC that his
organization is looking forward to testing it.
-

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[AI] Fwd: Connect} News -breakthrough approaches to vision restoration

2011-10-19 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi Friends,
Giving here for your info the news about possible future treatment for RP
,AMD , publised on net 18-10-2011 being press release..
--
Wayne State announces license agreement for breakthrough approaches to
vision restorationOctober 18th, 2011

RetroSense Therapeutics, LLC, a Michigan-based company, announced that it
has executed its exclusive, worldwide option and signed a license agreement
for novel gene-therapy approaches for treating blindness developed at Wayne
State University's School of Medicine.

Zhuo-Hua Pan, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and cell biology in the School of
Medicine, along with colleagues at Salus University in Pennsylvania,
developed the breakthrough therapy and follow-on approaches that offer
promise to people suffering with incurable blindness caused by age-related
macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa (RP) - retinal
degenerative disorders that are currently incurable.

AMD is the leading cause of blindness in people older than 60, affecting
more than 8 million people in the U.S. alone. Worldwide, 500,000 individuals
lose their eyesight annually to AMD, which is the result of progressive
deterioration of photoreceptor cells in the macula, the central portion of
the retina.

RP is a genetically-determined eye disease caused by mutations in more than
100 different genes. An estimated 100,000 people in the U.S. have RP, which
typically manifests as night blindness and progresses to tunnel vision and
sometimes complete blindness.

Pan's novel strategy focused on genetically converting light-insensitive
inner retinal neurons into photosensitive cells — thus restoring
light-sensitivity to retinas that lack photoreceptors. Using a virus that
delivers a photoreceptor gene from green algae called channelrhodopsin-2
(ChR2), Pan found that ChR2 made the inner retinal neurons become light
sensitive, and that it persisted for long periods in the neurons, ultimately
leading to restored responses to light in the visual cortex of the brain.

With this technology, combined with the business and drug development
expertise of RetroSense's seasoned management team, Pan is hopeful his
breakthrough treatment is on the fast track to restoring a vital part of the
human experience to people suffering from retinal degeneration worldwide.

Our research has demonstrated the feasibility of restoring visual responses
after the loss of light-sensitive photoreceptor cells in animal models,
said Pan. The ChR2-based gene therapy is a promising strategy for treatment
of blindness caused by the death of photoreceptor cells in humans.

We are delighted to enhance our position in this space by licensing these
novel approaches to vision restoration, said Sean Ainsworth, founder and
CEO of RetroSense. Channelrhodopsin-based approaches to vision restoration
are garnering a great deal of attention from academia and industry right
now. It's a very hot field and we are quite pleased to be aligned with Dr.
Pan and his colleagues who pioneered the approach.

Ainsworth licensed the technology from Wayne State University in an effort
to eventually test the technology in humans. While there are several years
of research and testing needed before anything can be brought to the market,
Phase I clinical trials could begin in early 2013.

This license agreement with RetroSense is an exciting example of how
critical research is to making discoveries, then getting those discoveries
to the market, said Hilary Ratner, vice president for research at Wayne
State University. Life-changing developments often happen because of
university research, and relationships with companies such as RetroSense are
critical components of taking a faculty member's ideas and inventions to the
next level for creating commercially viable products and processes. We are
pleased to welcome RetroSense to the Wayne State University community.
Provided by Wayne State University
---

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[AI] Fwd: 'Smart cane' to guide visually impaired in hills

2011-10-15 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

'Smart cane' to guide visually impaired in hills


Ashwani Sharma
Posted: Oct 15, 2011 at 0009 hrs IST


Shimla Developed by IIT-Delhi, stick to have sensors to alert danger,
also inform size, shape, type of obstacles
White canes will soon be passe. Now, visually impaired persons can
depend on smart stick to guide them through hills and crowded roads.
Fixed with sensors, it will alert the user about the lurking danger
via vibrations and also inform about the size, shape and type of
obstacles.

Developed by IIT-Delhi with the help of Delhi-based NGO Saksham, the
first phase of week-long trials of smart cane for the hills involving
six students, including three Class XI girls of local Portmore School,
ended here on Friday.

A smart cane for the blind was already at final stage after the
trials done at major cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai and
Dehradun. This smart stick is plain, developed with the help of
pharmaceutical company Phoenix Medical Systems. There requirements of
the blind in the hills are very different as these places have
problems like deep gorge, cliffs, mountainous paths, hair-pin curves,
narrow passages and depths. Here, we needed a smart cane addressing
all these issues, said Ajai Srivastava, head of Umang Foundation-a
organisation working for the blind.

Yogesh Taneja, a software developer and visually impaired, working on
the project said, Smart cane being designed for the blind will make a
seachange in their lives and would help them to navigate mountain
roads. If there is a sharp cliff,curve or depth, sensors will send
vibrations to the user about the danger.

Some of the students-three of them from blind school at Dhalli in
Shimla and the three girls- sounded excited about the smart cane.

We get injured while walking as sticks or white cane we use doesn't
alerts us about the objects above knee height. However, the smart cane
will start sending vibrations about the object up to 3 metres, thus
giving us a response time, said Bhupesh.

Anisha said they should develop a can that spells out the danger
rather than just sending vibrations, as it will be more useful.

In the second phase of trials, the students will it for 15 days and
the team will return after a fortnight and get their feedback.

Bhupesh said some of the devices available in foreign countries cost
up to Rs 40,000 and are unaffordable.

The effort of the organisation-Saksham-is to make it affordable. The
white cane in India costs between Rs 60 and Rs 200. This stick could
be a little higher maybe around Rs 2,000, he said.

The smart cane will determine the object that is in front of the user
and depending on its nature-whether tall or short, and level from the
body (head or knee level). There there will be different combinations
of long and short vibrations on the handle of the stick.

---

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[AI] Fwd: Research could lead to wearable sensors for the blind

2011-09-29 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Research could lead to wearable sensors for the blind
September 28, 2011

Wearable sensors that allow the blind to see with their hands,
bodies or faces could be on the horizon, thanks to a $2 million award
from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to researchers at The City
College of New York and Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia
Tech).

The grant, through the NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research and
Innovation program, will fund a multidisciplinary team investigating
devices for alternative perception and the principles underlying the
human-machine interaction. Alternative perception emulates vision by
combining electronics and input from the other senses. In addition to
aiding the visually impaired, the researchers expect the findings to
lend themselves to other applications, such as the development of
intelligent robots.

The grant is the first to result from a collaboration supported by
CCNY's City SEED Grants program, an internal award of $50,000 in seed
money to promote interdisciplinary faculty research partnerships. The
program, initiated in the fall of 2010 by President Lisa S. Coico,
requires grant recipients to include a plan to expand their projects
and apply for further funding from other organizations.

The initial collaboration involved Dr. Zhigang Zhu, professor of
computer science and computer engineering in City College's Grove
School of Engineering, the principal investigator on the NSF grant,
Dr. Tony Ro, professor of psychology and director of the Program in
Cognitive Neuroscience, and Dr. Ying Li Tian, professor of electrical
engineering. The whole project needed something more
interdisciplinary, so I looked for complementary research and found my
neighbor Tony (Ro's laboratory) is right next door, said Professor
Zhu.

(This) was truly a good example of an interdisciplinary proposal and
members with a complementary expertise -- not just similar overlapping
expertise -- which is unusual, said CCNY Associate Provost for
Research Larry Bank, who oversees the City SEED Grants program. We
must integrate input from the sciences, engineering and, often, art
and humanities, to have a true understanding of phenomena.

The researchers joined forces to disentangle how humans learn to
coordinate input from their senses -- e.g. vision, touch -- with
movements, like reaching for a glass or moving through a crowded room.
They will then map out how machines, such as robots and computers,
learn similar tasks, in order to model devices that can assist humans.


The team, which combines expertise in engineering, computer science,
neuroscience, motor control and biomechanics, envisions a
multifunctional array of sensors on the body and has already developed
prototypes for some of the devices. The full complement of wearable
sensors would help a sightless person navigate by conveying
information about his or her surroundings.

Professor Zhu works on navigation and obstacle detection by robots.
For the project, he will focus on machine sensing and computer
learning to understand the human-computer interaction.

He will also refine displays that would feed information from
electronic sensors to the human wearer of the device. His lab is
already testing a sensor that can detect proximity to an object and
convey its distance with vibration on the hand or other body part. As
one gets closer to a table, for example, it gradually increases the
intensity of the stimulation.

Professor Ro, a neuroscientist, will provide a window into what is
going in the brain as sighted and visually impaired individuals
navigate a room or virtual environment with and without devices to
assist them. Using Professor Zhu's distance sensor, he is now testing
how sensitive people are in discriminating vibrations to the hand that
tell them how far it is from an object. He will determine whether they
can make accurate judgments and whether they might be using the visual
parts of the brain.

Professor Tian works on higher-level visual understanding by machines,
such as detecting and identifying doors, exit signs, colors or stairs
in a room. A system like this could audibly tell the wearer that an
object on the floor was a cat or a footstool, for example.

Dr. Kok-Meng Lee, professor of mechanical engineering and director of
the Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics Research Laboratory at Georgia
Tech, who has expertise in mechanotronics -- the combination of
mechanics and the electronics of information systems -- works on
machine vision and novel sensor designs. He will help develop the
theory and methods for detecting objects thermally and magnetically
and find out how this affects walking. This will help break down the
essentials of orienting oneself in a new environment and navigating
through it.

Dr. Boris Prilutsky, professor in the School of Applied Physiology at
Georgia Tech, studies sensory feedback in motor 

[AI] Fwd: New Sonar Designed To Help Blind People

2011-09-25 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
pasting below intrusting article which get from another list.
Warm Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

New Sonar Designed To Help Blind People
September 24, 2011
by newtec


We've seen a number of devices - such as the UltraCane and EYE 21
system - that combine sonar and haptic or audio feedback to let the
visually impaired see their surroundings through the senses of touch
or hearing. Tacit is a similar device that also uses sonar to measure
the distance to objects and provide users with a 'view of their
surroundings through haptic feedback. But unlike previous devices
we've looked at, Tacit is mounted on the wrist so it doesn't impair a
user's hearing or interfere with the use of other assistance devices
such as canes.


The prototype Tacit device developed by Steve Hoefer at Grathio Labs
consists of four ultrasonic range finding sensors connected to a
microcontroller that calculates the distance to objects by reading how
long it takes for the ultrasonic pulses to return to the device. The
distances are then translated into force feedback on the back of the
user's wrist through servo motors, with the force of the pressure
indicating how near or far the detected objects are. By waving their
arm around an area, the wearer is able to get the lay of the land and
navigate complex environments.


In coming up with the prototype Hoefer says he considered various
designs and the use of various technologies. His initial version was a
headband that had ultrasonic sensors and vibration motors embedded
around its circumference. However, he found that the most dangerous
obstacles weren't positioned at head level and that having vibrating
motors pounding against your skull isn't the most enjoyable
experience. Placing the device on the hand also lets the wearer easily
point it in any direction.

He also experimented with infrared sensors, which are smaller and
easier to focus than the ultrasonic sensors, but interference from
sunlight, remote controls, security cameras and absorbent surfaces
confused the sensors. He says he will do some more tests with infrared
using different wavelengths and polarizing filters, but for the time
being the ultrasonic sensors, which have a range of 1-inch to 10 feet
(2.5 cm to 3 m), are the most cost effective option. Lasers, which
would be the most accurate, were also rejected as being too expensive.

Hoefer also went through a number of iterations in designing the
gauntlet that supports the electronics. To allow the wearer to retain
their sense of touch in not only their fingers but also their palm,
gloves were rejected in favor of a design that uses a loop that slips
over the wearer's middle finger and a Velcro wrist strap. The
resultant one-size-fits-all prototype, which is made from neoprene, is
easy to put on and can be worn on the left or right hand.


Although Hoefer admits the current Tacit prototype isn't perfect and
is a little bulky, he says it works and could easily be made to be
about half the current size. Additionally, the replaceable batteries
currently used to power the device would be replaced with rechargeable
batteries with a blind-friendly charging method, such as wireless
induction charging or a magnetically-aligning power plug.

One of Hoefer's main aims in developing an assistance device for the
visually impaired was to keep the costs down. With the cost of the
materials used in his prototype totaling around US$65 he seems to have
achieved this goal.

Hoefer says he will continue to refine the device and provides
instructions on how to build Tacit on the Tacit Project page. He has
also released the Tacit circuit and software under a Creative Commons
BY-NC-SA license.



watch video:

Project Tacit: Giving Sonar To The Blind
ookseer


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPkYzUpUyUUfeature=player_embedded



Uploaded by ookseer on Aug 18, 2011

Project Tacit is an open source device that measures distance to
surroundings with ultrasonic pulses and translates that to pressure on
the wearer's wrist. Much more detail and other information at
http://grathio.com/tacit




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avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean.
Virus Database (VPS): 110924-1, 09/25/2011
Tested on: 9/25/2011 10:08:02 AM
avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2011 AVAST Software.
http://www.avast.com



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[AI] Fwd: Facinating:- 32-hour-old is youngest eye donor

2011-09-24 Thread Wahid Raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article which get from another listt.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Facinating:- 32-hour-old is youngest eye donor

Mumbai: When their newborn daughter met an untimely death a mere 32
hours after birth, bereaved Kandivli couple Hetal and Dhimant Shah
took a pledge -- they would take all their sorrow and turn it into the
most precious gift: the gift of vision. They decided that their
beloved infant would live on in the eyes of others, who would think of
her every time they enjoyed the wondrous beauties of the world. With
no hesitation in their minds, the couple decided to donate their
infant's eyes, making her the youngest ever eye donor in the city, and
perhaps in the world.

The infant's death came as a big blow to the Shah family, who had been
waiting with bated breath for her birth. The family's euphoria,
however, was cruelly nipped in the bud, when she was diagnosed with a
heart ailment within hours of her birth.

She had to be put on ventilator support immediately, as her condition
was critical, said Dr Dilip Raichura of the Raichura maternity
hospital in Kandivli.

When the family learnt that their newborn might be snatched from them
soon, they decided to preserve and perpetuate at least one part of
their bundle of joy. My father has always encouraged and supported
eye donation. When my uncle Ramesh passed away, we had also donated
his eyes. So we decided that my daughter's eyes too would be donated.
She would live on, not only in our memory, but in the eyes of others,
said the donor's father Dhimant, who works as a chartered accountant
with a private firm.



The donor's mother Hetal Shah (24) said, My daughter has brought back
the gleam of recognition in the eyes of no less than six people.
Perhaps she was sent to this world to serve this very purpose. God
sent her here to perform thus selfless act. She has lived for only 32
hours, but in the short life span, she has made me proud.

According to Raichura, who runs the Netradan Jagruti Centre in
Kandivli, the deceased newborn is perhaps the youngest eye donor in
the country. The parents have done something truly admirable. Other
parents should take inspiration from them and start pledging their
eyes, and instructing their kids to do the same. A single cornea can
give the blessing of eyesight to three individuals. Thus the infant's
eyes will illuminate the lives of six recipients, he said.

In the past few years, Raichura has encouraged over 400 people to
donate their eyes. In the city of Navsari in Gujarat, people have
made the greatest number of eye donations in the nation, said
Raichura.

Dhimant's father Vijay, who is actively involved in the eye donation
awareness drive spearheaded by Raichura, said, Superstitions and
religious beliefs hold back people from donating eyes. But we firmly
believe that by granting vision to others, she is doing work for the
welfare of others, even in death.

Expert speak
Renowned ophthalmologist Dr T P Lahane, head of the ophthalmology
department at JJ hospital, said, She is the youngest donor; before
this, I had heard of a nine-month-old child's eyes being donated. It
is a beautiful, selfless gesture on the part of the family members.
Such acts should be encouraged.

First couple donates eyes
On September 8 this year, on the occasion of National Eye Donation
Day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur took a
pledge to donate their eyes. The couple said in a joint statement: We
are aware that there are innumerable cornea-blind patients in our
country, for whom the gift of sight will be a priceless one. We hope
that people across the country will rise to the occasion and support
the National Program for Control of Blindness and help their fellow
brethren.

They also lauded the National Eye Bank and corneal transplantation
teams across the country for their efforts to bring back the gleam of
vision in the eyes of those in need.

284 million
The total number of visually impaired people in the world, according
to the World Health Organisation.

4.6 million
The number of sightless people in India

1/4th
The world's total visually impaired population is Indian

39 million
The number of blind people in the world

245 million
The number of people afflicted with low vision

1919
The BSNL/MTNL toll-free nation-wide number you can call to be
connected to the nearest eye bank.

--

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[AI] Fwd: 18 Free Online Sources To Learn Web Design

2011-09-06 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below very intrusting article which get from another list.
Warm Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

18 Free Online Sources To Learn Web Design
Posted by Daren in Web Development  Marketing on July 21, 2011 | 8 comments
Have you ever wanted to go back to school, but just couldn't afford
it? Or maybe you've been wanting to learn how to design a website, but
don't have the time or funds for training? Unfortunately, many people
deal with these dilemmas on a regular basis. Many design jobs require
you to have some type of experience and most prefer a degree, but if
you can't afford to get a degree what are your other options? Well,
thanks to the Internet, education doesn't have to be expensive or
time-consuming; as-a-matter-of-fact you can get it for free and in
only a few hours a day.

This list of 18 free online sources will help you learn about web
design and everything related to it. With all of these free online
courses and tutorials, there really is no excuse for not knowing
anything about web design. Unless you need an actual degree for
job-related purposes, these are the best sources you'll find and are
practically just as good as college courses. Additionally, some of
these sources even offer certification for low prices. So get your
notebooks out and block off some time on your schedule, because these
18 resources will be taking you back to school.

* All links open in new window

Online Web Design Course

Online Web Design Series (OWDC) offers a huge collection of lessons,
articles, resources and a forum. It's set up as a blog, so you can
subscribe by RSS for new updates. There is also a huge Web Design
series with topics on background alteration, text formatting, HTML,
images, tables, web colors, and more. Each lesson offers step-by-step
instructions and code snippets for you to use on your own site if
needed.

Visit Online Web Design Course

W3Schools

W3Schools is the world's largest web development site and one of the
top free resources for tutorials (HTML, XML), scripting (browser,
server), and web building (services, multimedia). Whether you're just
learning or are a true expert, this site has in-depth tutorials and
exercises where you can try out these techniques yourself. You'll also
find links to outside resources and can even get certified in HTML,
CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, XML, ASP, or PHP.

Visit W3Schools

Java Programming

If you're looking just to learn Java, then this beginners course by
Stephen Gilbert of Orange Coast College may be just up your alley.
It's an actual freshman level college course with 5 hours of lessons
and 8 hours of homework. You'll have access to the syllabus, schedule,
lessons, assignments, and resources for the course. Each lesson is
broken up by topic and then into sections within that topic, complete
with images and examples.

Visit Java Programming

About.com Web Design Course

About.com has a free Web Design and HTML course that is sent out
weekly via email (though they do also have a daily lesson option). As
stated on the site, the Web Design Class will not talk as much about
how to build Web pages as the skills and techniques behind designing
Web pages. You'll learn basic design techniques such as how to
effectively use color and fonts, designing navigation, creating
distraction-free graphics, and using multimedia.

Visit About.com Web Design Course

E-Learning Center

At the E-Learning Center you can learn the basics of HTML and XHTML
for the purpose of web designing and publishing. While this course is
free, most of the other courses they offer are not. However, you can
really get a good idea of how their courses are setup and see if
they're worth paying for. The other free courses include: JavaScript,
PHP and MySQL, and Visual Basic .Net. Best of all, these are full
courses (not demos) with 2-6 hours of online training provided for
each.

Visit E-Learning Center

Home  Learn

Home  Learn offers free programming courses and tutorials on Visual
Basic .Net, C# .Net, Java, PHP, and web design, which are all geared
toward beginners. You'll learn everything you need to know about
creating your first web page such as inserting images, formatting your
text, adding links, and creating forms. If you create an account,
you'll also be able to take free exams on the site and earn
certificates.

Visit Home  Learn

Free Video Lectures

Free Video Lectures is great for visual and auditory learners. There
are 5 different web design courses and 3 of the 5 courses have a
whopping 40 videos. The 5 courses are: Developing Mobile Apps with Web
Technologies; Building Dynamic Websites; Internet Technology; Database
Design; and Principles of Programming Languages. Most of the video
lectures are an hour-long and have a rating of 3+ stars, so you can be
sure that you're getting ample amount of professional training.

Visit Free Video Lectures

Tutorial Outpost

Originally started in November 2003, Tutorial Outpost is a blog
dedicated to 

[AI] Fwd: Growing Nanoflower could restore eyesight....

2011-09-03 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid


-- Forwarded message --

*this is news published in laser world that growing nanoflowers may restore
eyesight.*


*-Eugene, OR*--Nanoflowers seeded from nano-sized particles of metals that
grow or self assemble in a natural process--diffusion limited
aggregation--could communicate efficiently with neurons and restore
sighthttp://www.optoiq.com/index/biophotonics/display/bow-article-display/9780225150/articles/optoiq2/biophotonics-/specialties-/ophthalmology-/2011/04/multiphoton-microscopy-enables-insights-that-promise-regenerative-medicine-treatment-for-blindness.htmlto
the visually impaired. University of Oregon (UO) researcher Richard
Taylor is on a quest to grow these
fractalhttp://www.optoiq.com/index/photonics-technologies-applications/lfw-display/lfw-article-display/0543734948/articles/optoiq2/photonics-technologies/news/detectors-and_imaging/2011/5/novel-plasmonic_nanoantennas.htmlnanoflowers
that could help people who have lost their sight (to age-related
macular degeneration or
AMDhttp://www.optoiq.com/index/biophotonics/display/bow-article-display/365790/articles/biooptics-world/news-analysis/study-shows-laser-treatment-could-prevent-onset-stop-progression-of-wet-and-dry-amd.html,
for example) to see again.

Fractals are a trademark building block of nature, Taylor says. Fractals
are objects with irregular curves or shapes, of which any one component seen
under magnification is also the same shape. In math, that property is
self-similarity. Trees, clouds, rivers, galaxies, lungs and neurons are
fractals, Taylor says. Today's commercial electronic chips are not fractals,
he adds. Eye surgeons would implant these fractal devices within the eyes of
blind patients, providing interface circuitry that would collect light
captured by the retina and guide it with almost 100% efficiency to neurons
for relay to the optic nerve to process vision.

In an article titled Vision of beauty for *Physics World*, Taylor, a
physicist and director of the UO Materials Science Institute, describes his
envisioned approach and how it might overcome the problems occurring with
current efforts to insert photodiodes behind the eyes. Current chip
technology is limited, because it doesn't allow sufficient connections with
neurons. The wiring--the neurons--in the retina is fractal, but the chips
are not fractal, Taylor says. They are just little squares of electrodes
that provide too little overlap with the neurons.

Beginning this summer, Taylor's doctoral student Rick Montgomery will begin
a yearlong collaboration with Simon Brown at the University of Canterbury in
New Zealand to experiment with various metals to grow the fractal flowers on
implantable chips. Taylor's theoretical concept for fractal-based
photodiodes also is the focus of a U.S. patent application filed by the UO's
Office of Technology Transfer under Taylor's and Brown's names, the UO and
University of Canterbury.

The project is based on the striking similarities between the eye and the
digital camera. The front end of both systems, says Taylor, consists of an
adjustable aperture within a compound lens, and advances bring these
similarities closer each year. Digital cameras, he adds, are approaching
the capacity to capture the 127 megapixels of the human eye, but current
chip-based implants, because of their interface, are only providing about 50
pixels of resolution.

Among the challenges, Taylor says, is determining which metals can best go
into body without toxicity problems. We're right at the start of this
amazing voyage, Taylor says. The ultimate thrill for me will be to go to a
blind person and say, we're developing a chip that one day will help you see
again. For me, that is very different from my previous research, where I've
been looking at electronics to go into computers, to actually help somebody
… if I can pull that off that will be a tremendous thrill for me.

Taylor also is working under a Research Corp. grant to pursue fractal-based
solar cells.

*SOURCE:* University of Oregon;
http://uonews.uoregon.edu/archive/news-release/2011/5/forecast-calls-nanoflowers-help-return-eyesight

*Posted by:* Gail
Overtonhttp://www.optoiq.com/index/photonics-technologies-applications/lfw-about-us/lfw-contact-editorial-staff.html#gailoverton




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[AI] Fwd: Braille Mobile Phone

2011-08-28 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Braille Mobile Phone Concept For the Blind
DrawBraille Phone concept from designer Shikun Sun at UK's Sheffield
Hallam University is a mobile phone dedicated to work for the visually
impaired. The phone provides haptic feedback to the user by means of
mechanically raised dots at one end, touch sensitive dots on the
other, and raised dots on the phone's edge indicate battery life.
There's a small braille text display analogous to visual displays in
conventional phones. This display outputs five rows at a time, and
up-down buttons in the corner could allow users to navigate through
the display.


DrawBraille touch-enabled cellphone for the visually impaired
 DrawBraille PhoneDrawBraille Phone by Shikun Sun
Although most of us in the sighted world almost never think about it,
but recent developments in technology have been a tad discriminating
when it comes to people with disabilities. One such development that
stands out more than the others is the cellphone segment which simply
cannot be used by people with visual disabilities. However, there are
innovators who are developing concepts that look to level the playing
field. DrawBraille touch-enabled cellphone is one of the more
revolutionary products in this category that we have seen in quite a
while.


Picture Gallery
DrawBraille Phone

DrawBraille Phone by Shikun Sun
The phone basically uses the Braille alphabet embossed on the surface
of the phone to aid both input and output functions. With mechanical
dots forming the input area and larger square patterns serving as the
display, the phone offers regular-cellphone like functionality to the
device without ever becoming inaccessible for the visually disabled.

There are 210 mechanical dots on the phone's reading area that
represent the 35 Braille alphabets in 5 rows. Users simply have to
slide their fingers over these dots to read phone menu, access the
phonebook, read emails and text messages as well as e-books and even
potentially surf the net using this Braille reader.

Developed by designer Shikun Sun, the touch-enabled phone also uses
touch-input functions to make phone usage simpler for the blind. Other
innovations on the product include functions like checking battery
status via Braille, locking the touchpad and even locating nearby
public facilities and using the phone as a music player.

--

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[AI] Fwd: Intel Reader

2011-08-23 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Intel Reader Increases Independence for Visually Impaired
Posted in E Reader
Recently, Intel start to sell a new portable handheld e-reader that
can snap pictures of books and newspapers and then read them back to
people who have a hard time reading the printed page.



Called the Intel Reader, the device can assist the people with
reading-based disabilities, such as dyslexia or low-vision, or for
those who are blind.



The Intel Reader, about the size of a paperback book, has a
high-resolution 5 megapixel autofocus camera with a focus range of up
to one meter. With the power of an Intel Atom processor, allowing
users to point, shoot and listen to printed text. For large amounts of
text, Intel offers a separate device called a portable capture
station that makes it possible to use the reader as a scanner for
more quickly capturing and converting multiple pages from a book or
large documents.



For people with low vision, the Reader's 4.3 inch LCD display (16:9
aspect ratio) can zoom in and out of text, the size of which can be
easily adjusted, according to Intel.



Prototypes of the paper-back sized device were tested with more than
400 visually-impaired users, including some who were completely blind.
The reader can adjust the speed of reading, and it's 2GB of storage
can hold about 500,000 pages of text; roughly 600 pages of scanned
books, claims Intel.

-

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[AI] Fwd: Windows 8 as revolutionary as Win 95: Microsoft

2011-08-17 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Windows 8 as revolutionary as Win 95: Microsoft
TOI TechTOI Tech | Aug 17, 2011, 03.20PM IST
Microsoft has revealed that Windows 8 will be available for public
testing in the coming monthsNEW DELHI: What Microsoft Windows 95 did
to PC industry 16 years ago, the upcoming Windows 8 is set to do the
same! At least that's what the world's biggest software maker,
Microsoft, is hoping.

In its Windows 8 development blog called Building Windows 8, or B8,
the company has invited people to discuss and will provide details
about the upcoming OS. The software major plans to offer insights into
how it focuses on performance, reliability, compatibility, security
and quality of Windows 8.

In the blog post, Microsoft President (Windows division) Steven
Sinofsky has claimed Windows 8 will be as revolutionary as the
legendary Windows 95. Microsoft intends to post regularly throughout
the development of Windows 8, and to focus on the engineering of the
product.

Though Microsoft has remained tight-lipped on the release date of
Windows 8, the company has revealed that it will be available for
public testing in the coming months. The company also reinforced that
Windows 8 will support the hardware that is compatible with over 400
million Windows 7 licenses already sold and all the Windows 7 yet to
be sold.

Though the blog doesn't offer a glimpse into the features and design
of the upcoming OS, back in June, the software maker had previewed a
touchscreen version of Windows 8 that can run on tablets and desktop
computers. The design of the upcoming OS is similar to the tile
interface on Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 mobile-handset software.

The company had then previewed Windows 8 on tablets, notebooks and
desktop systems made by Dell Inc, Asustek Computer Inc, and Quanta
Computer Inc using chips and technology from ARM Holdings Plc (ARM),
Qualcomm Inc, Texas Instruments Inc and Nvidia Corp.

Microsoft also plans to host a conference BUILD in September, which
will provide more details about the full spectrum of tools and
capabilities available on Windows 8. Microsoft, which for long has
been shying away from giving out information on Windows 8, promises to
give more information on the features of the OS in the coming weeks,
from fundamentals to user interface to hardware support.
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[AI] Fwd: Speed Dots screen guard for iPhone

2011-08-07 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below a very good news, hope you all like it.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Speed Dots screen guard for iPhone help the visually impaired
  Friday, 05 August 2011 14:40
  Kunal Khullar
  Apple

Speed Dots a company that specializes in the manufacturing and
distribution of tactile screen protectors for use with the Apple line
of products has come up with a custom screen overlay which provides
guidance and facilitate navigation of touch screen devices by placing
a single dot over each letter and control, making it easier for blind
and visually impaired individuals using the Voiceover screen reader to
orient and input text and access screen controls quickly and
efficiently.

It is available for the iPod touch and iPhone and will be available
for the iPad soon.

The following functions can be accessed:

Top Left: Back/Cancel
Top Right: Ok/Done
Below Ok: Add contact from address book in SMS/email
Top Center: Search/Heading/Safari address bar
Center of Screen: Number “5″ on the phone pad
Middle Right: Send button for text messages
Across the Bottom: 5 evenly spaced dots representing soft key functions
Lower Left: Shift
Lower right: Delete/Backspace

--

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[AI] Fwd: Seeing with your ears

2011-08-07 Thread wahid raza
hello,
pasting below article, which get from another list.
Warm Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Scientific breakthrough: Seeing with your ears
Thanks to a prototypical device, blind people can now scan their
environment with special software that translates obstacles into sound
warnings
posted on August 5, 2011, at 3:50 PM

The combination of a special pair of glasses, a webcam, and a
smartphone can help the blind see again. Photo: Michael Proulx

A neuroscientist has unveiled an amazing new device that could allow
the blind to visualize what's around them, helping them to navigate
through their surroundings. Though it's still just a prototype, the
device, named the vOICe, was unveiled this week at the American
Psychological Association meeting in Washington, D.C. It combines a
set of goggles, a webcam, a smartphone, and earbuds to convert visual
information into sound. Here, a brief guide to this innovation:

How does the vOICe work?
A webcam that's mounted in the goggles takes a snapshot, which is
scanned from left to right by the smartphone's vOICe software program.
Objects in the snapshot are assigned different frequencies and
volumes, based on where they're located. Then the listener hears a
soundscape where the changes in frequency and volume correspond to
the objects in the snapshot image, again from left to right, says
neuroscientist Michael Proulx, as quoted in Discovery News. If there's
an obstacle such as an ottoman on the user's left, it will be
represented by a shift in tone and frequency that occurs in the first
part of the recording.

Is this all new technology?
Not really; the technology to convert visual signals into audio has
been around for about 15 years, but with advances in phone technology,
mobiles are now smart enough to handle the required imaging
software, says Tibi Puiu on ZME Science. Also, the small size of
newer smartphones is what makes this technology easily portable for
the first time.

Is the vOICe easy to use?
Not at first: The developer has found that one of the biggest
challenges is that it takes people three months of training to use
it. But once a blind or visually impaired person gets used to the
device, it's expected to give them much more independence than they
would otherwise enjoy.

Sources: Discovery News, ZME Science
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[AI] Fwd: College-Made Device Helps Visually Impaired Students See

2011-08-02 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

College-Made Device Helps Visually Impaired Students See and Take Notes
August 1, 2011, 5:51 pm

By Rachel Wiseman

College students with very poor vision have had to struggle to see a
blackboard and take notes-basic tasks that can hold some back. Now a
team of four students from Arizona State University has designed a
system, called Note-Taker, that couples a tablet PC and a video
camera, and could be a major advance over the small eyeglass-mounted
telescopes that many students have had to rely on. It recently won
second place in Microsoft's Imagine Cup technology competition.

There are roughly 75,000 students at colleges and trade schools who
are visually impaired. The telescopes allow students with low vision
to see the blackboard, but they can only focus on one section at a
time. Then they have to take off the telescope, write notes, and then
go back to the board and try and catch up with the lecture.

David S. Hayden, who graduated from Arizona State in May, understands
these challenges-he can only read texts if he gets about two inches
away from the material. Mr. Hayden, the lead designer of Note-Taker,
says he faced a morbid tradeoff in class. Using the assistive
technology that was available to him, he could either take notes or
listen and absorb the information, but never both. After he had to
withdraw from three senior-level math classes, he says, I realized
the existing technologies weren't going to assist my needs, so I had a
project on my hands.

The result was Note-Taker, which connects a tablet PC (a laptop with a
screen you can write on) to a high-resolution video camera. Screen
commands get the camera to pan and zoom. The video footage, along with
audio, can be played in real time on the tablet and are also saved for
later reference. Alongside the video is a space for typed or
handwritten notes, which students can jot down using a stylus. That
should be helpful in math and science courses, says Mr. Hayden, where
students need to copy down graphs, charts, and symbols not readily
available on a keyboard.

Mr. Hayden built a prototype of the device with the help of John A.
Black Jr., a researcher specializing in computing and human visual
perception at the university's Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous
Computing. The project was then awarded a grant from the National
Science Foundation and refined with the help of Michael Astrauskas,
Shashank Srinivas, and Qian Yan, who are Arizona State students.

It's unlike what I've seen, says Clara Van Gerven, an
access-technology content specialist with the National Federation of
the Blind. The handwriting feature seems valuable, and she has not
seen it in other computer-compatible video-recording systems.
Note-Taker, she says, uses existing technology to its advantage and
then adds the rewind feature and the manual note-taking to that. It
seems like it would be a useful tool.

But no tool can replace institutional support, says Chris S.
Danielsen, director of public relations for the federation. The
university is always going to have to make sure that whatever
technology it uses is accessible to blind and low-vision students, he
says. (Arizona State U. has gotten in hot water in the past in just
this area.)

The team continues to develop the Note-Taker-a fourth-generation model
is already in the works-and is looking into ways to get it on the
market. Though the prototype is prohibitively expensive, the designers
hope to bring the price tag down to $1,000 per camera unit (the tablet
PC would be purchased separately), so that it will be affordable to
more consumers. Their second-place finish a few weeks ago in the
Imagine Cup's software-design category may also attract some interest.

Mr. Hayden is starting graduate school in the fall at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He's taking one of the
Note-Taker models with him to use when classes resume.

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[AI] Fwd: Robotic navigation aids the visually impaired

2011-08-02 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below very important article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

Robotic navigation aids the visually impaired
Compiled by Photonics Spectra staff
LOS ANGELES - A robot vision-based mobility aid that was shown a year
ago is now being further developed to help the visually impaired
navigate city streets, neighborhoods, offices and other complex
locations.



This robotic navigation system has a binocular camera that is linked
by sophisticated direction-finding software to a vest that directs the
wearer around obstacles. Images courtesy of USC Viterbi School of
Engineering.


Most visually impaired people still rely on a very rudimentary
technology - a simple cane - to navigate the world. Meanwhile,
engineering researchers at the University of Southern California have
developed software that sees the world. The software is linked to a
system that provides tactile messages that alert users about objects
in their paths, such as low-hanging branches.

The system uses a camera that is worn on the head and connected to a
PC that uses simultaneous localization and mapping software to build
maps of the environment and to identify a safe path around obstacles.
The route information is then conveyed to the user through a guide
vest that has four micromotors located on the shoulder and waist. They
vibrate like a cell phone.



Simultaneous localization and mapping software analyzes data from
stereo camera views (above) to create 3-D renderings of the scene
(below) and to map a path through it.


If a low-hanging branch, for example, is to the left of a visually
impaired person, a micromotor will vibrate on the left shoulder.
Scientists say that this technology, unlike a cane, will enable the
user to avoid falls and other serious injuries when approaching larger
objects.

The researchers tested the system on blind subjects at the Braille
Institute and received positive feedback. They are now working on ways
to improve the prototype. Because the head-mounted camera is bulky,
they are working on a microcamera system that could be attached to
glasses. The goal is to have the system in place by the end of the
year.



Less bulky than the current head-mounted camera, the next-generation
system the team is working on, pictured here, will use a microcamera
that could be attached to glasses.


Funding for the research - which will be used to help veterans who
have been blinded during their military service - was provided by the
National Science Foundation, the US Army and the W.M. Keck Foundation.

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[AI] Fwd: Looking beyond Microsoft Outlook Gmail

2011-07-31 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
 pasting below article, which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Big companies tend to rely on Microsoft Outlook for their email.
Private users tend to favour free Webmail services. BERLIN: Big
companies tend to rely on Microsoft Outlook for their email. Private
users tend to favour free Webmail services. But there is a way to
combine aspects of both to get the best of both worlds for private
users.

Webmail is universal these days, mostly because basic versions of so
many systems are free online. But there are a lot of services out
there beyond Google and Yahoo, the two biggest names in the field.

The advantages are obvious. You can get your mail from any computer
with an internet connection and the files don't have to be downloaded
onto the computer, which can take time with bigger attachments. Plus,
the services filter out spam, which makes up the majority of today's
email traffic.

That would be enough for a perfect world. But, although many people
use webmail and are happy with it, online forums are full of
complaints about slow reaction times, poor search functions, bad
management, overzealous or lackadaisical spam filtering, floods of ads
or too little storage space.

And, at the core of it, is the fact that you have to be online to do
anything with your mail. Plus, many people have collected mailboxes at
different services over the years, all of which have to be checked
individually.

That means that, more often than not, people find they need some kind
of client software for their webmail, so they can save and manage
their email.

Microsoft Outlook is the classic, but it's not free. And, in the
newest versions of Office, from 2010, Outlook is not packaged in with
the cheapest set, Home and Student, which costs 90 euros (127
dollars). To get Outlook, customers need to seek out Home and
Business, which costs 260 euros.

But there are free alternatives. Mozilla, the designer of the Firefox
browser, offers its free client, Thunderbird.

One advantage of its newest offering, Version 5, is an assistant to
set up email accounts. Previously, users had to know the protocols
like POP3 or IMAP or STMP for each service during setup, which was a
high hurdle for some. The new function only requires name, email
address and password to be entered. The assistant finds the rest in
its database.

Just like in a web browser, Thunderbird can be used to open individual
mails in tabs, stacking them on top of one another. The search engine
has been outfitted with a quick filter, which immediately shows
results as the search is typed in. There is also a timeline for
helping people to quickly get to the right message.

There is a news archive for permanent storage. There's also a group
folder where users can put together incoming mail from diverse mail
accounts as well as sent or archived messages. And, just like Firefox,
there's a bunch of additional add-ons for extra functions.

Norwegian browser specialist Opera integrated its email client right
into its browser. Even though it looks like a webmail service, the
mails are saved directly onto the hard drive and are accessible
offline. As soon as an internet connection is available, Opera
synchronizes the machine with the mail server.

Instead of the normal folders, Opera Mail uses filter views, for
example, for news or for specific people or topics with a programmed
keyword.

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Re: [AI] Phone softwear

2011-07-25 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
those who are looking for I phone they can ,
perchase it only 19 to 20 thousand I phone 3gs and another good news
is that  comes with unlocked network, it means you can use any network
on I phone
whether it is Airtel, Voda phone  or any other service provider.
Yet I phone 4gs is newly lonched phone but it prise is very high
but in India where 3g service is not developed  cumpletly, is not a
big issue between 3g or 4g, and we every one knows that
I phone accessibility is fantastic, not a singal problems comes
durring using it,
so, you can go with I phone 3gs without any doubts.
Regards
Wahid

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[AI] Fwd: Israeli invention gives 'sight' to blind population

2011-07-25 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Israeli invention gives 'sight' to blind population
By Viva Sarah Press
Monday, 25 July 2011
Within days of exhibiting its virtual cane device for
the blind, Hebrew University scientists grabbed headlines for a little
gadget about to change the lives of millions of people across the
globe.

From left are Lior Reich, Dr. Daniel-Robert Chebat, Dr.
Amir Amedi, Shachar Maidenbaum, Sami Abboud and Uri Hertz. Amir is
holding the Yes-Eye-Cane device. [Amir Amedi photo]

It's dubbed Yes-Eye-Cane, and it's meant to replace the
traditional white cane used by the sight-impaired population for
getting around. It was developed by Dr. Amir Amedi - of the Institute
for Medical Research Israel-Canada at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem - and his team to improve orientation and mobility of the
sight-impaired by helping them estimate the distance and height of
obstacles in their path.

It enables the detection of obstacles that are much
farther away than the one-metre radius of the regular white cane, Dr.
Daniel-Robert Chebat, who works in Amedi's Laboratory for Multisensory
Research at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told The CJN. The
user does not need to actually touch an object with a stick to feel
it. The sensors of the device do this instead. This device is much
more discreet and avoids clumsily hitting objects with a stick to
sense their presence.

Chebat, 32, who grew up in Montreal, heard about Amedi's
research while working on his doctorate at Université de Montréal, at
the school of optometry in neuropsychology.

I was working with a different sensory substitution
device, and I was interested in navigation in blind people using
sensory substitution, said Chebat, an Azrieli Post-doctoral Fellow in
the department of medical neurobiology at Hebrew U. I wanted to
continue exploring this fascinating topic of sensory substitution and
brain plasticity after finishing my PhD [in 2010]. I had heard of the
amazing research Dr. Amir Amedi had been doing. and I quickly realized
that this dynamic and creative lab was the very best place in the
world for me to pursue my scientific aspirations and ambitions as a
researcher.

Israeli universities are reputed to be on the cutting
edge of science and constantly searching to apply this science to
everyday life.

Chebat - along with other members of Amedi's team -
demonstrated how to use the Yes-Eye-Cane at the recent Israeli
Presidential Conference in Jerusalem. The device was unveiled as part
of a larger exhibition presented by Yissum, the technology transfer
arm of Hebrew U.

Dr. Amedi's promising invention can endow visually
impaired people with the freedom to freely navigate in their
surroundings without unintentionally bumping into or touching other
people and thus has the potential to significantly enhance their
quality of life, said Yaacov Michlin, CEO of Yissum.??So, here's how
it works.

Users point the hand-held unit, which emits an invisible
focused beam, in the direction they are walking. The cane incorporates
several sensors that estimate the distance between the user and the
object it is pointed at. That information is then relayed to the user
by a series of vibrations, allowing the blind person to reconstruct an
accurate image of the surroundings and navigate safely.

The virtual cane is easy to carry, can function for up to
12 hours and is easy to charge. It is also highly intuitive, and a
user can learn to handle within just a few minutes.

Scientifically, the device has given researchers a window
into the workings of the brain.

The amazing thing about these devices is how the brain of
someone who is born blind reacts to them. The visual parts of the
brain treat this information as if it were real vision coming from the
eyes, said Chebat.

Basically, there is a conservation of function in the
brain and the parts of the brain that normally are used to see with
the eyes are co-opted to analyze the visual information now coming
through the ears. So, it is not just sound with the properties of
vision, if the brain is treating it like visual information and people
using these devices can detect objects, recognize shapes and do all
kinds of tasks that we normally do with vision. It is possible to say
that they are seeing with sound, or seeing with touch.

There are nearly 200 million visually-impaired people
globally and 40 million of whom are legally blind. According to the
National Coalition for Vision Health, there are 278,000 Canadians who
are visually impaired and 108,000 who are legally blind.

 The Yes-Eye-Cane device is designed for people who are
completely blind from birth, people who became 

[AI] Fwd: Ford teaches blind people how to drive stick

2011-07-23 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below a very intrusting article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid

-- Forwarded message --

Ford teaches blind people how to drive stick
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 at 7:20 am


Ford teaches blind people how to drive stick,
Filed under: Etc., Europe, Ford



Ford recently invited 30 visually-impaired individuals to its Merkenic
Development Center test track in Cologne, Germany to put them behind
the wheel for a few high-speed exercises. The program was designed to
give the disabled individuals a better understanding of how vehicles
behave in traffic and how they react to driver input at speed.

According to Ford, since the blind rely on sound to gauge how fast a
vehicle is approaching, they may not always calculate accurately. Ford
allowed the individuals to build up speed with the help of a driving
instructor, and the company says that the fastest driver of the day
ratcheted the vehicle all the way to 74 miles per hour.

The blind weren't just behind the wheel of vehicles equipped with
automatic transmissions, either. In many cases, participants had never
driven a manual transmission before, but the instructors said that
they took to the mechanics quicker than most licensed drivers. Being
forced to listen to the engine and feel the vehicle under you likely
goes a long way toward improving your third-pedal learning curve.

This isn't Ford's first foray into helping blind people live their
dream of driving. In 2009, the automaker put Roger Keeney who has been
blind since 1990, behind he wheel of a brand new 2010 Mustang
convertible, which he then proceeded to have quite a bit of fun with.
as you can see in the included image gallery.

Ford says that with the advent of radar-based driving aids, it could
be possible to help the visually-impaired drive on their own in the
near future. Head over to The Ford Story for the full tale.

Ford teaches blind people how to drive stick originally appeared on
Autoblog on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for
use of feeds.

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[AI] Fwd: What’s new @ Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail

2011-07-17 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below a very useful article which get from another list .
Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

All major free email services have added several new features. Here's
how to make the most of it.
Yahoo Mail offers unlimited storage for users. No more worrying about
how many heavy attachments have been sent to you. With Yahoo, you can
send free text messages to cell phones. Simply enter the phone number
or choose a contact from your list and type out the SMS.

The recipient can reply to the SMS to send a message back. It offers
the option to view mail, SMS or Chats as a conversation for easy
reading and reference. You can attach up to 25MB in a mail, however,
Yahoo has tied up with Yousendit.com to send files up to 2GB in a
mail. Attachments are stored on Yousendit servers and can be
downloaded for 30days.

You also get 1GB online cloud storage with Yahoo as they have a tie up
with ZumoDrive. A quick sign-up is required first time to integrate
ZumoDrive with Yahoo Mail. After that, you can upload, download from
within the mail window itself. In terms of social networking , there
is integrated Facebook chat as well as a tie up with Sobees. Sobees
allows access to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Myspace.

You can view the feeds from various networks and update status on
multiple networks in one go. There are a variety of layout options
available as per your choice. Yahoo Mail also has a stationery
feature, which allows mails to be created with various custom
backgrounds to give it a funkier look.

Another tie-up with Fontself allows you to send mail in various fonts.
An integrated notepad allows you to save notes to yourself, and sort
them into folders for later use.
Gmail’s 7GB+ storage is constantly expanding. Plus, you can purchase
an additional 20GB of space for only $4.99. Gmail’s built in
audio/video chat is used by many - plus it can save all chat history.
Numerous experimental 'labs ' features are available to all users.
Many useful features like ‘undo sending’, custom keyboard shortcuts
and mouse gestures can easily be enabled from the labs menu.

Completely integrates with Google Docs, Google Calendar, Picasa,
Google+, Google Buzz. Gmail’s activity tracker lets you track which IP
address has accessed your account, to look out for suspicious activity
(such as access from another country). For additional security of your
account, Gmail offers free two-step authentication - with a password
sent via sms.

You can download any Google account data as a .zip file (for backup)
or to free up used space in the ‘data liberation’ section. Gmail’s
contact manager has powerful editing features - it also automatically
gets synced to any Android device (when you sign in with your Google
account).

Advanced email filters, mail sorting features (priority inbox, labels,
stars, markers ) make it easy to manage emails. You can pull email
from any account, but also ‘send as’ from another account.
GMX offers unlimited storage, 50MB attachments on each email and an
uncluttered interface with a preview pane. You can add widgets to the
home page (daily comic strips, Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, games
and so on). These are visible as soon as you sign in.

The built in mail collector feature can pull in email from various
accounts - to read all your mail within GMX itself. Before you decide
to go with GMX, you can check for available usernames on the homepage
itself - without going through any of the sign up process. GMX
includes built in file storage - an additional 2GB of storage for any
files. It essentially works like a virtual drive in which you can
create folders, share folders with others and download contents as zip
files.

Once you sign in, you get access to the GMX forum, where you can post
your questions about GMX or read guides and get support on various
features. You can open email in tabs within the same browser
tab/window.

This allows you to read/compose multiple emails at the same time. It
integrates with Facebook to allow wall posting and sharing of photos.
Free Pop3/IMAP access is offered, so that you can access mail offline
using any email program. The user labs feature lets you suggest new
features and improvements in the platform.

Once you’re a part of the community, you can activate experimental
features for your account and give feedback. GMX claims to only use
clean energy to power data centers.

Hotmail storage expands as per your need. In theory, this is unlimited
storage that keeps growing as you store more mails in your inbox. You
can group mails from the same sender in a conversation view. This way
if there are multiple emails being sent to and fro, it is easier to
follow up and read.

You can connect with Facebook, Myspace and Linkedin to view feeds on
the home page of Windows Live. However, if you have set Hotmail to go
directly to your inbox, you will have to go back to ‘Home View’ to
view the connected feeds. Hotmail Plus allows you to create as many

[AI] Fwd: Magic Glasses Could Help the Blind See

2011-07-10 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below a very intrusting article.
Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

Magic Glasses Could Help the Blind See

Sunday, July 10, 2011 by dxvison
Bionic glasses that could help hundreds of blind people to see this
again soon sold. Oxford University researchers who contributed to
developing these glasses. 'smart glasses' uses a tiny camera and a
pocket computer to alert users to the object and the person in front
of him. These glasses will facilitate the visually impaired when they
go shopping and to the train station. In fact, this tool can make the
blind 'read' bus number and the computer display on the ATM. If the
test is successful, these glasses can be found on the market in 2014.
According to the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, the most
important thing, the price is less than £ 1,000 (Rp13, 7 million) will
make these glasses can reach many people. clinical neuro science
researcher Dr. Stephen Hicks which received funding from the Ministry
of Health said, These glasses are very satisfactory and will be
manufactured at a price that could reach everyone. Currently, as
reported Dailymail, Hicks claimed to have been working on prototype
versions of these glasses.



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[AI] Fwd: TEN THINGS ABOUT GMAIL.

2011-07-10 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below article from another list
Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

Gmail is one of the most widely used email service worldwide. There
are various reasons for its popularity such as storage space, fast
user interface, free sign-up, and a seamless integration with other
Google services.

However, there are a lot of features that can enhance the user
experience of the mail service by manifold. Most users are aware of
the features that are enabled by default and use them regularly.

Here are 10 of the lesser-known enhancements available in Gmail that
are disabled by default, but are extremely useful.
By default, Gmail gives you the option of only attaching images to an
email. However, with this feature enabled you can embed images from
your computer or from a website directly into the mail body. Go to
Settings, click on Labs, scroll down to the feature that says
Inserting Images and enable it. You will notice the new insert image
box in your mail composer right next to the emoticon icon.
Pressed the send mail button too quickly? Gmail Labs has a feature
that gives you a few seconds to stop the mail from going out after you
press the send button. Go to Settings, click on Labs and enable the
option that says Undo Send.

Click General under Settings and here you can select the time (up to
30 seconds) for which the email can be stopped after it is sent. When
you press the send button and the inbox comes up, you would see a
yellow box saying, Your message has been sent. Undo or View message
on top. Click on undo to cancel sending the mail and get the draft
back. You can then make the necessary changes to the text or add the
recipients you forgot and send again
This feature is useful for people who have multiple Gmail address or
who want to grant read/write permission for their account to another
user. Go to Settings, click on Accounts and Import, at the bottom you
will see an option that says Grant Access to your account.

Click on Add Account and enter the Gmail address of the person you
want to grant access. Once the person accepts the verification mail,
he/she can access your account by clicking on the arrow next to his
own mail ID on top right and selecting your mail ID. The access allows
the user to read, write and delete mails.
Gmail's default reply button composes the mail to the person who has
sent the mail ignoring all the people who were put in CC. If you have
to do a reply all, you have to press the arrow next to the reply box
and then select reply to all.

Instead, you can set the reply to all function as default. Go to
Settings, click on Labs and enable Default reply to all feature. It
is far simpler to just remove selective email IDs from the CC box than
selecting  reply to all from a drop down box every time.
While communicating with friends, family or colleagues in different
parts of the world, we sometimes forget about time zones. While it is
mid-afternoon for you, it might be midnight for the recipient and
hence an immediate reply will not come.

To know the difference in time zones for both parties, enable the
Sender Time Zone feature by going to Settings and clicking on Labs.
Now, when you click on show details in the mail, you can see the
time at which you have sent the mail and what time is at the
receiver's end and vice versa.
Sometimes, you want to just have a quick look at the mail without
opening the whole conversation. Gmail Labs enables you to do this with
a simple tweak. Go to Settings, click on Labs and enable the Message
Sneak Peak feature.

Now, when you right click on any mail from the inbox, it will show you
the latest mail received or sent in the conversation along with
options to delete or mark as read, you don't have to open the entire
conversation.
You've probably noticed those little one, line ads that keep rotating
on the top of the inbox above the various buttons. Not only are they
unobtrusive, but also they can be rather helpful, sometimes offering
relevant information.

Those ads are called Web-Clips and Gmail gives you the option to
select what kind of content you want to see there. Go to Settings,
click on Web-Clips and here you can remove all the topics that Gmail
has added by default. Instead add the topics that you want to read
about from the available selection. You can also add the RSS feed of
your favorite website by entering it in the search box on the left and
adding the feed.
While checking your mail or going through results of searched mail,
when you delete or achieve a conversation, Gmail takes you back to the
inbox or search results listing. Wouldn't it be great if instead of
going back to the listing, Gmail would open the next or previous mail?

Go to Settings, click on Labs and enable the Auto-Advance feature.
Now click on General and there select if you would like Gmail to take
you to the next mail, previous mail or back to the listing interface
when you delete or archive a mail. Depending on your preferences

[AI] Fwd: EYE 21 system lets the blind see through sound

2011-07-08 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
Pasting below the article which get from another list.
Regards
Wahid Raza


-- Forwarded message --

EYE 21 system lets the blind see through the use of sound
By Tyler Lee - 07/07/2011 06:37 PDT
It seems that there have been quite a lot of new technologies that
coming up directed at those who are visually impaired or blind, and
that can only be a good thing! We had previously reported on a
virtual cane that made use of sonar to help map out obstacles and
objects, and only a couple of hours ago we wrote a post on a prototype
high-tech glasses that makes use of augmented reality to help the
visually impaired see. Now we have the EYE 21, developed by
engineers from the Research Center for Graphic Technologies at Spain's
Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), which seems to work
somewhat similarly to the virtual cane.

Much like the virtual cane, EYE 21 relies on the use of sound to
help guide those who are visually impaired or blind. The sunglasses
come with two built-in micro video cameras, a computer and a pair of
headphones. The cameras then analyze the space in front of the wearer
and then proceeds to create a three dimensional model of it, and
sounds are then assigned to various surfaces in that space, which are
then played back through the headphones.

Users who have tested out the prototypes have reported that they are
able to hear space thanks to their brain which has managed to turn
those sounds into shapes. We have no idea when the EYE 21 will be put
to mass production, but at least it's in its prototype stage, rather
than just being a concept.



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[AI] Fwd: Facebook, Skype to launch video chat service: Report

2011-07-05 Thread wahid raza
Hi folks,
pasting below the article which get from another mailing list
Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

Facebook at present is the most influential and one of the biggest
social networking sites in the world having over 500 million active
usersHOUSTON: Just as Google's next big thing ' Google Plus' is all
set to launch, Facebook and Skype are about to strike a deal that
would bring the video chatting service to the social networking site.

With Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promising an awesome new feature
on July 6, Skype, which was recently purchased by Microsoft for a
whopping $8.5 billion, could become a fixture on the world's largest
social network.

The beta version of Google's social network, Google Plus, debuted last
week to rave reviews, especially for its +Hangouts feature that allows
for multi-user video chat.

At present, Facebook users update message and status through their
profile, and share photos but the addition of video chat will bring an
interesting change to their account.

Editor of Tech Crunch, Michael Arrington stated in the Next Week that
Facebook, in collaboration with Skype, will unveil its video chat
option which will be powered by Skype.

This move will strengthen Facebook's position in the social networking market.

Facebook at present is the most influential and one of the biggest
social networking sites in the world having over 500 million active
users.

This isn't the first time that Skype has been linked to Facebook.

Back in September 2010 the same rumour reared its head and this March
it was reported that talks had resumed between the two companies.

Citing an insider source, Techcrunch announced the news, describing
the powered-by-Skype Facebook video chat: The product has been built
on Skype and will include a desktop component.

It's not clear to me whether that means it will just work if a user
has Skype already installed on the computer, or if additional software
will need to be downloaded even if the user already uses Skype.

But it's clear that there's very deep integration between the
products, and from the user's perspective, the product will be an in
browser experience.

Official word will come out tomorrow when Facebook holds an event at
its Palo Alto headquarters.

---

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[AI] Fwd: Fw: Survey on Assistive Technology Use in India (For Working Visually Impaired Users but Non-Programmers)

2011-07-04 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below the information plzz read carefully
and support the servay and forword to others.
Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

Dear All
nbsp;
Below is an email by Ms. Tanvi Marballi, a Masters student at the
Polytechnic Institute of New York University (USA) who is conducting a
survey on the use and effectiveness of Assistive Technology in India,
related to vision impairment.
nbsp;
There are three different surveys for different sections of the
demography as mentioned in the subject line.
1) For non-working visually impaired users
2) For Working Visually Impaired Users and Programmers
3) For Working Visually Impaired Users but Non-Programmers
nbsp;
Kindly fill in the survey that suits your employment status as per the
instructions given below.
nbsp;
Thanks.XRCVCSt.Xavier's College,Mumbai

-

Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 05:54:39 +Subject: Survey on Assistive
Technology Use in India (For Working Visually Impaired Users but
Non-Programmers)From: tanvimarballi@gmail.comTo: s...@xrcvc.org
If you have trouble viewing or submitting this form, you can fill it
out online: 
https://spreadsheets1.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGtJVEo3d05FMy1uOG9kRk00UWIwTkE6MQ


Survey on Assistive Technology Use in India (For Working Visually
Impaired Users but Non-Programmers)
Purpose of the Survey: Hi, I am Tanvi Marballi,a Masters student at
the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (USA) and I am
conducting a survey on the use and effectiveness of Assistive
Technology in India, related to vision impairment. Following are a set
of close-ended questions that relate to your use of assistive
technology, primarily related to computing interfaces such as screen
readers, text-to-speech, and braille displays. The ob-jective of the
study is to help come up with the right set of questions and
frameworks to better understand the current state of assistive
technology use in India, and consider some future directions for
technological development and social science research in this space.
All surveys are completely anonymous and no personally identifiable
information will be gathered in the process of this survey.





I. DEMOGRAPHICS MODULE
Please note, all check-boxes are located before, i.e to the left of
the options noted, and text boxes where needed are located after, i.e
to the right of the options noted.


1. Age


2. Gender

 Option 1:Male
 Option 2:Female


3. Location (City, State, Zip, Country)


4. Education: Please enter the highest level of formal education completed

 Option 1:Primary School
 Option 2:Secondary School
 Option 3:Some college, but no degree
 Option 4:Vocational degree
 Option 5:Bachelor's degree
 Option 6:Master's degree
 Option 7:Professional degree or Doctoral degree


5. How would you cl-assify your visual acuity?

 Option 1:Mild vision loss: (20/30 to 20/60) vision
 Option 2:Moderate vision impairment: (20/70 to 20/160) vision
 Option 3:Severe visual impairment: (20/200 to 20/400) vision
 Option 4:Profound to near total: (20/500 and above) vision
 Option 5: No Light Perception: Total visual impairment or total blindness
 Other:



II. HISTORICAL USE OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY
Please note, all check-boxes are located before, i.e to the left of
the options noted, and text boxes where needed are located after, i.e
to the right of the options noted.


6. Can you yourself use a computer without another person's help?

 Option 1:Yes
 Option 2:No


7. Which of the following describes your primary interface with a
computer? (i.e. that which you use most frequently while on a
computer)

 Option1: Screen reader and audio (Headphones, speakers etc.)
 Option 2:Screen reader and tactile output (Braille displays)
 Option 3:Magnification
 Option 4:Roughly equally both magnification and screen readers
 Other:


8. How many hours, on average, would you say you use the computer per day?


9. How long have you been using a computer (in years)?


10. How long have you been using a screen reader?


11. What computer platform (or platforms) do you regularly use?
(Windows,Linux etc.)


12. Where did you first use a computer?

 Option 1:School
 Option 2:College
 Option 3:Home
 Option 4:NGO / Training Center
 Option 5:Computer cl-ass
 Option 6:Office
 Other:


13. Where did you first use Assistive Technology?

 Option 1:School
 Option 2:College
 Option 3:Home
 Option 4:NGO / Training Center
 Option 5:Computer cl-ass
 Option 6:Office
 Other:


14.Were you already a computer user before acquiring a visual impairment?

 Option 1:N/A - I have always been visually impaired
 Option 2:Yes
 Option 3:No


15. Do you own a computer, if yes what kind?

 Option 1:Own a desktop
 Option 2:Own a laptop
 Option 3:Both
 Option 4:N/A - I do not own a computer


16. Where do you typically use a screen reader?

 Option 1:School
 Option 2:College
 Option 3:Home
 Option 4:NGO / Training Center
 Option 5:Computer cl-ass
 Option 6:Office
 Other:


17. How did

[AI] Fwd: a virtual cane for the blind

2011-06-22 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
hope all are doing fine
pasting below a very intrusting information.
Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

  Israeli researchers develop a virtual cane for the blind

  English.news.cn   2011-06-22 06:14:40



JERUSALEM, June 21 (Xinhua) -- A cane that works as a virtual
flashlight to help the visually impaired with spatial navigation was
displayed at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem on
Tuesday.

Developed by Amir Amedi of Medical Research Israel-Canada, and the
Department of Medicine of Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU) , the
device uses sensors to detect objects in the users path.

The cane modulates the strength of its vibration, harder or softer, as
the user either approaches or moves away from an object.

Its developers say the device is significantly more efficient than the
traditional white cane.

The virtual flashlight also allows the blind person to assess the
height and distance of various objects around them, and reconstruct an
accurate internal image of the surroundings in order to navigate
safely.

Presented as part of the exhibition of HU's Research Today for a
Better Tomorrow, a blindfolded exhibitor used the virtual cane to
successfully walk through a small maze, using only the cane for cues.

The virtual cane, Amedi told Xinhua, is extremely small, easy to
carry, accurate, can function for up to 12 hours and is easy to
charge, adding that using the device is highly intuitive and can be
learned within a few minutes.

Other HU achievements touted at the exhibition included a computer
chip that can contain a data of a person's metabolism and physiology,
and may eliminate the need to conduct tests on humans or animals.

Another invention will improve safety at security checkpoints at
airports by remotely sensing a person's stress levels through heart
rate and blood pressure.

The exhibition was presented by Yissum, HU's technology transfer
company, which commercializes the university's scientific discoveries.

-

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[AI] Fwd: here is the article about windows 8

2011-06-22 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below a intrusting article.
Best Regards
Wahid Raza

-- Forwarded message --

a.. The changing Landscape, review of windows 8 build 7989

Respected readers,

Once again, the time has arrived to provide more details on your ride.
Which ride, you ask? I call it the ride of the future, for what I
write about today could very well, and is likely to, become what you
will see 2-3 years down the road from today. We all like to think of
the future, right? Earlier last month, I wrote up a comprehensive
review of Windows 8 build 7850. That was a long time ago, when looking
at today's standards.
Then, late last month, I created a podcast of Windows 8 build 7955.
You can find it, still in it's original unedited form, at
http://goo.gl/2Vv2b
and it details some of the features I described in build 7850,
including the new narrator.


A lot of people have asked me, Why didn't you do a write-up of 7955?
and I have a simple answer for them. I am a lazy person and writing
one up would have taken too much time!. Actually, all joking aside, I
saw my opportunity with a podcast to be greater than writing one up in
text form. This is because in order for people to grasp windows 8, you
have to see it in action. This, at the time, mostly applied for the
new narrator interface, but no doubt in the future there will be
another podcast covering some of the more significant features of this
coming Operating system.

And new features there are. There is a lot that will be different with
Windows 8. I would compare it to being a highly evolutionary release,
but not as Windows Vista was to Windows XP. The magnitude here is
greater than Windows vista to 7, however Microsoft is really trying to
show the world that they have learned from their Vista mistakes. To
date, they have delivered all announcements on schedule, and we can
only hope that this will continue on throughout the development of
Windows 8. The beta is supposed to drop on September 13, at which time
it will be given to developers and hopefully the general public as
well in limited quantities.

Windows 8: The name.

At the end of May, Microsoft had a d9 conference where Steven
Sinofsky, who leads the Windows devision over at Microsoft, talked
about Windows 8 in great detail. (I recommend you visit
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/Windows8/windows-8-sinofsky-d9-transcribed-139555
for a transcript of this fascinating discussion. We found out that
Windows 8 will probably not be the final name of the product. Instead,
it's a codename, much like Longhorn was a codename for Windows Vista
at the time. I'm not sure when we will find out the final name of
Windows 8, but my bets are on late 2011 as a Christmas gift or early
2012. In a year's time from now, we will be tentatively waiting for
the OS to be given to computer manufacturers and hardware makers.

There's a rough year ahead, but only if you plan on installing Windows
8 on your computers and evaluating every copy that leaks to the
internet. I have said that I'm walking a tight line here, but as
always I feel it very necessary to let the public know of what's
ahead. This, in my opinion, applies both as equally for the sighted as
it does universally to the world of assistive technology. If the
public isn't aware of how their next computers might look and
function, they might be in for a shock come 2013. Either that, or
everyone sticks with Windows 7, which will, by the time, be almost 4
years old. And XP, well, XP will be like Windows 2.0 was during the XP
days, in terms of age. We all must acknowledge that we can't stay
stuck for too long with the best thing, otherwise the thing that was
the best will slowly become deprecated over time. I would imagine that
for 3-5 years once windows 8 is released, windows 7 will enjoy
mainstream support. But by that time, we'll be looking forward to the
next Windows, and only time knows what changes that will usher into
the desktop and the tablet. I have talked about the concept which is
being engineered behind Windows 8 before, for a long time. The idea of
Windows everywhere. Basically, Microsoft is now realizing what Apple
realized 3 years ago: In order to make a well-designed and streamlined
product, they have to make life more universal for all the devices it
runs on. Whether this strategy will be successful for them is up for
debate, but it's even said that the next version of Windows phone
could possibly be a scaled down copy of Windows 8. All this is just
the roomermill, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

About Build 7989:

Build 7989 was compiled on April 21st, 2011, and won't expire until
March 15th, 2012. When compared to 7955, it sports many internal
changes, which for me, so far, make it the most stable Windows 8 build
I have ever run. It is an x64 release, meaning that it cannot run on
my old Thinkpad t60. Oops.
Unfortunately, Microsoft has not done anything to change the poor
state of x64 Windows. Your program Files folders are still split

Re: [AI] require books please help if u can

2011-06-18 Thread wahid raza
Hi Austin,
the books which you have mentioned in your mail
did you check on Bookshare?
If not, check it once may be you get it.
Regards
Wahid

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[AI] Fwd: [blindCity] contacting the facebook accessibility team via email:

2011-06-15 Thread wahid raza
Hello all,
pasting below a very intrusting
information Plzz spread the message to others, its very helpful.

Best Regards
Wahid Raza

---

Hello for fellow blind and vision-impaired peeps on FB here is how you
can contact the facebook accessibility team via email rather than a
form of submition from the help center via the regular facebook site
versus the m.facebook.com site here is the email address you write to
keeping in mind give them 2 or three business days to respond perhaps
a bit longer if understaffed or holiday season and tell them the
computer you use and any assistive technology and version and such and
the problem and the steps you did to get the problem so they can test
it on their end as well:
accessibility+0wzw...@support.facebook.com
Happy facebook problem reporting, all and have a fantabulous day!

Lord Medo: When You Are In The Light, Everything Follows You,
But When You Enter Into The Dark, Even Your Own Shadow Doesn't Follow You.

-

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[AI] Fwd: Windows 8 for PCs, tablets in 2012

2011-05-24 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
pasting below a very intrusting news
must read it.

Microsoft has now entered into a strategic tie-up with Nokia which
will adopt the Windows 7 Phone as its main smartphone strategyNEW
YORK: Microsoft will ship Windows 8 for desktop computers and tablets
next year and the updated Windows Phone 7 will have 500 new features.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said, As we progress through the year,
you ought to expect to hear a lot about Windows 8. Windows 8 slates,
tablets, PCs, a variety of different form factors.

The Microsoft chief, who was addressing a developers' meet in Tokyo,
also said that the upgraded Windows Phone 7 -- to be announced -- will
also have 500 new features.

Announcing that the company has sold over 350 million Windows 7 PCs
this year, he said, We have done a lot in Windows 7 to improve
customer satisfaction. We have a brand-new user interface. We have
added touch and ink and speech. And yet, as we look forward to the
next generation of Windows systems, which will come out next year,
there is a whole lot more coming.

Calling the release of Windows Phone 7 in November about a year later
than I wish we had, the Microsoft chief said, But we are moving
forward very actively. We launched Windows Phones last November. We
have done a set of upgrades. We have a release that will come to
market later this year in Japan. Not only is it a new release that is
now much more global, but we have added over 500 new features to
Windows Phone.

Interestingly, Microsoft had played up Windows Phone 7 at the November
launch by dubbing iPhone and Google Android devices as 'faulty' in
design.

It (Window Phone 7) really speaks to our commitment to understanding
what consumers want, and our resurrection in the mobile category,
Todd Peters, corporate vice president of the Mobile Communications
Marketing Group, had said.

He had described Windows Phone 7 as Microsoft's answer to poor
smartphone design that keeps people fumbling with their phones as they
walk down the block or sit down to dinner with family.

But this strategy didn't pay off. The software giant has now entered
into a strategic tie-up with global handset market leader Nokia, which
will adopt the Windows 7 Phone as its main smartphone strategy.
-

Regards
Wahid Raza

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Re: [AI] Charector Navigation

2011-04-01 Thread wahid raza
Hi Renuka mam,
change your talks kurser to kurser mode letters
i have dun this its works. same problem i am also facing
hope its helpful. best regards
Wahid Raza
Email: wahid...@gmail.com

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[AI] Need help for talks

2011-03-31 Thread wahid raza
Hi all,
hope are every thing is fine. I am facing
problem with talks in my n79 handset. When ever I open any
long sms or mail on my phone, talks stop the reading text. I shown
sighted person
to see any errar message is appeared, but there is no errar message is come
I have uninstall the talks and install 2 3 timesbut nothing is
happened, pls guide me what should I do? When talks stop working
I restart my phone and talks start working again normally.
Waiting for your response.
With regards Wahid Raza
Email: wahid...@gmail.com

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Re: [AI] Looking for new phone

2011-03-23 Thread wahid raza
Hi Austin,
e63 is good phone but its don't have builtin Gps and it have slow processer,
but as a budget phone its best feature pack hand set in E series.
If you want to look in E series you can check E72 its very good phone
it have all the feature which you looking in a ideal phone its cost around
12 to 13 thousand its very a good opption. Hope it will helpful for you.
Best Regards
Wahid Raza
E-Mail: wahid...@gmail.com

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[AI] thanks to Allarakhi

2011-03-21 Thread wahid raza
Hi Allarakhi, thanks for throing some lights on this subject
I realy appreciate your advice, once again thanks for giving some
information on it.
And I would also request to others AI members to throw some lights on it.
with regards
Wahid Raza
Email: wahid...@gmail.com

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[AI] Scope of Economics for blind students

2011-03-20 Thread wahid raza
Hello AI members, 1st of all wishing all of you a very happy and colourful Holi.
Now I come to my point, that the blind student can take the
Economics subject for graduation (B.A) and pos graduation (M.A) in Arts?
and 2nd dout is my that does Economics subject B.A and M.A hard mats
and graphical diagrams have? If yes, then how can be a blind
student manage them? Because I want to take Economics for B.A graduation
plzz all seniears of AI members guide me.
Regards Wahid Raza
Email: wahid...@gmail.com

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[AI] Problem with daisy to go app on n79

2011-03-19 Thread wahid raza
Hello, sir
i have installed lisence copy of talks
but after installing and enter the serial key talks have been run on
my phone successfully, i have perches the lisence copy of talks
through saksham under special
skiem. But its still facing the problem with daisy to go.
plzz guide me what should i do.
with regards Wahid Raza
Mail: wahid...@gmail.com

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[AI] problem with installing, daisy to go app on n79 phone

2011-03-18 Thread wahid raza
Hello, I am facing a problem with daisy to go app
installing on my n79 phone.
1st I've install talks 5.2 latest version then i am trying to install
daisy to go app
but it shown me a errar maessage that please contact the application supplyer
and installation gets faled,
what should i do? plzz guide me
with regards Wahid Raza
mail: wahid...@gmail.com

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[AI] Quary about black berry

2011-02-15 Thread wahid raza
Hi folks, hope all are doing well
I want to bye a black berry phone, i, want to know that talks or mobile speak
does support BBA hand sets?
If yes which hand sets are their, and my 2nd question is,
talks and mobile speak supports only symbion OS phones, which BBA hand
sets are their which running on symbion OS?
Thanks in advance, with regards.
 Wahid Raza.
 E-Mail: wahid...@gmail.com

Get numbers right this time, help the census with correct disability info!


[AI] Very inspiring story

2010-11-10 Thread wahid raza
Hello Pradeep sir Thanks for share with us this story it was very
inspiring artical i like it very much please sir if you got some more
this kind of artical please share with us on Access India with regards
Wahid Raza.

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[AI] Happy Diwali

2010-11-04 Thread wahid raza
Hello Access Indians wish all of you and your family a happy diwali. Wahid Raza

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[AI] Thanks for guidance

2010-10-29 Thread wahid raza
Dear srikanth sir thanks for guide me thanks a lot.

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[AI] Which is good dvd writer

2010-10-27 Thread wahid raza
Hello Access Indians i want to know that which is the good dvd writer
and burner soft ware and its support with Windos7 32bit o.s and its
easy to use with jaws and another things i want to know thatGoogle
talk, Yahoo messenger, Windos live messenger and skyep this all
applications are support with Jaws and how can i use all this
application and any kind of application i need to download please
guide me thanks in advance with regards. Wahid Raza E-Mail:
wahid...@gmail.com mobil: +919819747932.

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[AI] download youtube videos

2010-08-23 Thread wahid raza
hi there is no need any kind of software just follow some simple steps
1. log in to http://www.youtube.com search the video which you want to
download when the page is open of your video 2. press insert +f1 you
will shown a u,r,l press down arrow key jaws will read the address of
the currant page is is called u,r,l just copy that u,r,l 3, log in
another web side http://www.keepvid.com there is a u,r,l edit box
pasted that u,r,l on the edit box note before you click on the
download button erase that words which are also copy the address of
the curront page isjust erase this words and u,r,l which start from
http that is your u,r,l now click on the download button or press
enter key then the download page open is open 4, select which file
format video you want click on the download link or press enter
download dialogbox is come select where you want to download safe the
video like desktop or other place the video is download note the
download it depends on you internet speed how much time will take the
download complete in just few minits 5, enjoyed youtube video with
best wishes from Wahid Raza . e-mail: wahid...@gmail.com
mob:+919819747932.

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disability bill at:
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[AI] Hello Access Indians

2010-08-01 Thread wahid raza
Hello Access Indians I wish to all of you happy friendship day dear
friends I heard about that blind persons can use A,T,M banking
services how can a blind person  take benefits of A,T,M and credit
card banking services how does its work and what are the advantage or
disadvantage and this all services are safe for the blind person
please somebody give me my question answer with thanks in advance all
of the Access India members thank you.

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disability bill at:
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