New AT for people with visual impairments
Dana Blankenhorn, on the ZNet Healthcare site (http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=178) has posted about a cool new AT innovation: the TellMate (http://www.gaishantech.com/products.htm). Here's what he has to say:
On the surface it’s an iPod knock-off, with an FM radio and talking clock. But it also has a scanner and digital recorder. All the buttons are voice-activated, telling you what they do when you press them. It comes with 20 RFID labels which you can program (and re-program) to describe, say, the medicine bottle in a cabinet. It’s currently available in England from Blink. At 250 pounds, about $500, it’s pricey, but it’s also early days yet. If volumes increase the price goes down. E-Access Bulletin talked to a Gaishan spokesman who said 10 Americans and 50 Asians are also testing the device, and say they want a wider variety of inputs and output. The next version, due this winter, will include an SD Flash slot so it could be used by many people in an institutional setting.
Here's what the company has to say:
TellMate system is a portable handheld system about the size of mobile phone. Electronic labels will be the source of information that the Visually Impaired needs. Together with the handheld device, the VI will receive appropriate and relevant information, as and when they need, in audio form, which is much faster, instead of Braille. This will allow the VI to make full use of their auditory sense to compliment their impaired vision, and does not assume the VI can understand the Braille. The audio signal comes in whatever languages or dialects that the VI can understand.
With TellMate, one electronic label is able to provide more detail information. Instead of just knowing from a Braille label that a certain bottle contains eye drop for daily use, the electronics version can have information as much as equivalent to a full A4 page (if necessary) – describing dosage requirement, expiry date, side effect and cautions etc.. User will be able to pick up or select items that are required on their own. V I students will no longer need to totally depend on sighted to read to them, as TellMate allows them to “read” on their own, at own pace and time. Even more innovative is the ability to provide mobility guide (at least in the indoor situation) – something of a first in the world. Not tested and tried before, but TellMate has that capability to guide a V I, again using instructions in audio form, to move on their own, from one place to another.
Besides, there are as many benefits for the caregivers of V I too. Teachers, relatives and friends will no longer always having to attend to them on a one-on-one basis. Caregivers’ time can be spent in other more productive ways and spent quality time with the V I.