Today's modern society is pushing technology to help those with disabilities. Here is a brief look at some examples of how technology is attempting to improve the lives of those with visual impairments. In 2007, researchers at Wicab revealed a device that aimed to help visually impaired people. The wearable device attempted to give users with no sight the ability to see everyday things, by sending informative pulses to the users tongue. The device, known as Brainport, uses a small camera attached to a pair of sunglasses to capture information. This information is converted into a black, white and grey picture that is then sent to a stick fitted with electrodes in the users mouth.
Today's modern society is pushing technology to help those with disabilities. Here is a brief look at some examples of how technology is attempting to improve the lives of those with visual impairments. First, we have OrCam, which was designed to improve visual impairment through the use of a small camera linked to a wearable computer. The device can read text, recognise faces and identify certain objects.
The device conveys text-to-speech output and audio descriptions of objects. This enables visually impaired users to become more aware and secure in their environments. One of the difficulties with such systems, is differentiating between useful and non useful information.
One of the disadvantages of this device is the requirement of finger-pointing, which is used to control what the device is monitoring. This may be suitable for users with minor visual impairments, however for users who are unable to see objects, finger-pointing is not possible.
