News

ID Mate OMNI is a portable "all-in-one" talking bar code scanner. It allows an individual to identify items using the product's bar code. A database of over 1,000,000 (one million) Australian bar code descriptions gives the user a huge head start in identifying the product and getting the information needed about the item. Newly established not-for-profit organisation Visual Independence are distributing the Omni in Australia. More information can be found on the Omni product page.

Tactile displays may have a big future with the development of Ferrofluids. These materials have the ability to morph upward into any shape via a controlled electromagnetic field, thus creating reading materials in the form of braille, accompanied by three-dimensionally-rendered images. More images and descriptions can be found at Yanko Design. The bad news is that designer Jonathan Lucas doesn't expect the device to be available commercially until around 2015, although youtube has some video of Ferrofluids in action right now.

Firefox 3 is due to be released soon and contains some new features that will be of interest to blind and low vision users.

Improved accessibility on Windows

Firefox 3 introduces IAccessible2, an extension to the well-known Microsoft Active Accessibility interface that allows screen readers to more tightly integrate with web pages. Through this new technology Firefox can expose more information directly through independent interfaces. Screen readers such as NVDA do not require the use of video interception technology to gain access to all relevant information.  Voice dictation software can implement speaking of selected text without having to rely on direct screen manipulation. 

Many of the OCR systems I have worked with in the past have been fairly unresponsive and slow and take anywhere from 30 seconds to 1 minute to turn a page of text into speech. I have been recommending Guide 4.0 to clients after a reading machine / OCR device as it is fast and provides a clear and easy interface. In the pursuit of the fastest OCRing possible I have obtained a Canon 8800F scanner to go with Guide. This scanner uses LED technology which means no warm up time and it can scan a whole A4 page at 150dpi in under 4 seconds and at 300dpi in about 8 seconds. I've prepared a very basic recording demonstrating the speed of Guide with the Canon 8800F. (mp3 - 550kb).

Curb Cuts is a television show produced by the Central Coast Assistive Technology Center about assistive technologies. The show is titled how 'Curb Cuts' because it refers to a common accessibility feature that is found on streets throughout many countries. Of particular interest is Episode 2 - AT for Low Vision, and Episode 2 - Blind AT. These show a great variety of technologies with vision impaired users showing their pratical uses.