MyVisionTest News Archive
Oct 15, 2008
Lighthouse Expo showcases technology for vision loss
Lighthouse International organized a recent expo, showing off gadgetry geared for people with low or no vision. The group says the same technologies that can help most of the population in small ways can help people with vision loss in huge ways.
"For someone who has normal vision, simple tasks for them are very difficult to do by a person with very low vision," explained Tom Nolan of Lighthouse International. "This technology allows them to perform those tasks and live lives we're all accustomed to."
One item on display was an electronic magnifier with an LCD screen for enlarging, altering and even capturing text to make it easier to read.
"It provides all the different contrasts," said Chris Park of GW Micro. "Often times the size of the text doesn't matter, it's the contrast. You can take a picture and one of my gadgets has a long-distance view, too. So a lot of low-vision people want to see someone's face, so they can look at their grandchildren's faces too."
Also featured was an upgraded Nokia that allows users to take a picture of whatever the person wants to read, for example a newspaper or a menu, and the phone will then read it out loud.
"It's the Kurzweil NFB Mobile Reader and the reason it's unique is it takes a cell phone and turns it into a mobile reader," explained Chuck Cohen of C Tech. "If you're totally blind it has a field-of-view report, which will tell you when it sees all four sides of the page and how much text is on that page."
While computers are all getting friendlier, with software like LowBrowse, a free web page magnifier developed through Lighthouse, the HP Touchsmart PC takes it a step further by removing the mouse from the equation.
"It's great for anyone who has dexterity issues, because you don't use a keyboard and mouse; everything is touch screen," said Geek Squad member Andrew Leach.
Lighthouse says it's constantly working on closing what it calls a large gap between when a technology is unveiled for the general public and when a version is out for people with low vision.
Read more...
News 10 Now
Tags: accessibility, low vision, cell phone, computers
Lighthouse International organized a recent expo, showing off gadgetry geared for people with low or no vision. The group says the same technologies that can help most of the population in small ways can help people with vision loss in huge ways."For someone who has normal vision, simple tasks for them are very difficult to do by a person with very low vision," explained Tom Nolan of Lighthouse International. "This technology allows them to perform those tasks and live lives we're all accustomed to."
"It provides all the different contrasts," said Chris Park of GW Micro. "Often times the size of the text doesn't matter, it's the contrast. You can take a picture and one of my gadgets has a long-distance view, too. So a lot of low-vision people want to see someone's face, so they can look at their grandchildren's faces too."
Also featured was an upgraded Nokia that allows users to take a picture of whatever the person wants to read, for example a newspaper or a menu, and the phone will then read it out loud.
"It's the Kurzweil NFB Mobile Reader and the reason it's unique is it takes a cell phone and turns it into a mobile reader," explained Chuck Cohen of C Tech. "If you're totally blind it has a field-of-view report, which will tell you when it sees all four sides of the page and how much text is on that page."
While computers are all getting friendlier, with software like LowBrowse, a free web page magnifier developed through Lighthouse, the HP Touchsmart PC takes it a step further by removing the mouse from the equation.
"It's great for anyone who has dexterity issues, because you don't use a keyboard and mouse; everything is touch screen," said Geek Squad member Andrew Leach.
Lighthouse says it's constantly working on closing what it calls a large gap between when a technology is unveiled for the general public and when a version is out for people with low vision.
Read more...
News 10 Now
