Gadgets For Visually Challenged That Makes Life Easier
From talking watches to gadgets that beep when your cup is nearly full, there's a vast range of items to make it easier to live independently, despite illness, disability or increased frailty.
The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) has a particularly large range of items that can help those facing sight loss, and many other physical challenges, in their daily lives.
Some of these gadgets are discussed here:
1) Walking Stick that Sees
Blind people face a big problem when they walk on the street or stairs. Eye stick has a lens attached on the bottom part which helps to recognize special things such as stairs and traffic lights.
Through vibration, each signal can be sent to blind people. The blind people can recognize where they are and can avoid dangerous things that come in their path.
2) Camera app
This camera app is designed to help visually impaired persons so that they can navigate their way. It helps to recognize Indian currency notes, locate the faces of people and also read facial characteristics i.e age and emotions.
The app can also hear short snippets of text instantly and get audio guidance to capture full documents.
3) E-reader
Bristol Braille technology which is a British company plans to launch an e-reader for the blind persons to enhance their reading and pare them from lugging around hefty print volumes.
Bristol Braille Technology hopes to launch Canute 360, their new ‘Kindle for the blind’, which displays nine lines of text at a time, or about a third of a page of regular print.
4) Sign Language Voice Translator
It is really difficult to think of how blind and a deaf person communicate with each other because one can't hear the voices and others can't see the sign gestures.
Sign voice languages is a portable device for the visually impaired and the hearing impaired to communicate. When the visually impaired speak to the hearing impaired, it converts the voice into the text so that the hearing impaired to read text on LCD.
When hearing impaired use sign language to express what they want, it converts the sign language into the voice, so that visually impaired also perfectly understand the meaning of
sign.
5) Currency recognition
An android app is developed by the Indian Institute of technology, Ropar in Punjab that helps the visually impaired to recognize old and new currency notes by using image processing and analytics.
It uses deep learning framework, which further uses the patterns and features that are embedded on the notes to differentiate and determine the currency denomination.
6) Smart glasses
The NuEyes Pro from NuEyes developed the first wireless, voice-activated wearable device for the visually impaired.
It is like an electronic magnifying glasses which has a video camera on the front of the glasses magnifies what are you looking at and displays it on the inside of the glasses. These glasses are helpful for those who have macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic or other visual conditions.
7) Touch Color Painting Tablet
Persons without eyesight can also paint and produce great artwork. Touch color is the combination of a thermal digital tablet and a rainbow color picking ring that allows the blind persons to paint colorful pictures by using their fingers on the tablet.
24 colors sectors are located on the scroll wheel and they are marked by abbreviated Braille dots and are further differentiated by varied temperature generated by various micro voltage. Some colors are regarded as "cold" while some are "warm" according to physical wavelength.
8) Feel the Time
Time is very precious for everyone. The design of this watch is so simple. The practical approach of the look are well received. The watch face options rotating discs with a tangible nub on each.
Three-dimensional rings distinguish the discs from one another and a membrane protects the face of the watch. A break in the outer circle at the 12 o’clock mark acts as a guide to get an accurate reading.
