products geared to making the lives of the disabled more accessible
A new iPhone app uses machine learning to identify objects for people with poor eyesight, and it doesn’t need an Internet connection. by Rachel Metz
Originally posted March 25, 2016
As I walked around my office on a recent morning, a female voice on my iPhone narrated the objects I passed. “Brick,” “wall,” “telephone,” she said matter-of-factly. The voice paused when I came upon a bike hung on a wall-mounted rack, then intoned, “bicycle.”
By Ile, April 24, 2017
Discovery and recollection are two necessary elements for travel for our friends who are blind. This presents a difficult task in a city the size of Boston, with its nearly 8,000 bus stops.
It is necessary for all to move from point A to point B, whether home to work, work to play or home to “the necessaries” such as groceries, doctors’ offices, visiting friends or journeys to study. Public transit is a wonderful and beneficial asset. The physical movement of vehicles, coupled with information to support choices for travel, is an important service to the community at large. Still, for a person who is blind, partially-sighted or deafblind the “last few feet” can be a great void.
Jamie Pauls
Technology continues to improve the way people who are blind interact with technology and make use of the Internet. In any major screen reader release, improvements to the way the product works on the Web are front and center in all “What’s New” documentation. Furthermore, modern software applications make use of, and behave like, webpages to such an extent that it can often be difficult to know where a desktop application ends and the Internet begins.
Numotion announces exclusive U.S. distribution of Tek RMD from Matia Robotics BRENTWOOD, Tenn., March 1, 2017
PRNewswire
Numotion, the nation’s leading provider of complex rehab technology (CRT), has announced the availability of Tek RMD (“robotic mobilization device”) by Matia Robotics in the United States.
Tek RMD is a motorized standing movement device that offers the ability for those who are in a manual wheelchair to complete everyday activities from a standing position. Unlike other standers, users can board and control a Tek RMD unassisted. Numotion is the exclusive distributor of the product in the U.S.
For Immediate Release
AUSTIN, Texas (February 17, 2017)
Ottobock announced the release of the Pheon and Prosedo mechanical prosthetic knees aimed at providing mobility and stability for less active amputees.
The Pheon polycentric knee joint is an ideal choice to help less active lower limb amputees restore their ability to stand and walk both indoors and in limited community settings. With the integrated optional lock, which can be activated or deactivated by the prosthetist, the Pheon also provides targeted support for the post-amputation therapy process from initial walking exercises to the final fitting.
Handy helper: The prosthetic hand from BrainRobotics, controlled by signals sent from the residual muscles on an amputee’s limb, a process that involves some machine learning technology, on display at the 2017 Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP
LAS VEGAS: Emerging technology is giving new hope for the handicapped, and harnessing brainwaves for the physically disabled and helping the visually impaired with “artificial vision” are just the start.
Many systems showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas are aimed at improving quality of life for people with disabilities.
BrainRobotics, a Massachusetts-based startup, showed its prosthesis that can be controlled by residual muscle strength of an amputee with better efficiency than similar devices, according to developers.
Date:October 17, 2016 Source:American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO)
A unique wearable artificial vision device may help people who are legally blind “read” and recognize faces. It may also help these individuals accomplish everyday tasks with significantly greater ease than using traditional assistive reading devices, suggests a study presented today at AAO 2016, the 120th annual meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
Approximately 246 million people worldwide have low vision. This sight loss impairs a person’s ability to do simple daily tasks. Optical and electronic devices such as hand-held magnifiers, tele-microscopic glasses and computer and video magnifiers can help. But, typically these devices are bulky, cumbersome or not readily portable. With recent advancements in wearable electronic devices and optical character recognition technology that converts images to computer-readable text, University of California, Davis researchers hypothesized that these newer technologies could help improve patients’ ability to function in daily life.
Spouses, parents and others also enjoy the charming robot
PR Newswire, BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICH.July 12, 2016
The simple act of eating a meal will become more dignified and enjoyable for many people with physical challenges with the launch of Obi, a revolutionary robotic dining device.
Obi blends cutting-edge robotics, elegant design, intuitive controls and a friendly personality to give individuals who are fed by others the ability to take control of their meals at home and in public.
We believe dining is one of lifes greatest pleasures that absolutely everyone should enjoy, said Jon Dekar, DES?Ns co-founder. What our device stands for is equally as important as what it does. It represents our belief that living with physical challenges can be fulfilling and inspiring. Technology, and specifically robotics, combined with modern design, should facilitate that.
Aug 15, 2016
G3ict, the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies announced the publication of a new book authored by Debra Ruh, G3ict’s EmployAbility Program Chair.
In this book, Tapping into Hidden Human Capital: How Leading Global Companies Improve their Bottom Line by Employing Persons with Disabilities,” Debra Ruh presents a new, game-changing perspective about the employment of persons with disabilities. By documenting existing practices of some of the largest companies in the world, the author shows that employees with disabilities are proactively recruited for their positive contributions to the competitiveness and financial performance of major businesses.
Have you been looking for effective women’s vitamins and been unable to find just the right product line? Good news!
Vitanica is a line of women’s vitamins with just one purpose in mindnatural health care for women.
This company is committed to serving women by combining education, research and the best quality possible in completely effective nutritional supplements. This company is particularly noted for its attention to detail and quick response to needs within the area of women’s health. Also, the friendly, personalized customer service representatives are seldom matched in quality elsewhere.
MARKHAM, Monday 4th July, 2016
Since its inception, Pharmaceutical Innovation Ltd. has developed notable, original products that consumers need for accessible medication and healthcare management. With the launch of its latest product offering, the new application called Health Espresso, Pharmaceutical Innovation continues to fulfill its mandate of making pharmaceutical technology accessible to everyone.
Health Espresso is a Bluetooth-enabled app that acts as a virtual caregiver through innovative technology. The primary user, typically an elderly or disabled individual, wears a Bluetooth enabled medical data collection device such as a heart rate or blood pressure monitor that provides body readings in real time and stores the readings, along with other medical information, on a secure network. A secondary user, either a family member or doctor, is connected to the data from the app at all times allowing the secondary user to oversee, manage and intervene if necessary.
AL BEACH, California, June 21, 2016, PRNewswire
NuEyes, a pioneer in the field of low vision technology, and mac-fusion, Orange County’s Premier Apple Authorized Reseller and Service Provider, are proud to announce an exclusive partnership to bring NuEyes wireless, a wearable CCTV headset, to visually impaired users across Southern California.
Photo – http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160620/381552
NuEyes, featuring ODG smartglasses, magnifies (up to 12x) and displays enhanced versions of anything that a user looks at.
mac-fusion and NuEye’s shared dream for this partnership is to give people with vision loss in Orange County access to wireless hand-free magnification technology that can be used anywhere to increase their mobility, independence and quality of life.
Jun 13, 2016
“It is better than any cane or guide dogs”. That is how a user describes a new assistive device in the market for people with vision disabilities. Another 20-yr-old B.Com student says, “I feel liberated. There is a sense of freedom. I am very, very happy.”
Blind Cane UserRelegating the traditional blind man’s walking stick to the past, a recently developed wearable device in the form of a ring seeks to change the way the people with vision disabilities can move around.
This mobility device can help a person with vision disability navigate his way by sending haptic feedback or vibrations through the sense of touch.
An engineering student and professor help the blind and visually impaired in the Joseph Kohn Training Center in New Brunswick to navigate their surroundings Monday, February 22, 2016
By Todd B. Bates
Using a high-tech 3-D printer, a Rutgers undergraduate and his professor created sophisticated braille maps to help blind and visually impaired people navigate a local training center.
The three plastic tactile maps are for each floor at the Joseph Kohn Training Center, a state-funded facility for the blind and visually impaired in New Brunswick. And the goal is to print maps for all of the center’s students.
USC Davis competition puts principles of Universal Design to work on everyday items and locations BY Beth Newcomb
January 26, 2016
From a wheelchair-friendly home bathroom to computer equipment that’s easier on arthritic hands, student innovators from across California designed products and spaces to better serve individuals of all abilities for the USC Davis School of Gerontology’s Morton Kesten Universal Design Competition.
A drone that guides blind runners around a track is just one of several new fitness technologies designed to assist the visually impaired. By Christina Couch
October 16, 2015
While NASA is working to make drones quieter, one researcher at the University of Nevada, Reno, is using its noise to benefit blind athletes.
Eelke Folmer, an associate professor of computer science and the head of UNR’s Human Plus Lab, has built a prototype drone system that guides blind runners around a track, allowing them to exercise independently without a sighted guide. Equipped with two cameras-a downward-facing one that follows
the lines on a track and a separate camera that focuses on a marker on the runner’s shirt-Folmer’s quadcopter flies at eye level, about 10 feet ahead of a runner, guiding them by sound. If the runner speeds up or slows down, the drone adjusts its own speed.
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College Station, TX
By Ben Gruber
The communication barrier between deaf people who use sign language and those that don’t understand it may be coming to an end thanks to a new wearable technology being developed at Texas A&M University.
The device incorporates a system of sensors that records the motion of hand gestures, as well as the electromyography or EMG signals produced by muscles in the wrist when signing.
“We decode the muscle activities we are capturing from the wrist. Some of it is coming from the fingers indirectly because if I happen to keep my fist like this versus this, the muscle activation is going to be a little different,” said Roozbeh Jafari, an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University.
CHATHAM, N.Y., Oct. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire
3DPhotoWorks LLC, with support from the National Federation of the Blind, announces a 3D printing process that allows blind people to “see” fine art, diagrams, and other images. This recently patented process converts any conventional painting, drawing, collage or photograph into a 3D Tactile Fine Art Print. Prints have length, width, depth, and texture and are available in sizes up to 60″ x 120″.
The Company has devoted seven years to the development of this exciting new technology with the goal of making art and photography available to blind people at every museum, science center and institution, first in the United States and then worldwide.
PR Newswire, October 15, 2015: 0
Scientists from IBM Research (NYSE: IBM) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) today announced the first of a kind open platform designed to support the creation of smartphone apps that can enable
the blind to better navigate their surroundings.
The IBM and CMU researchers used the platform to create a pilot app, called NavCog, that draws on existing sensors and cognitive technologies to inform
blind people on the CMU campus about their surroundings by “whispering” into their ears through earbuds or by creating vibrations on smartphones. The app analyzes signals from Bluetooth beacons located along walkways and from smartphone sensors to help enable users to move without human assistance, whether inside campus buildings or outdoors. Researchers are exploring additional capabilities for future versions of the app to detect who is approaching and what is their mood.
