Bedside table serves as Twitter interface
An art project recently displayed in Saint-Etienne, France, has an interesting interface: it uses a bedside table with a scanner built into its drawer. Place a photo (or a handwritten note?) into the...
View ArticleOptical character recognition tool might have applications for assistive...
WordLens is a new iPhone app that can be used to recognize text within graphics and translate it (just Spanish->English and English->Spanish for now). Because this uses optical character...
View ArticleNew phone designs could help users with disabilities
Nonobject is an offbeat design studio in Palo Alto that’s proposing three new cell phone designs, all of which have accessibility implications. The Rawphisticated, which looks like a crumpled business...
View ArticleiPad dock will add gesture control
A dock for the Apple iPad will allow users to sweep and swipe in mid-air, as far away as a foot from the iPad. No word yet on what gestures will be included, but they will let you control regular...
View ArticleDisney Prototypes ‘Puff of Air’ Haptic Interface
Disney Research has developed a prototype device that lets the user feel the presence of virtual objects through carefully constructed and aimed puffs of air. Aireal aims the puffs based on the virtual...
View ArticleNow, Here’s Some Savvy Consumer Advocacy
A group of folks have started a campaign to get Netflix to add audio description to more of its streaming videos. What’s so savvy? They recognize that the studios that create the videos have a role to...
View ArticleBuzz Me In
Travel site Triposo has a new fashion accessory for you and your smartphone: the Travel Belt. Its 4 vibrating motors buzz at your waist to give you turning and walking directions to your destination....
View ArticleGoing Steadier
Liftware is a new gadget that reduces the effect of hand tremor. Hand-held, it detects your tremor and compensates for it by counter-moving its attachment (such as a spoon). Could it one day have a...
View ArticleAnother Step In Computer Vision
Welcome the Structure Sensor — a device you attach to your iPad that lets you capture 3D objects in space automatically. That is, move it around the object a bit, and it begins to appear as a 3D model...
View ArticleAudio Aware App Amplifies Alerts, Alarms, Accidents
Say you’re walking down the street, distractedly listening to the music on your mobile device, just about to step off the curb. Wouldn’t you want to be aware of any nearby sirens or alarms going off?...
View ArticleFirst Sighting: VR in the Workplace
Interesting speculative article on VR for work. We’ve heard a lot of these ideas one at a time — less commuting, how to create happy-accidental encounters — but there’s all here in one place, along...
View ArticleSmile and Move Along
We’ve seen a lot of progress in facial recognition recently; now we’ve got facial expression recognition. That’s right, smile to control your wheelchair (or whatever). It’s a control capability and a...
View ArticleAnother Step Forward in Automatic Speechreading
Bit by bit, computer vision analysis is advancing to the point of offering rapid, accurate speechreading. Cornell’s LipNet uses sentence-length, natural utterances to improve its accuracy, which at...
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