Be My Eyes: App That Lets Blind People Get Answers From Sighted People

We very well know that blind people are self sufficient and independent, and can go about their daily lives without much interruption. However, there are rare instances when they need assistance from someone else. 

What's the expiry date on the milk carton in my fridge? Do I have mismatched socks? Does this can have kidney beans or chick peas? Are these tomatoes or extremely ripe avocados?

It helps when someone's around but what if a blind person is by themselves?

To help blind people in such situations, a new iOS app, "Be My Eyes" lets them interact with another sighted person from anywhere in the world and ask questions similar to the ones listed above!

The concept is very simple. Blind people and sighted people register for this app. Blind people to ask questions and sighted people to answer them. Whenever a blind person has a question, they open the app and look for the first sighted person who offers to help. Sighted people, on the other hand, get notified that someone is seeking help. If someone is available to help, they accept the request. If they are not - no worries. There are tons of people out there who would grab that request. (13,000 people helpers signed up in just over a day to help 1,145 blind users). All the blind user has to do is turn on their rear camera and point it at the object they have a question about.The result: the blind user gets their question answered and everybody lives happily ever after!

It doesn't matter where they are - they  can be in one part of the world and still receive help from someone an ocean away!

The app also has a reputation system - the sighted people who are helping build a reputation based on their responses. If someone tries to be clever and gives wrong responses, they are flagged by the system and ousted within no time. So if you are trying to play a prank on a blind person - beware!

The app is free and has already received more than 2,000 requests. If you or someone you know is blind, you may want to definitely take advantage of this unique yet free app.

Download app here.

Website: Be My Eyes

Source: Engadget

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A Blind Legend: Video Game For Blind People

In A Blind Legend, your eyes will be of no help

So close them, sharpen your hearing and your blade�

and embark on an epic, perilous rite of passage.

For the sighted, playing a video game without any video may not make sense at all. But for the blind, it may be the next best thing since sliced bread.

The concept of "video-less" games is being adopted by more and more game developers who want to make video games accessible so that blind people could play them without any trouble. One of the games that will be coming out soon (early 2015) is "A Blind Legend" developed by Dowino studios in France after successfully completing a recent crowdfunding campaign. This is a game in which you play Edward Blake, a knight who has no eyes  and is on a mission to rescue his kidnapped wife. He is accompanied by his daughter Louise, who gives him directions and helps him navigate the environment and  fight Thork's army. There are forests, mountains, dungeons, a furious sea, lots of other obstacles and combat against numerous enemies!

Click to enlarge

This game does not have a video but rather a realistic, 3D sound environment which is most effective when heard using headphones. The sounds coming from different directions help you navigate and take appropriate action. A Blind Legend is very intuitive, and since it is a mobile game, there are various simple gestures that define different actions.

Dowino is aiming to offer non sighted gamers a video game that will give them a rich storyline and an immersive experience, not just a "game" that does things using audio. Once released, this game will be available free of cost for iOS and Android. A demo of the game is available on Dowino's website in English and French for both Windows and Mac. It can be downloaded from here.

To get a feel of what the sound is like, put on your headsets and listen to this clip. 

More from the developers here:

To read more about this A Blind Legend and other similar games, and to know what binaural technology is (that's used in this game), hit the source link.

Source: BBC
Websites: A Blind Legend, Dowino
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, SoundCloud

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First Braille Phone Goes On Sale In UK!

Technology is so amazing and friendly that it has made many things accessible - including phones! All smartphones today, with the help of native features and several apps, can help blind users perform several tasks very easily (including making phone calls, of course)! However, what if you find technology intimidating? What if you like things to be as simple as possible and are okay with a device that will help you keep in touch with your loved ones with minimal interaction with technology?

If that's the case, the OwnFone is the solution for you!

A phone that only has a list of names and pretty much nothing else, OwnFone lets a blind user make phone

calls to 4 to 12 of their loved ones with the touch of a button. The device has names of their loved ones listed in Braille which can also be listed in raised text if the user cannot read Braille. All they have to do is press a name and a call is immediately made to that person. This phone also receives phone calls from the same set of people. The size of a credit card, OwnFone can be used for both day to day conversations and emergency purposes.

The price of the phone varies from �40.00 to �70.00 depending on how many names you want listed on the phone. In addition, OWnFone has monthly plans for talk time starting at �7.50 and going up to �15.

The cost of the phone is kept low because it is 3D printed!

If you know someone who is not very fond of technology and are keeping away from smart phones because they "don't get it", OwnFone may be a good option for them! This phone may also be a good option for people with multiple disabilities who would like their device to perform desired tasks with minimal interaction.

This phone is currently available only in the UK.

Source: OwnFone via BBC

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Braille Electronic Synthesizer For Visually Impaired

For the occasional/ hobbyist musician, access to musical equipment is pretty much a piece of cake now. New equipment is fairly reasonably priced, and there are tons of used gear that can be bought for much lower prices also. With so many options available, it is so easy to set up equipment in your bedroom and start jamming! In some cases, it�s easier said than done though, especially if you are blind. Most of the electronic synthesizers, for example, come with a lot of knobs, and it may be very difficult to figure out what those knobs do if you cannot see (or even if you can, in some cases!).

To curtail this limitation, Moog, a leading manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, especially synthesizers, is going to start producing a new version of its Sub Phatty synthesizer that will have a Braille overlay so users with visual impairment could use it as well. The price would be the same as the regular synth ($899 at many online stores).

This is a very simple design change but makes such a huge difference for blind consumers. Hopefully other music instrument manufacturers will follow suit!

Watch Stevie Wonder and Friends demo the Moog Sub Phatty here:

Here�s another detailed video about Moog Sub Phatty:

Moog Sub Phatty with Braille overlay is available here.
Source: Gizmodo

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CDesk EDGE: Tablet For People With Visual Impairment

We already know that CDesk is a wonderful suite of applications for people with visual and/or cognitive disabilities. The suite consists of, among other things, special filters for browsers that strip all images and links from the page to make reading easy, as well as simple to use word processor, and its own media and book section.

To make things easier for its users, AdaptiveVoice has recently launched two tablets with "EDGE" capabilities that will allow users to use CDesk on the go. The tablets come in two sizes - 11 and 8 inches, and run full Windows 8.1, and come with 2 GB of RAM and a powerful processor. Besides CDesk, these tablets run all Windows programs as well.

The tablets come with a folio keyboard and a stand that provide three additional USB ports. The CDesk interface is designed to handle touch input very well - in fact, most of the CDesk applications can be accessed using just thumbs. As demonstrated in the video, the interface has different spots assigned to different functions which enables navigation and use much easier. Of course, EDGE has Peggy too, CDesk's speech recognition software which works really well on the tablet. Imagine sitting under a tree on a warm, sunny day (summer's almost here!) and dictating your thoughts to peggy while sipping on a nice, cold beverage! Wouldn't that be nice?

Especially beneficial for people with low or no vision, the EDGE tablets are priced at $2,295 (11 inch) and $995 (8 inch) respectively. Both the products are shipped nationwide in the US without any extra cost, and come with excellent technical support.

Watch the video to see the EDGE tablet in action.

Click here to read more about CDesk.

CDesk/ EDGE website: AdaptiveVoice

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Braigo - An Inexpensive Portable Braille Printer Made With Lego

You probably may have already heard of this 12 year old genius who has been making waves in the technology world for his invention that will be a boon to millions of blind people. 

Shubham Banerjee, a 7th grader from Santa Clara, CA has designed a portable printer using the Lego Mindstorms EV3 - an educational Lego kit that teaches various electronics/robotics concepts to children. His design is very simple (I am sure it wasn't so simple to come up with the idea though!) - the Mindstorm brick is programmed to accept letters A - Z and space. The brick is connected to a print head that accepts input and punches the braille equivalent of the input letter on paper. 

This is a proof of concept that just shows how easily a portable braille printer (that runs on battery) can be assembled at home with utmost ease. Currently at its most basic form (prints only letters A - Z), Shubham is already working on version 2.0 of "Braigo" that will print more characters and do a lot more. Braigo was recently praised a lot by the "champion of change" Henry "Hoby" Wedler, who made it very clear that this is just the beginning, and that Braigo has a lot of potential going forward (not to mention that Braigo has received praise from just about anyone who has seen it in action). 

One of the most beneficial things about Braigo is that it is not as expensive as some of the commercial
braille printers/embossers available today, which can be as pricey as a couple of thousand dollars. Assembling Braigo at home involves the Mindstorm EV3 which is only $350. 

During a recent discussion with Shubham, Hoby points out that Braigo is excellent for parents who want to teach it to their children but themselves don't know or understand Braille. He also goes on to suggest that Braigo can be attached to some sort speech to text mechanism where the user would speak the letter and Braigo would just print it. This would enable blind users to print their own Braille documents or labels without anyone's help.

Like I said earlier, this is just the beginning, and the journey Braigo can take is endless. Shubham has been kind enough to keep Braigo open source so that anyone could take the base  model and build on top of it, and keep bettering it to make it all the more practical and friendly for everyone and yet keep the price low. It can be used by parents, teachers in schools, visually impaired people themselves with future enhancements, to name a few.

Be sure to hit the source link to read more about the motivation behind Braigo, how Shubham built it, the components used, and the different things he tried while designing Braigo.

Keep an eye on Braigo (here's the Facebook page for updates). See where all it takes you!

Here's the video where Hoby discusses Braigo - its advantages and certain enhancements Shubham can add to it.

Source: CBC News via Twitter

Images: Socio Technocrat

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How Do Blind Users Use Smartphones?

There are several things that are just not easy to understand if you don't have any sort of exposure to them. One of those several things that (especially sighted) people have a hard time understanding is how blind people use smartphones? A device with just a flat screen and one to maybe four physical buttons was the bane of many blind users when it first came out, but we all know that things have changed in the last so many years, and phone have become really accessible. But what does that mean (especially to sighted users who are not necessarily familiar with accessibility)? How does accessibility help blind users? What do they do different with their phones to do what sighted users would do? What kind of apps do they use on their phones?

So many questions!

Jonathan Mosen couldn't have done a better job explaining how and what for would a blind user use their smartphone. See him explain how to turn on voiceover on iDevices, and use it to navigate through apps and use them. He also enlightens us about some special apps specifically for blind users (an app that lets you take pictures of an object and searches a crowdsourced database to identify it) that make use of the smartphone a breeze and also enhance their user experience.

Last but not the least, he emphasizes how important making apps accessible is only because there are more and more blind people using smartphones now. If you are a developer, you cannot afford to ignore accessibility.

Watch this amazing video and share it! This is good knowledge for anyone and everyone!

 Follow @ATBlog2

Source: Twitter
Image source: New York Times

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Interesting Stories From Twitter! Episode 1: 01/12/2014

Hello everyone, and happy new year! Starting this week, I will be posting some brief audio descriptions of interesting stories, articles, videos etc. I find on Twitter that I think you will find interesting! I will also post links to those tweets so you could go ahead and read/view them in their entirety if you choose to do so.

I hope you find this beneficial. Please don't hesitate to give me feedback - i would love to hear about things I can do to improve this blog!

Thank you for reading and listening!

Venkat Rao

Here's Episode One!

Tweets discussed in this episode:

#1

TYSM for the RT @RandolphEyecare The leading cause of low #vision in American is #cataract http://t.co/yqi8kPL6Sx #infographic #eyehealth
� Olivia Shelton (@care4eye) January 5, 2014

#2

Useful ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) resources from @Mozilla http://t.co/BqZf2Yayq0 #webdev #javascript
� Jennison Asuncion (@Jennison) January 5, 2014

#3

2014 Web Accessibility Predictions � http://t.co/rChMIlV2pC #a11yPredictions2014 #a11y
� Denis Boudreau (@dboudreau) January 4, 2014

#4

Why Do We Fear the Blind? http://t.co/6R6HsHEhkc
� Assistive Tech Blog (@ATBlog2) January 12, 2014

#5

@TechshareIndia wishes everyone very Happy New Year. Looking forward for our event on 13-14 Feb, NewDelhi. http://t.co/eu94huVy0E #inclusion
� techshare (@TechshareIndia) January 1, 2014

 Follow @ATBlog2

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PointGrab: Control Household Appliances And Electronic Devices With Point And Gesture Control

We have been seeing a lot of devices that are touch and gesture enabled that can be very helpful for people with various disabilities (motor skills, spinal injuries, quadriplegics). However, all the devices that we have seen so far work with computers.

That is soon going to change.

A Tel Aviv based company, PointGrab, is working on bringing to the masses a couple of concepts that use motion and gesture controls not just with computers but also with household appliances! The technology works by creating a "transparent space" in front of the user, enabling a touch interface but from a distance. The user has to be pointing their eyes and a finger at the device and perform a gesture to get the desired action. For example, pointing a finger at a lamp will turn it on, and moving it in a downward motion will dim the lamp. Similar gestures can be used to control any device in the house - air conditioners, window shades, thermostats, doors, etc. PointSwitch is the concept that works with appliances, and AirTouch works with computers, televisions, and other consumer devices.

The company suggests that we should start seeing these technologies in consumer products as soon as early 2014.

Watch the following two videos to see how PointSwitch and AirTouch work.

Source: Engadget
Image Source: Engadget

Website: PointGrab

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Project Ray: The World's First Smart Phone For Blind And Visually Impaired Users

The smartphone revolution has brought a lot of comfort and convenience to practically everyone's fingertips. Looking for information, reading books, communicating with loved ones in not one but many ways, and even performing "real work" using a phone has become a way of life for us. Thanks to all the phone manufacturers and their dedication towards accessibility, blind and visually impaired users have had great success with smartphones.

However, the regular smartphone can be quite overwhelming for the average visually impaired user. The touch screen on a smartphone, which is the most essential component of the device, just doesn't have enough tactile clues to help a blind user navigate the menus. Voice commands work pretty well, but can still be frustrating to many. Also, for users who are not so tech savvy, less is more, and they desire something that's not too complicated.

Project Ray, an Israeli startup, has developed a phone that is specially designed keeping blind people in mind. The interface of the phone is robust, yet very simple, and makes most sense for people who are visually impaired. The touch screen consists of five to twelve icons or buttons, depending on where the user is in the navigation area. Every icon has a designated app. The user just needs to move their finger

in a specific direction to open the app designated for that icon. Although the icons are laid out in the center of the screen, users don't necessarily have to "press" the displayed icon in order to open an app. Placing a finger anywhere on the screen enables the interface and the icon layout, and from that very location the user can move their fingers in any direction to open the desired app. The screen tracks the direction of the finger and does not require that an icon be clicked. Thanks to tactile feedback and voice commands, the user would know that their touch has been recognized and the required action would be performed.

The interface has been kept simple and minimal, yet all required functionalities have been provided. Navigating through multiple pages of apps is a breeze. Of course, the phone provides pretty much all standard features and applications that a regular smartphone has (favorites, full call logs, telephony, alarm clock, radio, voice recorder, calendar etc.). The in built camera also has currency recognition that can scan money bills and tell the user if it is a $5 or $100 bill. For people who like to read, audio books are available from the Library of Congress, Amazon, and others.

Project Ray has three models available that can be bought directly from their website, Amazon, and Odinmobile. There is also an Android simulator that can be downloaded from here if you want to see how it works.

Watch this demo video to see how easy it is to navigate the clutter free interface. A little bit of practice would make any user comfortable and using it on a daily basis would become a way of life.

There are more quick training videos on their Youtube channel.

Watch this video to see how others are using this phone.

Visit Project Ray for more details.

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CDesk: An Accessible Collection Of Applications For PC

For people who have visual and/or cognitive disabilities and are heavy users of computers, CDesk, a suite of computer applications, may be a tremendous help.

CDesk is a high contrast, large print, and fully speech enabled collection of eight applications that can help people with disabilities perform computer related tasks in a very simple fashion. The collection consists of programs specifically for email, a special browser for the Internet (with reduced clutter) and special filters that will remove all images and links form the page to make reading easy (this is true for the email program too), a media and books section that consists of internet radio and downloadable books/periodicals, a simple to use word processor, and its own speech recognition tool called PEGGY, to name a few. CDesk also stores contacts, provides calendar/spreadsheet/calculator options and has the ability to support approximately 30 more languages. Currently, CDesk is available only for the Windows platform (speech recognition works only with Windows 7 and 8).

A lot of supporting material in the form of videos are available on CDesk's website. They also provide free technical support from 7AM to 5PM Pacific time to answer questions and provide help with CDesk.

A 15 day trial version can be downloaded from here or by going to CDesk's website and clicking the "Download CDesk Trial" button. The pricing for CDesk starts at $395.

Watch this video to get an overview of what all CDesk can do.

Read more about CDesk on the AFB AccessWorld Magazine website.

CDesk website: Adaptive Voice

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Telescopic Contact Lenses For Age Related Macular Degeneration

In the recent past, we have seen quite a few solutions for Macular degeneration, a leading cause of legal blindness in adults over the age of 60. These solutions enhance the person's existing vision and give them confidence to go out and about again and help them carry on with their lives more naturally ( see this and this). 

Switchable telescopic contact lens, developed by researchers in the USA and Switzerland, provides the same enhancements but without the need of surgery. It magnifies the scene details by 2.8 times when paired with special spectacles.

The contact lens has a telescopic element that consists of tiny aluminum mirrors. This element sits right outside the central region of the lens that lets light in for normal vision. The mirrors bounce the light around four times within the ring before passing it on to the retina. The accompanying spectacles have polarizing filters that can be turned on so that the only light coming to the retina is through the spectacle+lens combo, thus magnifying the image 2.8x.

In the adjoining picture you can look at the results of images captured through the contact lens and optomechanical eye. (a) USAF resolution chart @ 1x. (b) USAF resolution chart @ 2.8x. (c) Outdoor image taken with optomechanical eye. (d) Outdoor image taken with contact lens and both apertures (1x + 2.8x). (e) Outdoor image taken with contact lens @ 2.8x.

This prototype lens is 8mm in diameter, 1mm thick at its center and 1.17 mm thick in the magnifying ring.

Since the lens would be worn by the user for an extended period of time, it was very important to make it "breathable" or make it suitable for use for more than 30 minutes. The researchers achieved the breathability by creating very tiny channels that let the oxygen flow through. The "gas-permeable versions of these lenses are being developed for clinical trials in November.

According to the researchers, the image quality provided by these lenses fell short of design goals but they have identified all the factors that would improve performance in the near future.

Hit the source links to read more about these telescopic contact lenses in greater detail.

Source: Optics InfoBase via BBC

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Glasses That Help Blind People "See"

Image source: Gizmodo

People who are blind since birth learn various techniques to navigate and maneuver in their surroundings without hitting obstacles. However, problems arise for those who who were born with good vision but in later stages of their lives, lost it.

For such people vOICe (as in "Oh, I See") can come to rescue.

What vOICe does is remarkable. It captures visual data and converts it into sound. Simple, right?

The converted sound is called a "soundscape". Each soundscape is a scan from the left to right ear -  the frequency of the sound represents the vertical axis of the image. The louder the audio, the brighter the image is.

Image Source: NewScientist

The vOICe consists of a pair of glasses with a camera mounted on it. The camera collects visual data and passes it on to the conversion software that the laptop connected to the glasses/camera combo runs (the idea is to carry the laptop in a backpack).The laptop in turn is connected to a pair of headphones which are worn by the user. The headphones project the sound captured and converted to the ears, essentially telling the user where/ how far an object/obstacle is.

Studies have suggested that the brain adapts quickly to the long term use of this device, allowing users to "see" the sound. A long time user of vOICe, who lost her sight, has even crossed the English Channel just by listening to audio signals from vOICe.

Watch the following video to see vOICe in action.

Hit the source links to read more about vOICe.

Source: NewScientist via Gizmodo

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Echolocation for Blind Users to Locate Objects

The researchers in the large anechoic chamber

Studies on echolocation, the ability of humans to detect (and in many cases, dodge) objects by detecting echoes from these objects, started in the 1950s. To continue and add to the findings of these studies, researchers at the University of Southampton conducted a series of experiments to find out whether blind people can use the same tools/techniques used by bats and dolphins to detect objects which would help them navigate in their immediate surrounding. Humans, bats, and dolphins have a common set of specialized brain processes that can locate the source of the sound. 

The researchers, including Daniel Rowan,  used Diane Marks (among other blind and sighted volunteers) for their experiments. Diane lost her sight 16 years ago.  

Bats and Dolphins are well known to use echolocation to navigate through the dark and the ocean very effectively. The purpose of Rowan's experiments was to determine how effective humans can be in learning the same techniques that bats and dolphins use. For these experiments, Rowan and his team built a special large anechoic chamber to demonstrate that both blind and sighted people can use sound to locate objects (see video for details). They also determined that some people are better at locating the source of sound than others, however, they think that the ability to track the location of sound gets better with more experience and feedback.

Do watch the video at the source link (itv) to learn more about these experiments!

Source: University of Southampton, The Raw Story, itv
Image source: University of Southampton

Dolphins helping blind people to pinpoint sounds. http://t.co/jCg1rVwEug @RNIB
� ITV News Meridian (@itvmeridian) June 19, 2013

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App That Helps Visually Impaired People Take Pictures

Dustin Adams, a PhD student at the University of California, has recently created an app that lets blind/visually impaired photographers take pictures with their phones. Tackling common questions like "I don't know if I am focussed correctly", "I am unable to distinguish buttons on my camera unless I pull out my magnifier", and several lighting questions among various other things, the app makes taking pictures a breeze. A photo can be taken by a simple upward swipe on the phone screen. It detects all the faces in the frame and speaks the number out to the photographer so they know if all the subjects are in the photo. There are audio cues that help the photographer keep the main shot in the frame and focus. 

The app also records a 30 second audio to help the photographer remember who is in the shot as well as GPS data that tracks which city/neighborhood the picture was taken in. From the screenshots available in the research paper, it looks like this app is being made for iOS.

Do read the very interesting paper that Dustin Adams published to find out survey results and all the effort and direction that was put in this app to make it a success.

Source: NewScientist, University of California at Santa Cruz via Engadget
Photo source: Mundobit

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FDA Approved Bionic Eye

Image source: Engadget

The FDA recently approved a bionic eye that will bring limited vision to people who suffer from a specific type of blindness.

The technology behind this bionic eye, known as artificial retina, will allow people who suffer from retinitis pigmentosa (a condition that causes night blindness, blurring, poor color separation, etc.), to see crosswalks, outlines of trees, cars, people; large numbers/letters among other things. It also helps them identify objects that have a contrast between light and dark - for example, black socks mixed with white ones.

This new device, named Argus II, uses electrodes implanted in the eye, a pair of glasses with a camera attached and a portable video processor that can be worn on the waist. The camera embedded in the glasses captures the scene. This video is processed by the video processor and sent to the implant in the eye, which emits small pulses of electricity that in turn simulate the retina's remaining cells, and conveys visual information to the brain.

As of now, 10,000 to 15,000 Americans will qualify for the Argus II (eligibility: must be over 25; have previously had useful vision. Also, the Argus II should provide a substantial improvement to their current blindness). The device would cost around $150,000 and that does not include the cost of surgery and training. Second Sight, the company that makes this device, is hopeful that soon insurance companies would start covering it.

As mentioned above, this device is currently being made available only to people suffering from retinitis pigmentosa, but it is being looked at as a promising step for treatment for people who have macular degeneration. Eventually, Second Sight plans to use this technology to solve blindness caused by all causes.

Please read the article at the source link to learn more about this technological marvel that has opened many avenues in the assistive technology area. Don't forget to watch the video at the top of that source article too!

What do you think of this invention? A blessing for sure, but does it have limitations? Does it require a lot of work still? What are your thoughts? Please share in the comments section!

Source: NY Times (thank you, Tom Walton!)
Video: Engadget

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ASETNIOP Keyboard: A Revolutionary Keyboard For People With Disabilities

The QWERTY keyboard has been around for ages and is the de facto standard for all devices we use that involve typing. However, it may be does not provide too much flexibility to people who may have visual impairment, not so good motor skills or over flexible joints (think Ehlers-Danlos syndrome). Of course,  another limitation, if I may, of QWERTY keyboards is that it if it's being used on a touch device like a tablet, it occupies a substantial amount of real estate which may be frustrating for people with low vision who may want to see a larger amount of enlarged text at a time on the screen.

To solve all these problems, and to essentially allow users to type wherever they want to (that's a bold statement, isn't it?!), Zack Dennis has devised the smarter, flexible ASETNIOP keyboard that only consists of 10 (one for each finger) invisible keys! A single tap on the  eight "finger" keys produce one of the ASETNIOP characters, and the two thumbs are used for "space", "enter" etc. The rest of the letters are produced by pressing two fingers at the same time - a two key combo, if you will, which are known as chords. These chords can be used to store commonly used words, automatic correction, and text predictions. With the ASETNIOP keyboard, what matters is which fingers are pressed down.

The best part about this keyboard is that its size can be adjusted to provide ample space for all ten fingers to press down comfortably. The visualization below depicts how uniformly the finger taps are distributed across the keyboard.

To watch a demo of this keyboard, watch the following video:

The ASETNIOP keyboard is available for the desktop and the iPad. Give it a shot!

Website: http://asetniop.com/

Read the full press release for more exciting information and to see a demonstration of someone typing 83 wpm on the ASETNIOP keyboard!

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Implant For Age Related Macular Degeneration

Scientists at UC Davis Health Systems have successfully started installing implants into eyes of patients who suffer from age-related macular degeneration, thus giving them brand new vision.

Macular degeneration, the leading cause of legal blindness in Americans over the age of 60, damages the macula - the part of the retina that provides central vision. This loss of central vision affects a person's ability to perform daily tasks. Unfortunately, macular degeneration has been known to cause depression and diminish quality of life.

The Implantable Miniature Telescope (IMT) is an extremely tiny implant that has been approved for end-stage age-related macular degeneration. With a combination of mirrors, the implant magnifies the image 2-3 times of the normal size and projects on the retina for the eye to see.

Retina Specialists at UC Davis Health Systems started installing the implant in May, and so far 50 patients have received it. One of the recipients, an 89 year old artist named Virginia Bane who stopped   painting four years ago because of age related macular degeneration, is extremely enthralled. "I can see better now", she said after the surgery. "Colors are more vibrant, beautiful and natural, and I can read large prints with my glasses. I haven't been able to read for the past seven years. I look forward to being able to paint again."

Soon Virginia would be able to see even better as she retrains her brain how to see.

Approximately 60% of the patients were able to see three or more lines on the eye chart right after surgery.

The patient needs to met the following requirements to receive this implant:

• Must be at least 75 years of age.
• Must have retinal findings of geography atrophy or disciform scar with foveal involvement.
• Must have BCVA of 20/160 - 20/800.
• Must have evidence of a cataract in one eye.
• Must be willing to undergo pre-operative screening and post operative training with a low vision therapist.

Hit the source links to read more.

Source: UC Davis Health Systems (1), UC Davis Health Systems (2), Fox News via Gizmodo
Image sources: UC Davis Health Systems (1)

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