Category: Let's talk
hi everybody! I know that this kind of topics had already been picked before but closed. but time is going and , probably, you have something to say about it. I was subscribed on the mailing-list 'seeingwithsound' but there were only the people who didn't want to share their experience with a stranger, namely me. yesterday I visited www.seeingwithsound.com - website again, read some new users' comments, mini-tutorial, listened to the so-called 'soundscapes' and was really impressed. Now I haven't a cam on my PC so if i even install the software, I won't be able to play around with it.
There are so many people here, i can't believe that nobody is interested in this amazing technology! may be you've already tried it out, may be you're also impressed or disapointed? I'd bought videoglasses myself and test but i have no time now - the first half of a day i'm working, the second part is spent in IELTS exam preparations.
I've never heard of it.
it is definitely worth checking out, I have it on my phone and though I don't use it much, I am glad to have it.
Android supports it, Apple does not at least from my understanding.
There is some hardware in the Android devices that allows it to work. I would find it fascinating, and if it were useful, would most assuredly pay for something like that.
@Cowboy, is this project related to the running shoes that vibrate? That is also an Android-based scheme if I remember right.
Now, if the open-source operating system ROS (Robotics Operating System I think it is), can be used for some assistive device for us to enhance what we have that would again, be brilliant.
Haven't gotten to check out their soundscapes but would see anything anyone does in this area as an enormous boon for us.
This is all new to me. I should think it will ultimately be very beneficial to us.
I wholehearted agree. I admit ignorance in the running shoe concept. The seeing with sound is available for the pc as well and a laptop fitted out with a pair of glasses was originally where the idea came from. I think you could benifit from this, go to seeingwithsound.com and request a port to the iPhone. You do have Vis Wiz which I like, wish it was available on Android and windows phone 7, I think the reason Android has it and the iPhone does not is that the open source nature does tend to promote innovation. I hope that you can get them to port it over.
Speaking of Windows Phone 7, any way a blind person can use that? I only know two people who have it. For all everyone laughs at it it was instrumental in the ConnectKit open source camera available free from Microsoft, meaning you can get the specs and build the parts.
This has been big in the robotics hobby, which I personally think will end up with navigational assistance for us.
I will definitely check their site out and after reading their FAQs if they have not written anything about it yet, I may ask them about it.
Then, when they ddo get it, I'll see if I can move semi-effortlessly in the war zone known as the teenager's bedroom. lol
I don't think it as accessible as of yet. Mango was supposed to fix some of this but don't know whether it did or not. Though I only have nieces and a nephew, I know what you mean. Good luck with that, LOL.
dear 'cowboy1', tell me please, what do you use the vOICE for? I mean, what do you really benefit from having it installed on your mobile phone. Yes, certainly i highly recomment to go and see the page 'seeingwithsound.com' firstly, for knowing what we're talking about (i nean all would-be participants of our discussion) I also advise to read 'mini-tutorial' and 'users' experience' the lattest user's comment was posted the 13'th of April, by early-blinded woman who, just imagine, looked through the window in a bus, wearing these glasses and the vOICe. She wrote, that the device had halped her to get off on the right busstop.
Voice means - v Oh , I see! or 'oh, i can see'!
Well, many things, the sound scapes have helped me locate bar codes, though I need to turn it down. You can find light sources with it, and yes get a mapping of buildings and the such. You can't read signs with it but it can help focus things so that google goggles can read them for you, but unless the sounds scapes map out to identifiable landmarks, you don't get much use that way. I haven't tried this, but I could also find out how fast I am going, if I wanted to be a side seat driver. There are a number of things that you could use it for. That's a bit why I have it. Since it is free the price is right too. It does hae a built-in color identifier too.
Can you use it in your garage, say, to find where you put down a tool, or locate an object laying on a table? It would sure be very cool to identify an object on a surface without touching anything until you wanted to pick that thing up.
Less helpful but nonetheless interesting, as a bird hobbyist I know I would try and track a bird I was watching in the yard with it. It's just an extension, so I imagine its uses would end up being infinite. You'd just have to train with it.
The closest we have on iOS is a sound magnifier application called Awareness which I have experimented with. It is like a sighted person looking through a scope with one eye, though. It is not stereo. But if there is sound at a great distance which you want to identify, you can do so quite well. Not Seeing With Sound, more like a field glass, but even that can allow for things. I imagine the Seeing with Sound would just have infinite possibilities depending on one's dedication and effort.
Thanks to @Cowboy1 for pointing this stuff out; I'll be watching.
I suppose with lots of practice you could but it still wouldn't be able to distinguish between two nearly identical items, but you could come close.
today i've installed a 'learning edition', an application for windows, I mean kind of training app. firstly, when I press 'f11' to turn on training- mode, i hear many soundscapes but can't read their names. this 'learning edition' seems useless for me without knowing what exactly i hear - a building, a sign, a tree or another sound-image. moreover, i even can't deinstall this application.
"I also advise to read 'mini-tutorial' and 'users' experience' the latest user's comment was posted the 13'th of April, by early-blinded woman who, just imagine, looked through the window in a bus, wearing these glasses and the vOICe. She wrote, that the device had helped her to get off on the right busstop."
This was me using the vOICe learning edition on a netbook connected to camera glasses. I originally posted the experience to the seeingwithsound mailing list, and then Dr. Meijer requested my permission to post it to the site.
Does it do anything I can't do without it though? I mean, getting off on the right bus stop isn't really a challenge. Could I tell what building I'm walking past without having to go in? Could I tell what store I'm passing in the mall without prior knowledge? Could I read a menu at a buffet without having to find someone willing to tell me while people wait in line behind me? In short, what does it do that I can't already do with minimal effort?
yes, there are very good questions. i'm asking them myself when thinking about it. frankly speaking, all I need this technology for is independant walking outside because i can stay without any assistance at home very easily - it's not a problem for me. the real trouble is to get around.
It wasn't actually a city bus. It was a special transportation service, and the drivers don't always stop in the same spot. Without the glasses, the driver would say "here we are," and I would get off not knowing what to expect. With the glasses I know if I'm at that particular stop or a little ways away from it.
while moving you can know the upcoming intersections not just the closest intercections. Sure, there are other ways of finding out what is around you, but why not. There are other apps that can also be used, google goggles for ocr for example and color identifier, but this app helps if you have mapped out a location to make sure the sound scape matches where you are. Plus there is a where am I command in the voice recognition system to help with this. A built-in talking compass can help keep you on course or even to help find that direction you need to start from. Suppose you use googles navigation to find a direction and it says head south on High street. You don't know which direction is south, this helps with that. Other apps like camera magic help take pictures, but how do you frame shots, this app helps with that. Where's the door? I can't get cloce enough to the building without running into something to find out, and of course, there is nobody to ask for assistance. This app could help with that as well. Can it help you find the dorr knob? I don't know, I am not that good with it. Even though in most situations, it is too crowded to risk using, the fear of offending someone who could do me harm, or in a familiar place, I don't need it, it is a good add-on to use. If space is an issue and you don't use it not enough to justify, fine. It is a tool, nothing more. If it is one you don't need, don't get it.
well, my friends use build-in navigator to find the right place to get off. they have nothing exept a cell-phone and a small installed app which tells busstops or other marks. of course they have to put these marks on a map beforehand. so there's another option. I was wondering a lot and now think that I want to deal with something if it can't be supstituted with anything. for example, mankind hasn't found a way for the blind to walk without a cane - even if you have a well-trained, the smartest dog, the most powerful navigator and etc., you still need a commonplace cane (or an assistant). Yes, certainly, this or that application or device may broaden my abilities but, i suppose, not so much that it's worth wasting my precious time. my goals for the nearest future are: to pass the ielts exam, to enter a university abroad, to develop my project and promote poems and songs. I think if i am earning much, i'll be able to afford a sighted assistant because, you know, there's nothing better than eyes, whether your own, your dog's or your helper's ones.
yesterday I read about a new gizmo - haptic shoes which webrate on their left side if you should turn left and so on. ok, it can be a break-through but you still need a cane and we can't forecast when all these magic devices will be industrialized and produced to be bought. so, put your smile on, take a cane and keep on moving!
I have done extensive work with the vOICe, though only started about 2 months ago.
To me, it supplaments a cane. Meaning, with the vOICe, I am able to use my cane yet see what is in front of me at eye level. A cane only sees things from ground perspective. For example, it will not be able to tell you if you are heading towards a building, or even if what you are approaching is the door or the window of that building. The vOICe can, and in conjunction with a cane, I see so much potential with this technology.
As the tutorial says, it's like learning a new language. Sure you may not get all of it at first but after a while you will, and once you get used to certain patterns or soundscapes for a particular area you are in (for instance, I'm always traveling around my college campus), it can truly be a lifesaver. Imagine going into a parking lot and noticing the cars parked before you actually get 2-3 fett to them (more like 5 feet away you can tell, "hey, there's a car in the far left of my view) and getting around it. Sure, there is such a thing as sound shadows. This is often confused with echo locating, but is in fact, different. Sound shadows are about the air pressure and how objects can block said air pressure. For instance, if you are totally blind, or partially maybe even, you will notice that when you are walking under a tree you can tell the exact height of that tree without seeing it - you "hear" it.
Unfortunately, the vOICe does give the challenge of sometimes blocking this ability of sound shadows. This is why you need good headphones, ones which can sit above the ear and not cover the earhole completely, that way your spacial awareness isn't obstructed.
One last thing. I purchased an Android phone partially because of the vOICe. $290 on Ebay it ost, but well worth it. My Verizon iPhone 4 is now sitting in my drawer and I sometimes use it as a backup phone (for some things it's better at than android obviously). With the Android App I am truly portable.
If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, you can use an app called web camera from the app store to turn your iOS's device camera into a wi-fi based camera for your PC or Mac. This means that you can use the camera on that device with your laptop in a backpack. You will need to set up an add-hoc network in windows 7 (xp it's harder, don't know how) or under Mac, connect your iDevice to it, and open the web camera app on your phone. Then you hit connect to your pc's name (like, "connect to tomi-pc") and it connects to your laptop through wi-fi. You also need to have the web camera program installed on your computer, which sets up the virtual camera driver.
It worked for a bit. HOwever having to have 2 chords running from you (one headphone chord out of my backpack, another to charge the iPhone/iPod with since the bttery is killed during the camera use) was very hard.
Just my 2 sense. Anything is possible, guys. Don't let life or knowledge or other people limit you. THat's called being ignorant, to be limited by dogma or worldview.