So i think that it is very important to still work on tools for the blind. I was only able to stay for the first half of the discussion, but it got me thinking about how blind people could not tell if they are about to hit their head when walking with a cane. I was thinking that it would be cool if there was a device that could be inserted into a hat or headband or something of this kind that has a sonar sensor in it and a vibrating motor. (if this was something that was discussed after I had to leave, please stop reading now) So sonar works by it sending out a frequency signal and waiting for it to hit some object and bounce back to itself. I was thinking that if we had this in a hat, it would be able to detect things at just the right hight for every individual, and then send a signal to the motor that the wearer could then feel on their skin, thus telling them there is an object in front of them. This might be more difficult that I think, but I thought it was neat. Here is a device that the blind use on their canes: http://72.14.253.104/search?q=ca che:KoLmWG2qi4kJ:www.batforblind .co.nz/+sonar,+blind&hl=en&a mp;ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&am p;client=firefox-a

OH! here is a link to a prototype!!! http://studentservices.engr.wisc .edu/tongprize/Tong2007/11.html Its not very good though..... anyone else find something like this?

Professor Manduchi’s presentation really helped to show how technology can provide ways to address the issue of visual impairment. I think a few of the technologies he presented do help, such as aural cues for mobility (e.g. traffic beeps are frequently used now a days). However, it seems that the most basic tool (the white cane) is just as effective as the more high-tech gadgets.

Important points that the professor brought up that I feel we can consider when creating our own proposals:

• Technology should aim to be appealing to a broad range of age groups and should address cost
• How money should be spent
• Find problem first before solution
• There’s lots of diversity within a problem
• Blind people still care about aesthetics (thus design is important).

Here is an ideal gizmo to help blind people:

Taking a cue from the sonar post (the first one), mine is a stereo device that uses sound to provide clues to the environment. The two ear pieces would provide direction by how much input came through the left or right side, and pitch would be used to describe how far up and down the object extended. Volume would be used to indicate how far away it is, and doppler type effects can be used to describe its motion. The one issue to work out is how to not block out the sounds of the environment, because then we're just trading one deficiency for another.

Has anyone heard of anything like this, because I didn't read about it anywhere.

Despite the low numbers of people with blindness, I still think its important to work on new technologies to help them. Improving the long cane or creating something that would detect obstacles, like a low hanging branch, would greatly help people affected by blindness. With every improvement or new creation made targeted to the blind, it must be 'user friendly'. Prof. Manduchi presented some examples of gadgets that failed; why did they fail? They were either to complicated to use or annoyed its user with sounds. Not everyone is tech savvy, so the gadgets must be simple for the average person to use. Being blind, a person must rely on their hearing, and if a gadget will use sounds to aid the person, its important to make sure that the sounds emitted won't be aggravating after long use. If the person finds the gadget annoying, it gives them less incentive to use it. Also, I think for a new gadget to be successful, it shouldn't be too expensive. If something was created and would greatly aid the blind, but it was terribly expensive and not many were able to afford it, its not that helpful in the end, is it?

I'll start by answering the last question: since few people are affected by blindness, should we still help them? YES!Though there aren't huge problems, blindness is an extremely important (and scary) disease. Not being able to see the beauties of the world and living in a world of darkness seems horrible. And of course, several accidents could happen if the blind aren't assisted.

One thing Prof. Manduchi pointed out was that some technology would work but wouldn't be used. That could be for a number of reasons. I remember one interesting "gadget" he showed us involved this gigantic headset that looked pretty stupid. Even if it worked, he pointed out that many wouldn't use it because it would be extremely conspicuous. Just because they can't see it doesn't mean they want everyone staring. I thought that was a good point.

Did any of you know that blindness can and has been healed?

Anyway, it was interesting to hear about what Professor Manduchi had to say about new technology helping the blind. I'm sure as technology advances scientists will find a way to send information to the brain in a way that the whole iris can be bipassed. But I'm not too enthused about all that. I've always believed that we should work with what we've got. Take away the sense of sight and you still have at least another 9 senses: hearing, touch, smell, taste, clairvoyance(psychic vision), clairaudience(psychic hearing), clairsentience(psychic touch), psychic smell, and psychic taste. Maybe we should help the blind develop more fully these other senses. After all, the purpose of our senses is NOT to hear, or to see or smell. It is to have experiences in order to evolve. Maybe we should also teach the blind meditation practices since they have already shut out the visual world? It kind of gives them a head start. Did any of you know that blindness can and has been healed?

I think the most important point of converstation is making it affordable for blind people to buy these technologies or even to be able to pay for surgery. I think that technology to help blind people is important, but more importantly, shouldnt they be trained to work or be able to do something in order to make money just like so many of us? The professor said that almost 80% of people are unemployed when they are blind so maybe we should look at that aspect before we spend so much time and money on research to develop things that these people cant even really afford.

I agree on both terms, firstly of course the point that it shouldn't be expensive. But also these gadgets should be user friendly in the way that they do not become annoying for people to use. but mostly inexpensive!

Marialuz Garcia said:

Despite the low numbers of people with blindness, I still think its important to work on new technologies to help them. Improving the long cane or creating something that would detect obstacles, like a low hanging branch, would greatly help people affected by blindness. With every improvement or new creation made targeted to the blind, it must be 'user friendly'. Prof. Manduchi presented some examples of gadgets that failed; why did they fail? They were either to complicated to use or annoyed its user with sounds. Not everyone is tech savvy, so the gadgets must be simple for the average person to use. Being blind, a person must rely on their hearing, and if a gadget will use sounds to aid the person, its important to make sure that the sounds emitted won't be aggravating after long use. If the person finds the gadget annoying, it gives them less incentive to use it. Also, I think for a new gadget to be successful, it shouldn't be too expensive. If something was created and would greatly aid the blind, but it was terribly expensive and not many were able to afford it, its not that helpful in the end, is it?

James Davis said:

• Did any of the technology presented actually help?

I feel that most of the technology Professor Manduchi presented was very unrealistic. Most of it seemed to not be very user friendly and the designs of the technology was unappealing. These are two of the main factors that I think should be considered when trying to design a technology aimed at helping the blind. I thought the most useful technology he showed was the GPS navigational system. This could be a great tool to assist the blind once they fine tune their technology for the blind.

James Davis said:

• What are other things people have invented to address the needs of the blind?

I found this great article on how a group of Brazilian college students have invented a wristband that has a built in GPS navigational system which vibrates every time a blind person is supposed to make a turn. It was a finalist in a technology competition that was sponsored by Microsoft. This technolgy was very similar to what Professor Manduchi was discussing in class.

Stephen Johnson said:

James Davis said:

• What are other things people have invented to address the needs of the blind?

I found this great article on how a group of Brazilian college students have invented a wristband that has a built in GPS navigational system which vibrates every time a blind person is supposed to make a turn. It was a finalist in a technology competition that was sponsored by Microsoft. This technolgy was very similar to what Professor Manduchi was discussing in class.

Here it is http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_ 22-6089190.html

Friday's discussion opened my eyes to a lot of new problems in the realm of visually impaired difficulties. What surprised me most were some of the statistics he provided. Sixty-eight percent of visually impaired people are of working age, yet can't be employed because of their disability?! This floored me, and immediately drew my attention to the pressing need of creating a safe work environment for those with limited visibility. The other statistic that really surpised me was the fact that only seven thousand visually impaired people use guide dogs. As ignorant as my assumption may have been, I always figured that guide dogs were the ultimate solution in aiding the blind population, for they have the ability to supply sight and sound that a human does not necessarily have. After listening to everything professor Manduchi had to say, I think I was most excited to hopefully see more advancements in computer technology for the visually impaired in the coming years. This will not only make life easier for those who can't see, but it will hopefully lead to more job opportunities, possibly even leading to a decline in poverty rate in the U.S. (wishful thinking, I know, but it would thrill me to be able to find some sort of technology that enabled more visually impaired people to become a part of the workforce).

I liked every post that I have read so far. It seems that everyone liked Roberto's presentation, and I enjoyed it as well. The statistics he presented were quite eye-opening and the idea that definitely shocked me was when he told us he was blind-folded and taken into downtown Santa Cruz and went on to state it was the scariest experience of his life. He showed that there are many people out there who are proposing ideas to help people who are visually impaired, and why their ideas have failed. After ten minutes of the presentation, I was very interested to hear about Roberto's research and proposals. Yet, his discussion never came to that.

Professor Manduchi expressed alot of exellent points. I enjoyed his humor as well as his insightful comments on technology. Points to consider in proposing a solution for global issues are knowing the problem. The fully understand the victim and the situation, rather than proposing solutions which can be inefficient and poorly designed to the victims needs. There are just some things that are important and some things that are not to a victim.

I think that as we get wrapped up in the "Hot" topics in today's world, we often forget about people in America who need help as well. I really enjoyed Proffessor Manduchi's presentation, as it really made me think. Obviously, we all knew about blindness, but I never really stopped to think about the people who suffer from it.

The 68% unemployment rate, as well as the fact that Proffessor Manduchi said that most blind people do not go anywhere unattended, if at all really got me thinking. I liked a lot of the technology he presented, but I personally think the glasses that emit a specific sound based on the environment was a little too much.

Neverminding how to invent it, what would be an ideal gizmo to help blind people?

I think I liked the bionic eye. Creating an object that could register images, and send the data received to your brain electronically would not only be damn cool, but would seem to be the closest alternative to full sight. The only problem, however, would be the images registered, ie: would they be black and white? low resolution? so on and so forth.

The lecture was very helpful in the fact that it shed light on the fact that technology is not always a solution to social problems, at least not right away. Obviously with enough time and money there will be a solution for blind people, but as of right now there is not enough, just small research (thats my understanding. In my opnion it's the simplest things that work best, like brail or the traffic chirps or the bumps on the sidewalk. I think the ideal gizmo would be an earpiece that details what is going on every second, like audio eyes, but that is seemingly impossible.

I agree that the lecture that prof. Manduchi gave was very interesting because it is something that we rarely think of. It's amazing to think that 68% of the blind are unemployed and and I think that there is something that can be done about this. I think that we should focus on finding employment for the blind. One of the things that prof. Manduchi said was that the blind are good at using computers so maybe there is something they can do with them which would make them earn an income and perhaps able to afford a guide dog.

James Davis said:

• Do you think that technology can help for all social issues, or are some inherently beyond the reach of technology solutions?

I do think that technology enhances and help certain social issues, but I don’t think that it can help every single social issue in the world. Such issues like population growth and things like obesity or depression cannot be helped with technology that I know of. In the future, there will probably be more advanced devices that will help certain diseases and such, but problems where it involves natural settlements or things like natural disasters are forces that can’t be helped, even by the newest technologies.

The ideal gizmo that will help blind people will probably be hands-down the bionic eye. The bionic eye, which has a small computer chip behind the eye can read the images through the chip and be interpreted into the brain. When Professor Manduchi talked about this, I thought about how it could help those who are the 68% unemployed improve their chances of work again, and thus increase the economic growth rate in America. I am glad that Manduchi addressed all these issues that would concern those who are visually impaired. Even though the blind population is very small in America, it is good to be aware of the issues and focus on new gadgets that can help the visually impaired.

Here's more information about the bionic eye: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/healt h/4411591.stm

It was really nice to hear Prof Manduchi's talk about the blind and technology that could try an reach out to their need. It was interesting to hear that he was talking about that specific topic because earlier in that day I was thinking about how we could use technology to reach out to those with disadvantages/disabilities. So his talk got me to relate the idea of helping those who fall in that category and try to use technology in a way to not only make their lives easier but to reach out to those in an educational way. My specific thought was to continue trying to teach students who were blind or other disabilities how to play musical instrument or be a part in music or any kind of art form. So I thought Prof Manduchi's talk helped just to think about reaching out to that community.

If you were visually impaired, and let’s say you use the computer to keep in touch with society, small issues like even spam e-mail can affect your daily lives more than the normal citizen would. Many people who are blind reported complaints about the junk mail that they receive. Those who are visually impaired tend to have programs that read letters from their friends and family will often also end up hearing the horrible sounds of “sexual enhancements” or “winning free iPods”. Some will spend 3-4 hours a day sorting and deleting the spam, because they would receive up to 100 spam messages a day. This is a small example of how some technology programs could be misused against those who are disabled. Thus, instead of technology helping those who are disabled, they are taken advantage of as a marketing technique in ways to increase their products.

Here’s a follow up article about this issue: http://www.wired.com/science/dis coveries/news/2004/06/63934

I enjoyed Robert's talk. When I think of technology and society, as demonstrated in class, I think of global warming, poverty, and education. I thought it was cool to see some ways how technology is being used to help disabled people and make daily life easier for them.

Professor manduchi's presentation was great. He kept me interested through the whole talk by providing great statistics and very interesting facts about the blind. His personal experiences of learning to use the white cane is incredible to hear as none of us can imagine how difficult and dangerous it must be to get around with only a stick to guide you. For myself, blindness has always been a paranoid fear, i often wonder how life would be like if i could no longer see and the thought of it scares me to pieces. The technologies he showed us were great because it is an active example of how technology can help someone who is disabled. I especially enjoyed his comments of, yes the thing might sound great but man can it be butt ugly to look/wear everywhere. The presentation was great and I would highly recommend professor manduchi for future classes.

oo yea just for laughs don't know if anyone else posted this yet but,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2007 0406/od_afp/uspoliticsblind_0704 06191010

man only in texas lol

Professor Manduchi’s presentation was really helpful in aiming at the some of the technologies blind people are using. As Mr. Manduchi said there are about 10 million people who are blind, but yet out of those people only 7,000 use dog guides. I think we should think of a way to help more blind people financially since most of them cannot afford it.