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The Blind Woman Developing Tech for the Good of Others

posted by mrpg on Saturday December 08 2018, @07:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the kono-hoshi-no-kibou-no-kakera dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

BBC:

[...] Dr Asakawa is behind early digital Braille innovations and created the world's first practical web-to-speech browser. Those browsers are commonplace these days, but 20 years ago, she gave blind internet users in Japan access to more information than they'd ever had before.

Now she and other technologists are looking to use AI to create tools for visually impaired people.

For example, Dr Asakawa has developed NavCog, a voice-controlled smartphone app that helps blind people navigate complicated indoor locations.

Low-energy Bluetooth beacons are installed roughly every 10m (33ft) to create an indoor map. Sampling data is collected from those beacons to build "fingerprints" of a specific location.

Daredevil should soon be available to help Dr Asakawa with her work.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Saturday December 08 2018, @08:46AM (5 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Saturday December 08 2018, @08:46AM (#771466)

    Low-energy Bluetooth beacons are installed roughly every 10m (33ft) to create an indoor map

    If this ever becomes widespread in public buildings, people with Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity [wikipedia.org] will go ballistic.

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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday December 08 2018, @09:16AM (4 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Saturday December 08 2018, @09:16AM (#771469) Homepage Journal

    But Wikipedia set my mind at ease with "not a recognised medical diagnosis".

    I expect that article is just like Caltech's game of Alley Rugby: put a flat football in the middle of a hallway, then have half your house - we call them houses not dorms - gather at one end of the hall, the other half at the other end.

    I only played this just once, but have the happy memory that at some point my feet were well off the floor, yet despite that I continued to move back and forth.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @11:26AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @11:26AM (#771489)

      Sounds like fun. Have you ever played tot?

      Bunch of people stand around in a circle as the throw a sword (broomstick with tape at one end as the hilt) at each other. You can only catch the sword by the hilt and any part of your body that touches the blade can no longer be used. You have to stand in one spot and the goal is to eliminate the other players by hitting their body with the sword.

      I'm not sure if it's a real game, but it was a lot of fun and dangerous.

      • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @01:00PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 08 2018, @01:00PM (#771512)

        What a bunch of wimps. I'd be impressed if you you played tots with a genuine two-handed sword. A bastard sword, or a scimitar would do nicely. At LEAST use something as serious as a saber. Broomstick? That is just too lame to consider.