Java project for the blind

[stutech123]

I want to build something in java that can be of help to the blind,or to the physically disabled.Please suggest.

[JosAH]

I want to build something in java that can be of help to the blind,or to the physically disabled.Please suggest.

Start (relatively) simple: there are Braille writers with a usb interface; more complex: a text to speech interface (google for FreeTTS).

kind regards,

Jos

[stutech123]

i want to build something that doesn't already exist.

[JosAH]

i want to build something that doesn't already exist.

What do you want to build? Or are you just begging for ideas here?

kind regards,

Jos

[stutech123]

well, i've thought of a braille to text converter which would then read out the text. It can be used if a blind student wants to study something and the study material is in braille.I want more options.

[JosAH]

well, i've thought of a braille to text converter which would then read out the text. It can be used if a blind student wants to study something and the study material is in braille.I want more options.

Well, there are the 'translation' paths braille -> written text -> speech or a direct path braille -> speech, written text -> braille; other paths are useless for blind people; you could also experiment with abstract sound ...

kind regards,

Jos

[DarrylBurke]

It can be used if a blind student wants to study something and the study material is in braille.

Did you mean if a seeing student etc.etc.? A blind student would just read the braille.

db

[JosAH]

Did you mean if a seeing student etc.etc.? A blind student would just read the braille.

Maybe for the people that haven't been blind very long and don't know how to read braille yet (e.g. very young kids, blindness after a disease/accident etc.)

kind regards,

Jos

[stutech123]

thanks,i mean,if a student has somethin already in braille,he'll have to run his hand through his book every time right?so instead won't it be better if that braille transcription is scanned once,and then converted to speech, as its always easier to listen than to read.I'm not sure about the use of this,that's y i was askin for more options.
I just wanna create a project that's actually useful,i'd like to build something that can help the disabled.May not necessarily be blind.This was just an idea i came up with.

[JosAH]

thanks,i mean,if a student has somethin already in braille,he'll have to run his hand through his book every time right?so instead won't it be better if that braille transcription is scanned once,and then converted to speech, as its always easier to listen than to read.I'm not sure about the use of this,that's y i was askin for more options.
I just wanna create a project that's actually useful,i'd like to build something that can help the disabled.May not necessarily be blind.This was just an idea i came up with.

Better offer the different options (written text to braille, written text or braille to speech). Some blind people are so proficient braille readers that they prefer braille over spoken text. b.t.w. being deaf is a complete differnt disability than being blind; braille etc. won't help deaf people at all (and vice versa). i.m.h.o. being deaf is a nastier disability than being blind.

kind regards,

Jos

[stutech123]

but written text to braille already exists,in fact there are many such kinds.ya,braille to speech is wat i'm talkin abt.but wat else can be done?i'm really short of ideas here.

[stutech123]

wat do the deaf need wen it comes to s/w?

[JosAH]

wat do the deaf need wen it comes to s/w?

As far as I know (I have a sister in law who's completely deaf; she's married to a man who's almost deaf) they don't need much when it comes to software. Of course they can't hear those silly little dingelings and whistles but that can be easily circumvented with small popup dialogs. I once tried an experiment with a sound to colour transformation but it wasn't successful according to my sister in law. They do need adjustments though (e.g. a visible (light flash) door bell) but that has not much to do with software.

kind regards,

Jos

[stutech123]

hmmm...ya,i searched,there's many stuff like a word to sign language site,and similar sites,for those who are deaf.well,i still can't decide wat to do for my project.

[Jodokus]

Braille to text or speech sounds silly. Braille is text made palatable for the blind, why reverse that? Spoken texts are also common. High tech solutions for "seeing" (being stimulated on your back when you happen to stumble into some object and so on, and much more advanced) are done in technical institutions, not really something for a "loner" I guess. You should contact some institutions for the blind or technical companies, but most is already made, or is done by big companies.
(I myself once made a commercial C++ converter from WP51 text to WP51 inserted with braille-signs (the next signs should be interpreted as numbers, or capitals, and so on, a stage in the process of converting text to braille having only 64 different "chars", I found it back at more libraries for the blind then I sold it to ;>) But this kind of software for modern programs like Word also exist already I imagine. I think this is difficult or you should come up with a very good and original idea.

[stutech123]

ok,thanks...

[pbrockway2]

High tech solutions for "seeing" (being stimulated on your back when you happen to stumble into some object and so on, and much more advanced) are done in technical institutions

A week or so ago I read an article in The Register about the tongue being used as a receptor for visual information. When I googled for this I found that it goes back years. Here is a typical (and recent) example which also mentions the technique of being stimulated on the back): YouTube - ‪Electro-Medicine : Biological Physics - Cure for Blindness : BrainPort Vision Through Tongue‬‏

[JosAH]

A week or so ago I read an article in The Register about the tongue being used as a receptor for visual information. When I googled for this I found that it goes back years. Here is a typical (and recent) example which also mentions the technique of being stimulated on the back): YouTube - ‪Electro-Medicine : Biological Physics - Cure for Blindness : BrainPort Vision Through Tongue‬‏

Fascinating; we'll all be robots in a couple of hundred years. It amazes me that the tongue is so sensitive that it can distinguish different two dimensional 'images'. Maybe it can be implanted somewhere in the body near to a lot of nerve cells; similar to those cochlear implants for the deaf. b.t.w. my brother in law is (almost) deaf but he can hear the funniest things, such as water running (from a tap) hundreds of meters away (I can't hear it).

kind regards,

Jos

[DarrylBurke]

we'll all be robots in a couple of hundred years.

Jos, the bicentennial man

my brother in law is (almost) deaf but he can hear the funniest things, such as water running (from a tap) hundreds of meters away (I can't hear it).

IIRC that kind of selective hearing loss is related to Autism.

db

[JosAH]

Jos, the bicentennial man


IIRC that kind of selective hearing loss is related to Autism.

His loss of hearing was caused by a severe meningitis when he was a little kid. I don't know whether or not he suffers from autism; his wife had an accident when she was a toddler (she dropped in a river) and turned totally deaf. Both were born hearing. He can only hear those high pitched sounds (like running water) and he can hear them better than I can. He can have an operation to reestablish his hearing capability but he doesn´t want that, he doesn´t want to live "in another world" than his wife lives in; I think I can understand that ...

kind regards,

Jos