An experimental post showing a diagram I have drawn to locate root 2 on the number line.
I hope the SVG image renders correctly.
Locating root 2 graphically
The road from Raipur to Bihlai
A quick and dirty way to make tactile images
Those of you with tactile embossers would know how difficult it is to produce tactile images that are usable. Even if you have something like the tiger that supports variable dot height, you simply can’t take any ordinary image and send it to the printer. Yes, the image will be printed but what you will see is tactile mush.
You can get usable output but most approaches require human intervention. Automated methods are still under development.
I was trying to find a solution to this problem this afternoon. Most of my work is based on Prof Richard G Baldwin’s work in this area. I was trying to see if I could create usable tactile images without having to write any additional code. Yes, I am lazy. Thus far, what I have found is that you can use the sharpening affect in image editing programs such as irfan view to create quick and dirty tactile images. All you do is to open the image in an editor like irfan view, apply the sharpening filter or effect and then print the image.
I have tested this with a few samples and it has worked. I am not saying that this is the way create tactile images but it is one possible approach.
It is not your vision stupid: updated thoughts on shape recognition
I’ve often bemoaned the fact that I’m not sufficiently experienced with vision to facilitate shape recognition. Over the past year or so, I have had access to a tiger embosser from View Plus Technologies which has allowed me to print images and feel them. Surprise, surprise! I was unable to identify what those images were without context. The same is the case when I look at images using the vOICe. The vOICe renders images in two dimensions just like what the tiger does. The resolution using the vOICe is higher and since I’m wearing a head mounted setup, I can use the vOICe to explore my environment immersively. There seem to be two conditions that facilitate shape and scene recognition. The first is historical experience so, if I have experienced a shape before, I’m able to identify what it is when I look at it again. Secondly, the scene has to match my mental map that I have built either using my kinesthetic awareness or some other means. This condition I experienced this condition firsthand when I was looking at a doorway using the fisheye lens with the video glasses. I was uncomfortable when I had the narrow angle view of the doorway. However, the moment I got the fisheye lens on the glasses, I was able to perceive both sides of the doorway which I knew would be there.
I am not too sure what this means for sensory substitution and learning how to use it effectively. In all probability, what this means is that experience and mental maps need to be stressed. The modality of information delivery is not as relevant as I thought it to be.
Demonstrating perspective with frosted grass
[categories: vOICe]
Perspective is one of those experiential things that sighted people seem to "just get." When you use technology such as the vOICe, or tactile graphics, things are a little harder since you are still learning how to see. If you don’t fancy using video glasses or don’t want to walk around to experience perspective, checkout the below link. It has pictures of frosted grass taken from various distances that get progressively closer. Try comparing the close ups with what you see using the zoom feature of the vOICe.
Absolute India at the India Art Fair
[categories: concepts, accessibility]
I’ve visited the India art fair and had a look at SapientNitro’s absolute India event. It was the only purely audio feature in the entire exhibition. There were a series of bottles that were placed on a table and as you lean towards them, each bottle had a set of speakers that were probably embedded inside the table. There were labels such as Himalayas, a bazaar, true love (or something like that) and so on. Each theme had a corresponding sound associated with it. The concept was certainly interesting especially since it related to different parts of India.
They would however have done better producing this as a Daisy book. Moreover, I wish they had more enthusiastic and better informed staff manning the stall. They were unable to explain to me why a microcontroller was being used. In addition, they should have had better crowd control. One of the bottles had been unplugged from the cables apparently due to a child wrenching too hard at the cables that were attached at the underside of the bottle.
As for the rest of the exhibition, I did not have a chance to see too much of it. There was however an interesting artist called Anil Ravri. He seemed to be doing most of his art using two-dimensional geometrical shapes. I suspect he’s using fractals.
Finally, I am surprised how difficult sighted people find it to interpret art. Apparently, they too need descriptions and context when looking at paintings even though they are able to tell the different objects that have been drawn in the painting. The connection and representation of these objects is the bit that needs to be described.
using photo blogs for learning to see
[categories: Accessibility, concepts, Sensory substitution, vOICe]
hi all,
Those of you who have looked at the vOICe for synthetic vision would know that we need a pair of glasses with a netbook for the best immersive user experience. If you are like me however, you will find that the weekends are probably the only days when you can walk out and about with your glasses and netbook. The rest of the week you are stuck in a boring old office or perhaps you are travelling between customers. The question then arises of how to continue your visual learning? I was recently introduced to photo blogs where people post photographs and write something about them. These blogs especially those that are hosted on WordPress are quite accessible. The advantage of a blog as opposed to a dedicated photo sharing website is that by convention, people do write something about the images they are posting. This way, there is some context to what you’re looking at. In addition, the images that you see are random which is exactly how sight is. You don’t know what you are going to encounter from one moment to the next. Finally, you can always comment on the image and ask the author for clarifications.
My introduction to photo blogging occurred after my trip to Iceland with Traveleyes. Helen Cherry, one of the members of the tour group has started an extremely accessible pair of blogs. She is a prolific photographer and posts at least one image per Day on her photomania blog. The 1500 Saturdays blog is updated weekly. She goes out of her way to make images accessible by adding alternative text tags or at the very least, giving descriptive names to the files that she uploads.
Her blog is hosted on WordPress, so you can use the Internet sonyfication feature of the vOICe to import images directly from her blog and look at them. She is also very willing to answer any questions you may have about the images she posts.
So, get out there and find more photoblogs!!
Sample accessible images
pennyroyal-editions-of-alices-adventures-in-wonderland-and-through-the-looking-glass
