I use a combination of blindsquare and Google maps and or Navigon for navigation. My work flow is to search for a place in blindsquare and then launch Google Maps and or Navigon for routing. The trouble is that there have been times when I have not found a place on blindsquare or the place has been wrongly marked. This is not blindsquare’s fault because it uses foursquare. Yes I know, croud sourced navigation but it works well in most cases. The operative word is most. My last experience converted a 20 minute journey to a 2 hour ordeal because of an error on foursquare. I wrote to blindsquare support and asked for help.
The following solution has been given by Mr.. Ilkka Pirttimaa
A friend and I spent two days in Rishikesh. Most people go to Rishikesh either for rafting or to visit the several temples in that city. It is also the launch point for treks into the Himalayas. I went for photography. I had done my trekking last year. Rishikesh does not have a railway station. I took the train up till Haridwar. I took the following photographs out of the window of the taxi. I was playing tourist. I would look out of the window and quickly snap the scene as long as it looked interesting. I was using the vOICe as usual. Interesting for me was any scene with a lot of shapes and plenty of light. I did not have time for analysis. I would glance out the window, bring my iPhone 5 to eye level and click. In some cases, I did take photographs at different angles. I did so in 2 cases. In the first case, if a scene was interesting I wanted to capture it at different aspects. If a scene was boring, that is, very few shapes, then I wanted to highlight a new dimension of that scene.
We stayed at a resort called the Glass House. It is a property with beautiful views. The trouble is that a lot of people come there and it is hard to get away from them as you will see in the photographs related to the Glass House.
This picture captures a quaint little building standing under a large tree in the corner of a main road and a smaller by-lane most probably in an Indian village. The words written in Hindi on the top tower like part of the structure is not clear and so not legible. The day is bright and sunny. The tarred road not very wide is dusty and the shadows of thick electric lines [most probably] and the tree lend shade to the right hand part of it on the picture. Beyond it there is a cemented open courtyard and then this tiny square building painted in brick red color, inside low walls also in the same color. The walls have wire meshing on top making it much taller but giving visibility. A small white painted gate in this wall which leads into the building is open in the front and has an orange and white painted archway in the shape of a banyan leaf over it. A plantain tree and some plants are seen outside the mesh on the right of the gate. There are other bushes and plants inside the meshed walls on the left too. Across the tiny inside- courtyard, the door of the little building is open too and has there two long windows on either side. It has a saffron flag flying on the archway. It looks like an “aashram” a retreat for sages and pilgrims. There is a building which looks like some kind of small office on the left of the structure under the tree and a white car is parked in front of it facing the road. There is another car parked in a building on the left across the by-lane. A large cream colored house is seen behind the retreat and the tree, in the dim light of the tree shade. Above and beyond the by-lane and the building to the left of the retreat a patch of blue sky with bright white clouds and the purplish blue hills on the horizon are visible. This eclectic mix of spirituality, the quiet of a village, the modern amenities like cars and electricity, the big house and the tiny offices all leave one with an emotion of wonder at the achievement of man as well as his roots in spirituality. This is a commercial area of a city or town. Prominent in the background is a three story apartment building with shops on the ground floor. We see the shop signs – Chawla Handloom, Chawla Travels and Chawla Fast Food. A beach umbrella in front of the fast food restaurant tells us outside seating is likely available. There are several people in the street scene, most prominent is a man seated in the driver’s seat of a small blue bus that appears to be a sort of taxi. He’s waiting behind another similar vehicle, so most likely this is a queue of taxis waiting for pickups. The man appears relaxed and taking a chance to rest in between riders. He has on a long sleeved white shirt and khaki pants. Two young girls are walking in front of the shops. It seems like a hot day, but the man in the blue bus has on a long sleeved shirt. The apartment building in the background is interesting. We can see balconies for the various apartments on the second and third floors but no one is around. There are air conditioners and wires going every which way. The second floor of the building is painted pink, and has some type of foreign script (Hindi probably) writing on it. You do not want to be caught in the situation depicted in this photo where the traffic jam appears to have stalled the commuters for hours on end. The upper third of the image is primarily dark black capturing the mood of the passengers and drivers alike with places to go and things to do. The traffic itself might be emerging from an old tunnel, with all its accompanying paraphernalia, or a work zone where cars are often rerouted. Toward the lower right of the photo is the most recognizable of the vehicles. A white square built ambulance is struggling forward. The style of the frame of the cab is quite angular like a jeep or other work vehicle. A strong and reliable motor would be required for medical transport and equipment. Only a bit of the transport compartment behind the cab can be seen; just enough to notice the red strobe lights flashing across its upper edge. The right front seat window can be clearly seen through the windshield. The occupant’s door is likely open so that the trained personnel could move through the stalled traffic to assist disfurnished commuters holding things up. The image itself is a bit out of focus which adds to the feeling of powerlessness. In the left corner it appears that a tail assembly of another white car seems to be leaving the scene. Between the two vehicles there is some style of traffic cone, warning the already stopped cars to slow down presumably. Other indistinct signs in red and yellow identify curbside retail locations indistinctly. This is a picture of trucks parked in front of billboards. One of the billboards is advertising a furniture company that is having a sale. The background of the sign is white. There is a large green house shaped area with white and yellow writing. This area is outlined in red. The words “Sale” and “40%” are in large red letters at the top of the sign, on the white part. At the bottom white part, is writing in dark blue. The writing is in English. There is another billboard next to this one, to the right of the picture. It appears to be old and the paint is peeling. It shows what appears to be a chief. His hand shows and he is holding what may be a stand of spaghetti. It has some strange looking letter type characters along part of the top. One part of this billboard has been painted over in blue and there are some upside down English letters. There is also something under this writing, but it is not clear what it is. The trucks are mini trucks and are all painted blue. There are no doors on the ones that The door area shows. The truck to the far left of the picture also has a large cut out area in the side. There is something pink that can be seen in the floor of this truck. It looks almost like insulation. The truck to the far right in the picture has a luggage rack on top. All the trucks have cattle guard type bumper protections made out of pipe that cover the front of the body of the trucks. These are black and there is a middle section with white tips. There are orange tags with black lettering located on the right front just under the windshield of each truck. The truck to the far left has a yellow decal on the window just above he tag. The truck in the middle is smaller than the other two and has a line of three red decals running down the center of the windshield. The truck to the far right has one red decal at the top center of the windshield. The area where the trucks are sitting looks to be dirt. There are power lines running above the billboards. The sky is blue and there are some light clouds in the sky. Mountains can be seen in the background. This gives the feeling of an abandoned area. “The predominant feature in this scene is a large elm tree with about ten large limbs branching out from the trunk. The trunk is not visible because the foreground of the scene has a structure extending across the lower part of the entire scene. The structure is made of wood and extends about ten feet above the ground. The ground is not visible. The structure is divided by vertical wooden beams spaced at about ten foot intervals. Between these beams there is a yellow piece of wood that is about ten feet by ten feet. A circle has been cut out of each yellow piece of wood that is about one foot wide. The center of the yellow piece of wood is held up by a two by eight that is mounted from the outside of the cutout space and is horizontal through the center of circular piece of yellow wood. The paint is old and faded. The top of the structure is flat and is bounded by a railing that is metal. The railing consists of vertical metal poles about three feet tall and spaced at about three feet intervals. The poles are connected by semi-circles of metal that begin at the base of each pole and arc past one pole and terminate at the base of the next pole. The tree is heavily limbed and an agile 12 year old boy could move completely around in the tree at least 15 feet from the center without taking a serious risk. There is the image of a structure in the tree that seems, at first glance, to be a complex tree house that is mounted at a slight angle. However, upon further inspection, it is a reflection, or a ghost image from some other source. It is about 18 feet wide. It has a large cardboard box on the lower end which is one the left. Adjacent to the box there is a wooden furniture piece that looks like the headboard of a twin bed. The remainder of the “”tree house”” is the grey floor and a diagonal grey piece projecting up from the floor and ending a few feet above the floor on the right. There is a ray of sunshine coming through the tree. The entire scene gives the impression of a place that once had a more significant purpose and meaning. The man-made additions to the scene have faded in their appearance and their relevance, but the tree has grown to be mighty and majestic.” This photograph is dominated by the lower half as far as coverage space is concerned. The lower half shows a good number of vehicles like cars, public transport vehicles etc. standing or moving. There are also buildings and shopping structures that are visible. There are one or two persons that are seen inside the public transport vehicles. The lower half is bustling with urban hustle, which goes to show that the snap was taken in the middle of a busy approach road to a town or city. The upper half of the snap is dominated by nature as explained above. An additional aspect of the snap is the trees that line up the left and right corners of the photograph. These trees are tall and captured in dark shadows due to light conditions. However there are no other vegetation signs within this urban patch. The picture shows a high mountainside covered in lush green trees with a single tree in focus in the foreground. Then you realize it is the picture of a hairpin bend seen in parts through the trees as there is a lone white car visible on the foot of the mountains in the distance. We are on this side of the hairpin bend with may be a deep ravine in between as the tops of a few trees are seen here. Just close to us can be seen the roadside boundary markings, two stones painted white with a red streak running through the middle, looking similar to milestones. These mark the right hand side of the road proceeding towards the hairpin bend which is not visible; only a bit of the road further up is seen where the car is seen going uphill. A single hardy tree is seen close to the boundary stone on the right edge of the picture. It is a medium sized tree only a bit thicker than the red and white stone near it. It has a straight trunk and only a few branches in the lower reaches whereas there are many short branches with dark green thick foliage on top. The tree top is silhouetted against a clear blue and white sky, a little further right of the outline of the mountain. It has a deep purplish blue hill as a backdrop too against the lower trunk. The blue hills are far away behind and to the right of the mountain. The road the car is proceeding along ends in another bend, rounding off that mountain, also to reveal the mountains behind, blue and far away. The photograph can be viewed in largely three parts, which are, upper, middle and bottom parts. The upper part of the photograph indicates that the snap has been taken in broad day light. The sky is entirely resplendent with the brightness of the day time sun. The sky is stylishly blue and is dotted with lovely wisps of white clouds that are floating effortlessly. Sky seems to be triangular shaped given that a full mountain valley, between the two mountains, is captured by the photograph. The snaps of valleys are panoramic because they reveal the entire landscape in one go and it is rather difficult to capture a whole valley view neatly. This snap is perfectly neat. The middle part of the photograph covers two grand hills. Both hills are forested and are rich green in color due to the presence of several forest trees, plants and foliage. One hill is farther away from the view while the other is faced right to the eye of the camera. There are several lush green trees which are tall and healthy and one can see the entire side of one of the hills covered with grass. The bottom part of the picture reveals a long and winding hill road with a moving vehicle on the far end of the road. At least one whole bend of this hill road is covered by this snap. This photograph is that of a road which appears to be winding through some beautifully forested hills. The road, itself, is a concrete road but showing signs of wear and tear as in the portion captured by the photograph. The road has its raw end towards hill slopes with prominent mud and boulder like stones liberally strewn across. There is a broken stone seat with debris heaped around it. In addition, there is a clear fluorescent light which would be activated at night. In the far left of the picture, to the middle ground, is a tree limb that is covered with leaves. Behind the tree limb can be seen mountains, the tallest one is appearing to be almost blue, In the forefront of the picture is a body of water. The surface is rippled, indicating the wind is blowing. On the far bank is what appears to be a little bit of snow in a couple of places. The bank is low and is covered in rocks. There is a semi-cleared area that has grass growing on it before the tree line. The trees are thick and not showing independently. There is also a taller mountain on the right side of the picture. The sky is full of clouds and some of them look a little gray. This picture appears to have been taken in the afternoon. The blue of the sky is a smoky blue color. This selection of boulders focuses on their uniqueness, and would make an interesting picture puzzle with its monochromatic blue hue. The play of the light on the different shapes suggests that the sun is low in the sky where it can emphasize each rock’s distinguishing characteristics. Starting in the lower left three very dark boulders lurk in a shadow. Although they are similar in size and shape one is unique. Along an upper edge of the one closest to the camera, some mineral has caught the golden sunlight and is sending it back into space. A narrow band of beach sand separates this triad from the rocks to its right. Above these dark rocks is part of what is the largest boulder presented here. Its finish is quite smooth, like it had spent quite some time being polished and shaped in a fast moving river. It has no edges but the sunshine on the top reveals the layers and swirls that reveal this old rocks history to the viewer. It, too, has a sandy barrier visible around it. Two medium sized boulders are centered next to it. The upper one is quite black and light absorbing while the lower one is a brighter brown well-worn down specimen. On the sand around these two are smaller rocks of different colors and shapes. Just below the sandy right upper corner, there is a medium sized, light, smooth rock. Smoothed by water travel it is the rock that is nearest to white. Just to its lower left is the most unique of the collection. It is quite large, reflecting sun from its top. It’s totally waiting for its turn to run the rapids and get all its scoops and valleys polished off. Newly formed somehow, this craggy boulder displays its pits, crevasse and limestone origins for the camera to record. This shows an exquisitely beautiful piece of river bank made up of white sand like powdered sugar, studded with a few chunks of weather worn rocks. The center piece is a marvel, a small rock almost triangular in shape with the corners polished and rounded off; it is the color of butter with a slight brownish tinge and tiny crescent -like striations on it. It seems to radiate tinges of various shades. It seems to have the history of time etched on it. One realizes it must have taken thousands of years of rain, wind and flowing water to make it the wonder that it is today. If it were smaller anyone would want to add it to ones collections of shells from the beach or of lovely rocks from the wild. There are a few big flat rocks of a darker shade and in an almost dark grey color lying close to it. These are flatter and not so rounded off or polished, with a few angles and rough surfaces. The large blackish grey rock is half covered with the white sand and it looks like a miniature mountain powdered with the first snow. The other cream colored smaller stones too have character and add to the beauty of the shot. What one finds most interesting are the imprints of the soles of different sized shoes or sandals seen in the soft sand. The imprints are there on the sand and on the stones. A little square rock completely covered in sand looks like a lovely, large sugar-dusted cookie; it has many of these feet showing people having stepped on it. This is a scene of a river showing both the near shore and the far shore as well as the river itself. We see a rocky beach in the foreground, a river behind it, and behind the river the far shore. The picture is tilted to the left, making the river appear to flow uphill. On the far shore is a rocky beach and a heavily wooded area of trees. The river itself appears to be flowing rapidly from left to right. Our eyes are drawn to the near shore however, where we see a nice sandy beach area and many rocks of various colors and sizes. Someone has been on this beach! We can see boot tracks in the sand. The rocks on the near shore are interesting shapes and colors, some are very smooth and some are jagged. The colors range from a tan color, to slate color, to darker gray. We can’t see the sky at all but it doesn’t seem sunny at all, the picture is very gray overall. It’s a beautiful scene, but somehow the fact that the picture is tilted makes it seem less so. The picture would be better if it was straight. We wonder about the boot tracks. Probably from a man it seems based on the type of prints. What was he doing? Perhaps fishing, or maybe just exploring the area on a cloudy fall day. Maybe he is the one taking the picture, we can see what looks like it might be his shadow in the sand. Who knows?
The picture shows a raging river. We see the sandy and rocky shore near us on our side of the river. Then the river behind it. And behind the river the far shore. No one is present in the picture. Most prominent are the rocks on the near shore some are larger boulders and some are smaller stones like river rocks, very smooth from years of wear. The rocks nearer the water are covered with green moss, the others are various colors such as tan, slate and very dark gray. The rocks are sitting on a sandy beach. It’s hard to tell, but there may be footprints in the sand, either from people or animals or birds. Behind the rocky beach we see the river, which appears to be rapidly flowing from left to right. There are large rocks under the water and we see the water gushing over them on its course. Behind the river, we see the far shore. Right along the river the far shore is all rocks of similar dark gray color and fairly evenly distributed along the water. In the photo behind the far rocky shore we see a heavily wooded area of trees in leaf. The day seems cloudy but we can’t see the sky at all in the picture. Since the trees have their leaves, we assume it is summer or fall. It’s a beautiful scene but we are left wondering if anyone is around and who left the footprints in the sand. This is a picture of some big rocks on the sand. At the lower left corner is a large one that almost looks like petrified wood. Centered in the left is a smooth, oval shaped rock that has a light pattering of strips and a gray squiggle. Next to it is a small, flat, grayish colored rock. Just above the little rock, is a large triangle rock. At the lower right corner of this rock, almost buried in the sand, is just visible another rock. Just above the oval rock is a foot print in the sand and then a brownish rock. There is another small grayish one and a couple of large tan ones at the top of the picture. There is a small amount of gravel scattered among the larger rocks at the top of the picture. Sand, with shoe prints, take up the right half of the picture, starting just under one of the large tan rocks. In the lower right corner of the picture are the toes of a pair of black tennis shoes and just a tiny bit of a black pants leg. The sand is a grayish white color. There is what might be a slice of apple just a little past the right tennis shoe. There are several different style of sole prints on the sand, so several different people have been here. The different textures of the rocks are very interesting. There are mountains in the background, with the fog hanging over them! The sky is beautiful! The bright sunlight shows to the left of the picture with the sky turning a grayish purple starting at the upper center. The mountains in the far background are covered with fog. There is a mountain toward the left center ground that has trees growing on it. In front of this mountain is a thick stand of trees. Then there is an open area that goes almost all the way across the picture and meets a mountain on the right side. The end of a tree branch shows in the upper right corner of the picture. The open area has some grass growing, not a lot of sand, and some rocks show. Through the center of the picture, from just above middle right to lower left runs a river. The river has little waves and even some baby white caps on it. At the closest bank there are large rocks that jut out into the river in the center of the picture. There are some weeds growing out of the rocks. The bank in the foreground is made up of mostly rocks and gravel. Between where the camera is and the bank, is a pipe fence with a concrete post. The fence is two pipes painted blue. The concrete is not painted. The lower right corner of the picture shows some pavement, so this probably is taken at a look out point somewhere in the mountains.
Note
I took the images showing rivers and boulders at the Glass House.
Thanks to Describe! a service run by Chris Nestrud for image descriptions.
This post comes about as a part of a conversation I am having with Olena Markaryan author of the Bionic eyes and arms blog.
Getting visual perception late in life is challenging. One of the hardest concepts I have had to grasp is how 2-dimentional things on paper relate to 3-dimentional objects in the real world.
For example, if I see the drawing of a table and feel the same table I will not be able to tell that the table in the drawing is the same as the one I am feeling.
Yes, vision and touch are different senses but sighted people are able to bridge this 2d-3d gap probably because they have had long experience of such things. The brain is an inference engine and has had plenty of time to learn how to do this.
I need to backtrack a bit and tell you that I got my house remodeled in 2011. Version one was broken down and version two was constructed. I had looked at the architectural plans of the to be built house using the vOICe. One of the features that stood out was the snake like staircase.
Mind you the stairs are not snakelike at all when I walk on them but that is the impression I got when looking at their drawing.
The penny dropped for me the day before yesterday when I was walking down the stairs. I was tilting my head in all directions to get an idea of how the stairs looked when viewed at different angles. When I looked at themn sideways, I perceived the same pattern that I did in the autocad drawing.
I need to explore this more. I do not know how this happened. I guess that I had the same perspective as I did with the drawing so that may have helpped but it is exciting. I had seen the drawing about four years ago and remembered the staircase.
I recently participated in a workshop relating to accessibility of arts and culture with reference to museums. This was conducted at the National Museum under the auspices of UNESCO. The idea behind the workshop was to explore what could be done to make art accessible to the blind. The museum had taken a number of steps to make objects accessible. A number of presenters also covered how Museum accessibility is being handled globally. The primary ways it is being done appear to be as follows.
The use of audio descriptions along with associated broadcast technology.
The creation of 3-D models of objects that are on display.
The use of tactile graphics to display paintings.
All the above methods are time and labor intensive. Moreover, there are significant constraints in the application of these methods. One of the biggest challenges is the lack of space. There is insufficient space to store the 3-D representation of the models. Moreover, many of the 3-d models that have been created are not durable. Museums change their displays frequently which involves changing the audio descriptions of models as well.
Several solutions were proposed to handle these problems. For example, it was suggested that curators decide which models best tell the story of the collection and only translate those into tactile representations. The issue of durability could be addressed by using better material to make the 3-D representations.
The other set of challenges that museums have to face relate to logistics. In most cases, disabled visitors need to book an appointment in advance before visiting a museum. This allows museum staff to get things organized and to ensure the best possible experience for their disabled patrons.
As a disabled consumer, I foresee several issues with these accommodations. Do not get me wrong, they are nice and the intentions behind them are good. They even work. However, the problems I have are as follows.
I want the right to be disorganized. Every disabled person is not a good planner. Moreover, the disabled person should have the ability to walk into the museum and enjoy its exhibits without the additional step of planning.
There are very few audio described items and even fewer tactile representations.
These facilities are available only at certain museums.
Enter the vOICe
The vOICe is a generic solution that converts images to sound. All it needs is a camera and some kind of computing device to run. It can be run as a mobile phone application or as a program running on a laptop or desktop computer. It is image agnostic and can translate images of any complexity and at any resolution. The interpretation of these images is left to the user.
As I’ve stated in other posts on this blog, the vOICe gives the user a direct sensation of shape without any interpretation.
To summarize, the vOICe combines audio and tactile representations into a single modality. There is no manual effort required in the preparation of audio descriptions or tactile representations. This also solves the problem of space. There is no need to maintain multiple representations of an item.
One of the criticisms that has been often levelled at the vOICe is its steep learning curve. There is no denying that interpreting soundscape’s needs to be learnt. It does take time and effort to be able to do this effectively. However, in a museum, there are textual labels that already exist explaining what items are in a given display. These usually contain enough information for the blind patron to get a good idea of what he or she is looking at.
The vOICe facilitates true universal accessibility. All it needs to function effectively is good lighting, clearly printed text labels (that is more a user requirement) and clean displays. These incidentally are requirements for all patrons irrespective of their level of ability.
It is possible to record the sound skips from the vOICe and incorporate them into digital media presentations. This would allow people who are unable to access the museum physically to still enjoy the exhibits. Lastly, this will allow curators to sleep easier because no one will have to “touch” their precious collections!
Acknowledgements
To the Blind with Camera foundation for giving me the opportunity to present about the vOICe and to participate in the workshop
To the National Museum and UNESCO for being fantastic hosts.
To Saksham for making the Santhal collection accessible.
I am releasing the Immersive Vision Kit which is a dedicated device for running the vOICe. If you can build Lego, then you can build yourself an electronic eye. The kit has the following advantages.
It is compact and unobtrusive.
It is modular allowing you to select the components you want.
You do not feel the heat generated by the camera or any other component.
It is easier to handle as compared to a Netbook or laptop with video glasses. The equipment can fit into a jacket pocket or purse.
You can add other components to the kit.
The camera used has a very wide angle allowing you to get the maximum input from your environment.
There are no distractions while using the kit. Its only purpose is to run the vOICe and that is what it does.
The kit consists of an ODROID u3 board running Android as well as a camera with a wide angle view. Please see the immersive vision kit page for more information including setup instructions..
The J-Say product has undergone a significant face lift. It is now owned by Hartgen Consultency, a company founded and headed by the developer Brian Hartgen. J-Say is middleware technology that interfaces Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional with the Jaws for Windows screen reader. It allows users to control Jaws for Windows using their voice, and allows them to get full control of their computer. J-Say version 13 has just been released. There are five features I really like about this upgrade.
The “forget it” command which deletes whatever was dictated in the last utterance and speaks what has been left. This allows me, as a user to retain the context of my dictation.
The new correction feature using the “select” command. If the corrected phrase is in the choices, it improves the speed of editing significantly. No need to redictate or to open the spell box and re-enter the text.
This is probably the fastest version of J-Say so far. I can feel this specially in Microsoft Outlook when I have to get through a large number of messages quickly. I prefer using the keyboard for this but now, speech recognition has become an acceptable option.
J-Say tags allow the user, to mark files across folders and drives and then to delete, move or copy them. This beats holding down the shift key and moving around with arrow keys or, holding down the control key and marking files using the arrow keys.
You can stay current with Jaws for Windows versions. J-Say no longer restricts you to a specific build of jaws.
Finally, for those of you contemplating buying this technology, the price has been reduced significantly. Please see the J-Say website for more information.
Why did I do it? I wanted to push myself and see how I managed. Moreover, I was curious about the mountains and life there and about climbing.
In addition, I wanted to try the vOICe on the trail.
I will not give a blow-by-blow account of the trek because that will prove to be boring.
We started from the village of Barsu and then went up to Bernala and then on to Dayara.
I had tried checking on mobile phone connectivity and electricity supply. No go. I cannot comment on Barsu because I was there for about 30 minutes.
Beyond Barsu, you are on your own. I had carried a number of battery packs to power my phone and run the vOICe. As an aside, mobile phones are quite useless after Barsu because there is no signal. Yes, there are places where you get BSNL and Idea but they are few and far between.
I had planned to use the vOICe but I was focused a little too much on the trail and where I placed my feet. Was it the fear of falling? Perhaps.
One thing, for a blind person, I do recommend a hiking pole. You can use it like a white cane in a pinch and it does give you support in terms of balance.
I was however able to use the vOICe while we were at camp and took some random shots at other times. Yes, I was playing tourist.
I have written about taking pictures with the vOICe before on this blog. I wanted to check if I could see distant mountains and other features like snow on the peaks above us and the whole mountain, clouds and sky experience. There is no other way to perceive this.
I was successful. I saw a mix of dark and light with different textures. Mountains were hard sort of dark shapes while clouds were these shapes that were bright and soft. There was sunlight between these which had no shape but was bright.
I did see plenty of grass, rocks and the camp in general. Nothing new to report there. Tent poles are these long bright objects which tent walls are these curving things that fill a large chunk of the view.
It is important to have a fish-eye lens to get a large slice of the view. An ordinary webcam would make the process tedious. It would be doable but you would need to turn your neck frequently to acquire more slices of the view.
Lining up the camera is also a shade challenging because I had to remember the exact height of what I wanted to photograph. Mind you, there were times I just took random shots without focusing on anything which lead to some surprising results.
I had to beware of the trees. I needed an unobstructed view of the mountains and the trees kept coming in the way.
To summarize:
Keep a hiking pole handy. You can use it for balance as well as like a white cane. The pole will help you gauge the depth of steps and height you need to step when ascending.
Boots help keep leaches away.
You need to plan and prepare before you go. If you have a physical limitation, then get creative.
Try to enjoy the trail and do not over focus on where your feet are going. You will balance.
Himalayan water is tasty and is the best cure for exhaustion therefore, it must be drunk every time you get an opportunity. Yes, you drunk it directly from a stream.
Keep a rain poncho handy. Mountain weather is changeable and you cannot predict what will happen.
Keep a powerful flashlight handy in case you have escorts who have difficulty seeing in the dark.
