Braille app beats QWERTY keyboard in smartphone tests
Having a boyfriend who’s blind, we’ve had alot of conversations around the wonderful smartphones that are out there. They’re great little things to have and use, unless you’re blind and the spiffy smartphone in your hand doesn’t have a built in keyboard. Then, using that little gem becomes a pain.
This app is about to change all that (from CNN)
The post-doc researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology has co-developed an app, called BrailleTouch, that could help blind people send text messages and type e-mails on touch-screen smartphones without the need for expensive, extra equipment. To use the app, people hold their phones with the screens facing away from them and punch combinations of six touch-screen buttons to form characters. The app speaks a letter aloud after it’s been registered, so there’s no need to see the screen.
The system is designed for blind and visually impaired people, who otherwise have to purchase thousand-dollar machines or cumbersome “hover-over” (more on that later) keyboards to be able to type on no-button smartphones. But Romero sees a spin-off for the technology: The touch-screen Braille keyboard is so fast that sighted people may start using it, too.
“It may be a solution for everybody to get their eyes off their phone so they can walk and text or watch TV and make a comment on a blog,” he said by phone. “It may free the sighted people’s eyes” and help visually impaired people to type more easily.
The free app, which is being developed for Apple iOS and Google Android devices, should be available in a matter of weeks, he said.
And yes, as soon as it’s released I’ll be giving this app a spin first hand. Here’s a video of it in action.
(thumb via the linked article)
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