Each year, Mobile World Congress is held in Barcelona Spain, and it is dominated by the announcement of new phones. However, there are also many other devices that are announced as well, and this year a new universal translator ear-piece is one that stands out.
Waverly Labs has developed wireless earbuds that come in black, white, or red. Much like Air pods, they are independently wireless, and are charged in a separate case. You can use these wireless earbuds in the normal way, but if you also download the Waverly app, the ear-pieces will translate foreign languages. If you are speaking English, and the other person needs to hear Spanish, the app will display your words in Spanish on their phone, and a Text to Speech synthesizer will speak the words in their ear. The reverse is true when they speak to you. The ear-pieces currently run $249 on pre-order, and $299 once they are publicly released. You do not need an ear-piece to hear the translation, but it is much better than hearing it over your phones external speaker. Currently, the app supports English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
NeoBraille Display Incorporates Amazon Alexa at CSUN 2017.
Irie-at will be showing off their impressive braille display at this year’s CSUN conference on disability. It is a 32-cell display that automatically scrolls while you read. It has 64GB of internal memory with a 128GB SD card, and it runs on Android Lollypop.
What makes it impressive is it has an AT&T* LTE connection, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. It also comes with the Amazon Alexa voice assistant built in. You can even use it to check your email and make Skype calls. It is currently listed at $4995. If you are visiting the CSUN conference, it is available for viewing at booth 605 in the exhibit hall.
A Braille Display Mod Could be Coming to the Moto Z.
Ryan Poltermann, of Virginia Beach, has long known that there is a missing piece of technology for those who are blind. When using a smart phone, people can look at their screen and interact with it, but blind people must carry around a bulky braille display that pairs to the phone via Bluetooth. When the initial concept of modular phones was announced about two years ago, Ryan realized that a braille display mod could be the solution for this problem. It is virtually impossible to develop a specialized braille display phone, considering how much it would cost the manufacturer, and how small the target market is. The advantage of modular phones is that they can be customized by the manufacturers and the users to meet the needs of even small groups. Motorola has made it clear that they will continue to back the Moto Z, which is a modular phone. Motorola promises twelve new mods each year for the Moto Z.
Ryan Poltermann is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to raise the money necessary for his Braille Moto Mod. The Braille Moto Mod
Has two versions. The first is a single cell version, which I assume allows the user the ability to purchase the number of cells which is best suited and cost effective. The second version is a multi-cell mod that has up to 110 cells.
It is difficult to know all the details, because Ryan is having to maintain some secrecy since he still has some patent and funding issues to resolve.
How to Fix Issue with Audio-Description on Netflix After the Latest Update.
If you recently experienced an issue with Netflix not properly playing your favorite shows with audio-description, you are not alone. I will attempt to show you how to restore the preferred settings for those who wish to have audio-description run automatically when playing a Netflix show that has that feature available.
Taking a Look at the Features Available on the Google Home Voice Activated Speaker.
Google released the Google Home, which is a voice activated speaker that can control your smart home devices, play your music, answer your questions about almost anything, stream the news from sources you select, and so much more.
In this episode, James Oates tells us how to setup the Google Home, and walks us through the Google Home app on his Pixel phone. Here he shows us all the different configuration options available for the Google Home. The Google Assistant is built-in to the Google Home, and it is amazing how many things it can do.
The Orbit Interactive Tactile Graphics Display Will be at CSUN 2017.
One of the biggest problems for blind students is the ability the view and draw charts, graphs, maps, floor plans, geometric shapes, and functions.
The Orbit Graphiti, provided by the American Printing House for the Blind, is a tactile display, about the size of a laptop with a multilayered display of 40 by 60 pins of varying heights.
The device can be used to display images from a connected computer or from an SD card. The user can also draw their own images on the surface of the device. This image can either be displayed on a computer monitor for sighted people to see, or saved to the SD card as a visual image. The blind person will see their drawing as a tactile representation on the Graphiti, but sighted people will see it as a visual image.
If you wish to view the Orbit Graphiti in person, it will be on display at CSUN 2017 in Sandiego on Thursday March 2nd at 1:20PM PST in Balboa AB, on the 2nd floor of the Seaport Tower.
Samsung Shows off VR App that Helps the Blind See at Mobile World Congress 2017.
Samsung has a great Gear VR headset, and they are working on different applications to use with the hardware. One of those apps is called, Relumino, and it helps people who are legally blind see the world with more detail. It is downloaded on your phone, which is connected to the Gear VR headset. It translates the images that you view through your phones camera to a much sharper and detailed image on the VR headset. The app costs $99, and will be presented at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Spain.
The Dot Braille Smart Watch Arrives Next Month for Blind People.
One of the most anticipated cool devices for blind people will arrive next month for those who preordered. The Dot braille smart watch connects to your phone via Bluetooth. The device has four cells of refreshable braille, a crown for scrolling, and two more programmable buttons to carry out app specific functions.
Once your finger slides off the four cells of braille, the next four cells automatically refresh. In this way, you can have a continuous reading experience. Obviously, you wouldn’t want to use this device to read a book, but it is perfect for telling the time, reading, and responding to messages, and checking social media accounts. I’m sure that app developers will come up with even more clever ways to use this technology.
140,000 smart watches have already been preordered at the incredible price of $290. 100,000 will arrive this year, and the next 40,000 will arrive next year.
VIP: Money’s No Object!
Don’t worry about how much it costs! Just go out and buy it! Tune in to this jam packed VIP where James Oates steps out of his comfort zone to take on the job as host with fellow hosts Joel Ramos and Nelson Régo.
CSUN Conference on Disability 2017 Showcase Suites and Session Schedules.
If you are attending this year’s CSUN Conference on Disability in Sandiego, you should take the time to stop by one or more of these showcase suites.
Many major companies, such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have setup showcase suites to tell you more about their improvements in accessibility. They have presentations on a variety of topics and demonstrations of their products.
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