Pranay Jain and Anshul Singhal, two graduate level students at MIT have founded Squirrel Devices, a company which provides measuring and drawing tools for Blind students in STEM courses.
The Tactile Caliper allows students to measure and draw straight lines with an accuracy of 1/16 of an inch. The Caliper is 12 inches, or 30 Centimeters, and is a mechanical device with no battery or electrical source. Amazingly, when locked in place, the device displays the measurement in braille.
There is also a Tactile Protractor, which is also mechanical. When opening it, it clicks each time you reach a degree. This makes it remarkably easy to measure an angle, or draw one as well.
VIP: To Measure Or Not to Measure?
Join Jessica, James, and Nelson for another exciting VIP as they discuss the latest happenings in accessible tech. Lots of excitement this week, and we’ve got you covered! Here are our stories
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A future option in computer memory might be Optane, and it’s here today
Do you ever wonder what the next big speed boost to computers might be? Ask any person today, and they will tell you that using an SSD is one of the biggest and as of 2017, cost-effective ways of speeding up system performance. While processors have increased in speed and decreased in power usage, the relative need for performance has gone down – and thus we accept computers with lower clock rates. This has placed more diversity in the CPU world. A few years back, ram capacity exploded, and it, too, has stabilized since to have a projectable curve of growth. We have finally moved past 1 GB devices to consider 2 GB at the low end,, with 4, 8, and 16 dominating the mid to high-performance systems. And 32 is becoming more and more common for some enthusiasts.
New Features in Android O First Developer Preview.
Android enthusiasts, this is a great time for you. Android O first developer preview is now available for installation via flashing to your device. The Pixel, PixelXL, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, and Pixel C tablet are the devices that are eligible to begin testing the first preview of Android O. The over the air Android Beta version of Android O should be available for the second preview coming in May.
Apple Announces Spring Time Refresh to its Lineup.
Its Spring, and everyone is cleaning out the clutter and adding a little refresh to their home. Apple has the same idea. They didn’t hold an event, but there were several changes and discontinuations announced today.
Cool Clips: March 21, 2017
The CBT Team would like to thank you for your feedback and emails. Although we are unable to reply to every email we read every email we receive. We have picked out a few of our favourites to reply to.
SAS Graphics Accelerator Allows Blind People to See Graphs.
The SAS Graphics Accelerator is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox that lets blind people discover and explore graphics in a variety of ways. First, you are notified by a distinctive sound that graphs are present on the webpage. Next, you can choose to get a description of the graph that will be read by your screen reader, or you can convert the graph into an easy to read table, or you can get a sonic representation of the graph. The sonic representation travels along the X-axis; data points that are higher on the Y-axis will have a higher pitch sound than data points that are lower on the Y-axis. Watch the video below for a demonstration of these features.
SAS Graphics Accelerator is free to install. It works with most major screen readers on PC and Mac.
Cool Picks: March 20, 2017
Cool Picks returns with Jessica Rickards, Joel Ramos, and Hugo Gallegos as they tell us all about their latest tech.
How to Back up a Pixel Phone and Enroll it in the Android Beta Program
Google is offering some users the opportunity to get a sneak preview of Android Nougat 7.1.2. To take advantage of this offer, you must enroll in the Android Beta program and have an eligible device.
To enroll, just visit android.com/beta and provide your Google sign in credentials.
The following devices are eligible at this time.
Spotlight On Everett Elam: Experiencing The World Through Study Abroad
Join Jessica for another special CoolBlindTech Spotlight Interview. This time we feature Everett Elam, recipient of the Gilman Scholarship Program. He shares some amazing experiences and highlights from his exciting experience which are not featured anywhere else.
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