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We are absolutely delighted to present you with a page that will be packed with informative and up to the minute news clips from some very reliable sources as well as potent business ideas that would be of interest to those who wish to stay in the know. Several business experts as well as political and economic watchers along with our own business experts and other stakeholders will be making regular contributions to this page and we would advise you to check this page as often as you can so as not to miss out on up to the minute news.



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Saturday, December 15, 2007

Important news for consumers with special needs

Greetings everyone!  I'm Jayna Sheffield at the business and Guess what?  This is our last posting for the year and I'm the lucky one to be doing it.  We took a vote and decided to use our last posting of the year to provide consumers with special needs with some more selections of articles of interest.  The first article in our selection is geared towards those who are still hunting for holiday gifts.
Enjoy!
 
On behalf of the staff at the business desk, I'd like to wish all of our readers a very happy holiday season and a bright and prosperous new year.  Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noèl, and Feliz Navidad.
 
We're going to be off for a nice long and well deserved holiday and will be back on Jan 28.
See you then and in the meantime, enjoy your festivities.
 
I'm Jayna Sheffield at the business desk.
 
Table of contents
 
December 15 2007
 
1 Maxi-Aids Releases List of Holiday Gift Ideas for Independent Living
2 Reading Machine Turns Legally Blind Teen Into Bookworm
3 What Is Juvenile macular degeneration
4 New technology for the differently-able
5 OLAT 6.0 - Bringing together Web 2.0 technologies and accessibility
6 The sightless follow the voice of the Internet
7 Talking Thermostats.com Introduces Commstat CEO-24 Telephone Controlled Thermostat
8 Latest Website Rankings of 100 Retailers
9 Bad Web Design Proves a Problem for Blind Internet Users
10 European Commission calls for an all-inclusive digital society 
11 Swedish design: upwardly mobile
 
 
 
PRLeap.com
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
 
Maxi-Aids Releases List of Holiday Gift Ideas for Independent Living
 
By News Release
 
FARMINGDALE, NEW YORK   November 28, 2007   Consumer News
 
(PRLEAP.COM) Maxi-Aids, world-leading supplier of products for independent living, today released its list of Top 10 Holiday Gift Ideas. Maxi-Aids provides items to improve the lives of the Blind, Low Vision, Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Senior Citizens.
 
With the holiday shopping season in full swing Maxi-Aids, a world-leading supplier of products for independent living that improve the lives of special needs individuals, has released its list of Holiday Gift Ideas for Independent Living. Topping this year's list are Reizen Talking Atomic Watches. "We expect our popular line of atomic watches to be our biggest seller this holiday season," says Maxi-Aids President Elliot Zaretsky. "They're attractive, reasonably priced and you never have to set them."
 
While a majority of Maxi-Aids' customers are senior citizens or have special needs such as visual or hearing impairments, Maxi-Aids' products often have a broader appeal. One of the items on the list, the Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock and Bed Shaker, is a good example. "Although this item was developed for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing," Mr. Zaretsky says with a smile, "One of our customers was buying it for a teenager who had trouble waking up for school each morning." The item list follows:
 
1. REIZEN TALKING ATOMIC WATCHES $59.95. For the Blind and Low Vision. Choose one of 6 styles. All models announce time and date, are self-setting (including Daylight Savings). Large 1-1/8" diameter face.
2. BRAILLE AND LOW VISION MONOPOLY (29957) $58.95. The ultimate accessible version of the family favorite. 20" square board with tactile overlay. Oversized game cards in large print and Braille. Braille dice.
3. LOW VISION MAGNIFIER LAMP (674134) $129.95. Great table lamp for the visually impaired stamp or coin collector, needle pointer or other hobbyist. 13-watt low glare bulb shows colors true to life, reduces eyestrain. See fine details more clearly with 3X optical magnifier. 360-degree rotating base.
4. REIZEN TRAVELERS LCD TALKING ALARM CLOCK (item #700890) $14.95. Perfect for the Blind and Visually Impaired traveler, this compact alarm features one-touch time announcement and choice of rooster, cuckoo or steady beep alarm.
5. PICTURE CARE PHONE (303207) $44.99. Great for those with memory loss and Alzheimer's. Speed dial the person whose picture is displayed on the keypad. (Dial by photo, not number.) 10 speed dial slots. Last number redial. Ringer Off/Low/High settings. Flash button alerts for incoming call.
6. SONIC BOMB ALARM CLOCK & BED SHAKER (ITEM #SBB500SS) $42.95 For the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, (or any sound sleeper.) 113dB adjustable volume alarm. 12-volt bed shaker. 110-volt power supply included.
7. LARGE PRINT CROSSWORDS #7 (475297) and #8 (475298) $12.95/each. The newest additions to this popular low vision series. Challenging for the mind, not the eyes. Oversized words and puzzle grids. 125 puzzles in each 10" X 9", 288-page book.
8. SUDOKO BRAILLE GAME (402783) $39.95. The latest brain teaser craze is now accessible to the Blind and Low Vision. 19 games with 5 levels of difficulty. 7/8" square Braille/tactile pieces with printed numbers. Case size: 16" X 16" X ½".
9. QUICKLOOK ZOOM PORTABLE VIDEO MAGNIFIER (607597) $795.00. The ultimate portable tool for those with low vision. Allows easy reading of restaurant menus, product labels in stores, magazines in waiting rooms, etc. Magnifies 3X - 18X on 4.3" LCD Wide Screen Display. Color, Black and White or Reverse Image.
10. TALKING TAPE MEASURE (ITEM #3082716) $94.95. For the Blind or Low Vision Handyman or Carpentry Buff. Announces length measured up to 16 feet in 1/16" or 1mm increments. Auto shut-off. Includes leather carry case and 9V battery.
 
For product details, visit Maxi-Aids' website at www.MaxiAids.com and click on the "MaxiAids Holiday Catalog" link. You may also order a FREE printed version of the holiday catalog by calling 1-800-522-6294.
 
Maxi-Aids is a world-leading provider of products for independent living, supplying an extensive range of aids and devices to improve the lives of the Blind, Low Vision, Deaf, Hard of Hearing, Diabetic and those with mobility and other special needs. Maxi-Aids is the exclusive distributor of the Marks Script Guide writing aid for the Visually Impaired and Reizen products for special needs.
Contact Information Paul Weingarten
Maxi-Aids
631-752-0521
Email Maxi-Aids
copydesk@maxiaids.com
 
 
 
 

St. Louis University, MO, USA
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
 
Reading Machine Turns Legally Blind Teen Into Bookworm
 
By Donn Walker
 
November 14, 2007
Donn Walker
314.977.8015
dwalke18@slu.edu
 
ST. LOUIS - For the first time in her life, 13-year-old Amy Knight can go home and do something most people would consider quite ordinary: She can open a book and read.
 
The illinois teenager is legally blind in her left eye and fully blind in the other. She was born prematurely and with glaucoma, a condition in which damage to the optic nerve causes vision loss. For Amy, objects at a distance were simply fuzzy and blurry shapes. In order to read anything up close, she'd have to hold something right next to her left eye.
 
All that changed last summer, however, when Amy was given a low-vision electronic reading machine by SLUCare - the physician practice of the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. The device consists of a camera and monitor that make objects - typically reading material - placed underneath appear up to 50 times larger.
 
Amy had limited access to such a device at the public school she attends and she had no device at home, making it impossible to read and do homework once she left the classroom. She'd begun learning to read Braille.
 
"Now that she has this machine at home, her life has totally changed," said her mother, Janet Knight. "She comes home and does her homework - which is something she really could never do before. And she can now read comic books, which she loves."
 
"It's like her world has opened up," Knight added.
 
Amy received the device free of charge from SLUCare's Low Vision Center, the only full-time medical practice in the St. Louis region to treat people with low vision, which is considered eyesight so poor it cannot be corrected through glasses or contacts.
 
Electronic reading machines cost up to $4,000 when purchased new. The device given to Amy was donated to the Low Vision Center by the widow of a man who'd used it for several years before passing away.
 
"This reading machine will open doors for Amy that would have been closed forever without such a device," said Thomas Porter, O.D., director of SLU's Low Vision Center.
 
Low vision problems affect anywhere from 5 to 7 percent of the population - mostly the elderly - which equates to about 150,000 to 200,000 people in the St. Louis area, Porter said. Their numbers include people with glaucoma, cataracts, glaucoma, retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration.
 
In general, the eyesight of someone with low vision can't be improved - in other words, made clearer or stronger. Instead, people with low vision can be taught to use aides and devices, such as the electronic reading machine, that can improve contrast and sharpness, reduce glare and make items appear larger.
 
However, Porter said that fewer than 10 percent of people with low vision elect to buy an electronic reading machine, largely due to the relatively high cost of the devices.
 
SLU receives several such used devices every year, and Porter says they're going to try to match the machines with other young people, like Amy, who suffer from low vision and whose families can't afford to purchase such a device.
 
"When you can make this kind of difference in the life of a child, it's extremely meaningful," Porter said. "In many cases, a gift like this can mean the difference between the chance for an education and a career, or a lifetime of poverty."
 
SLUCare consists of physicians, nurse practitioners, medical assistants and related professionals who provide high-quality care for patients locally, regionally and nationally. SLUCare is the only academic medical practice in St. Louis fully accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care Inc. This accreditation is a voluntary process through which the quality of SLUCare services and performance is measured against nationally recognized standards. More information is available at www.slucare.edu.
 
 
 
 

Female First Magazine (UK)
Saturday, November 17, 2007
 
What Is Juvenile macular degeneration
 
17th Nov 11:05
 
It's true that the most common form of macular degeneration is age-related but other types of macular degeneration affect much younger people, from teenagers and children to infants.
 
These different forms are known as juvenile macular degeneration, early-onset macular degeneration or macular dystrophy.
 
The macula is located at the back of the eye at the centre of the retina. It enables us to see what is directly in front of us and also allows us to see finer detail. So it plays a vital role in helping us to read, write and perform other detailed tasks. It also enables us to recognise faces and see colours.
 
When macular degeneration occurs, the light-sensitive cells at the centre of the macula become damaged, and they malfunction and die. This results in central vision becoming blurred while peripheral vision remains clear.
 
The different types of juvenile macular degeneration are caused by genetic mutations that affect the macular cells.
 
The commonest form is Stargardt's disease, which is estimated to affect about one in 10,000 people. It's inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, meaning that a person has a one in four chance of inheriting the problematic gene.
 
Although symptoms may not start until someone is in their 30s or 40s, it's most common for symptoms to begin between the ages of seven and 12, with loss of central vision by the time they reach adulthood.
 
The second most common form of juvenile macular degeneration is Best's vitelliform retinal dystrophy. It's also inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, and a child has a one in two chance of inheriting the defective gene from their parents.
 
It's usually identified during childhood or teenage years and doesn't always affect both eyes equally. Sometimes good central vision can remain in one eye.
 
Information about other types of juvenile macular degeneration can be found at the Macular Degeneration Foundation.
 
In the UK, 220,000 people who are registered blind or partially sighted have age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The Royal National Institute of the Blind estimates the total number of people with AMD is closer to 400,000.
 
Central vision becomes blurred with symptoms similar to looking at a faded photograph. This loss of central vision makes it difficult for people affected to see what is directly in front of them and makes reading, writing, recognising faces and performing detailed tasks difficult.
 
Peripheral vision remains clear, so a person with juvenile macular degeneration does not develop total blindness. There is no pain or redness of the eyes.
 
Juvenile macular degeneration cannot be cured, but additional lighting and magnifiers can help to alleviate the symptoms. It's important to protect the eyes by eating healthily and avoiding ultraviolet light exposure.
 
 
 
 
Philippine Information Agency, Philippines
Sunday, November 18, 2007
 
Feature: New technology for the differently-able
 
Manila (18 November) -- With a vision to help the visually-impaired, The Philippine Daisy Network (PDN) recently introduced Daisy or Digital Accessible Information System, an innovative and ideal reading system that can be readily available to the differently-able.
 
DAISY said, "the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision".
 
DAISY was originally developed for people who are unable to read due to disability but it is also designed to benefit all readers including the mainstream population.
 
Documents that conform to the DAISY standard offer a reading experience that includes synchronized audio and structured text along with images. It supports traditional presentation of images and text but at the same time goes beyond this flat approach to include human narration, powerful navigation, and potential for adding video and animation.
 
DAISY is expected to start major developments in the information and communication technology that can be beneficial even to publishers, librarians, learning institutions and government and non-government sectors.
 
The PDN is composed of the Adaptive Technology for Rehabilitation, Integration and Empowerment of the Visually Impaired, Resources for the Blind, National Library of the Philippines, National Council for the Welfare of Disabled Persons and the Philippine Printing House for the Blind of the Department of Education (DepEd). (PNA)
 
 
 
 

TrainingPressReleases.com (UK)
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
 
OLAT 6.0 - Bringing together Web 2.0 technologies and accessibility
 
By University of Zurich
 
Online Educa Berlin 28-30 Nov 2007 - Exhibitor
 
20-Nov-2007 » Training Press Releases » In early 2008 the learning management system OLAT will come with the major release 6.0.
 
A new design and improved workflows will be available as an outcome of a comprehensive usability study1. Furthermore OLAT presents its answer to the challenging question, how to ensure accessibility for visually impaired users in a fully "ajaxified" web application: Brasato2, the underlying java development framework of OLAT allows visually impaired users to choose the so called Web 2.a mode, which delivers plain HTML and is therefore fully supported by screen-reader software.
 
OLAT is the acronym for Online Learning And Training. It is a web application that supports any kind of online learning, teaching, and tutoring with little didactical restrictions. OLAT is open source, and has been developed since 1999 at the University of Zurich and won the MeDiDa-Prix3 in the year 2000. For more information please refer to the OLAT website4 or visit our booth A25 at Online Educa Berlin.
 
 
About Online Educa Berlin 2007, November 28 - 30, 2007
 
Online Educa Berlin 2007 is set to be the key event for the international technology-supported learning and training industry. We have secured an excellent line-up of top international experts, who will cover a range of key topics, bringing together their knowledge and experience from various backgrounds. http://www.online-educa.com/
 
For further information about this story, please contact: 
Contact name:    Hans-Jörg Zuberbühler
Contact e-mail:   hansjoerg.zuberbuehler@id.uzh.ch
Contact telephone:   +41 44 6356705
Web site:   http://www.olat.org
 
SOURCE
 
 

Baltimore Sun, Maryland USA
Friday, November 23, 2007
 
The sightless follow the voice of the Internet
 
By Jamie Smith Hopkins
 
Screen-reading software helps blind users navigate the Web as advocates press for greater accessibility
 
As Michael Bullis sped from one Web page to another in his search for Christmas presents this week, he saw none of them. Blind for most of his life, he has never seen the Internet.
 
But he doesn't need to. He can hear it.
 
Screen-reading software has for years translated the visual experience of computers and the Web into one-way conversations for blind users, reading aloud everything from the welcome message on a home page to the instructions for making an online purchase.
 
Sometimes this works very well, sometimes not at all. If there are no words, there's nothing to read - which means an image with no descriptive text tucked away in the coding is truly invisible.
 
The Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind, calling the Internet a critical part of everyday life that should be fully accessible to the country's 1.3 million legally blind residents, has brought national attention to the issue by coaxing - and occasionally suing - companies to make their sites more screen-reader-friendly.
 
Last month it won class-action status for a lawsuit against Target Corp., though the company contends that its site is fully accessible.
 
"I think that more blind Americans will attempt to shop online this Black Friday than ever before, and we hope that they have a better experience," said John G. Paré Jr., executive director for strategic initiatives at the National Federation of the Blind.
 
Bullis, who isn't involved in the suit, says some sites are a pain. But 99 times out of 100, he can find his way around. He expects to try things several different ways when he's on the prowl for a product or the checkout button. It's one part logic puzzle, one part treasure hunt.
 
"Hey, the freedom I've got now compared to what I had five years ago or 10 years ago is incredible," said Bullis, an instructor with Blind Industries and Services of Maryland who does as much of his shopping as he can online.
 
"This is a whole new world, you know? You can talk about whether the cup is half-full or half-empty; in my view, the cup is overflowing."
 
Bullis, a 54-year-old Baltimore resident, is a self-described geek where computers are concerned. His first was an Apple IIe in 1984; now he has a PC with four hard drives. Over those years, screen-readers have gone from rudimentary to pretty darn intelligent, in his opinion, though computers - and the Internet especially - have also become exponentially more complex.
 
Bullis took a break from work Monday morning to start his holiday shopping. His goal: Buy three copies of a favorite book for some of the adults on his gift list and find a nice globe for his 5-year-old daughter, Julianna.
 
A touch typist, he started with the book, typing the name and author into a search engine. As a check against typos, the screen reader's robotic voice repeated the letters out loud at the rat-a-tat-tat pace of an auctioneer on fast-forward. (Bullis keeps the speed at a head-spinning 350 words a minute because that's how fast a good human reader can process text, and he wants to be just as efficient.)
 
The results from his search appeared. The reader said: "One hundred headings and 428 links." A lot to consider - and that was just the first page.
 
Bullis uses keystrokes rather than a mouse, since point-and-click does little good if you can't see. The screen-reader software has dedicated keys to help navigate. So he keyed his way past the links unrelated to his search and stopped as the reader announced "Amazon.com."
 
That sounded promising, he thought. He hit the "Enter" key to go to the Amazon page for the science-fiction book he wants.
 
"Seven headings and 113 links," the reader told him.
 
Now for the logic puzzle: Which of those links was the one to buy the book? He tapped the dedicated H key repeatedly to scroll through the headings for clues. "Gift ideas for book lovers," said the reader. "Best books of 2007," said the reader. None of this was getting him where he wanted to go.
 
He switched to the N key, which moved him to each blank line on the page, to look for new subjects.
 
"OK, so now they're describing the book," Bullis said, listening to the reader. "And now they've gotten into reviews. I don't really want to review the book, I just want to buy it."
 
Next step: Search for the word "buy."
 
"Buy three books, get a fourth free," the reader suggested.
 
Bullis snorted.
 
He kept trying. He found "add to wedding registry" - "I don't think so," he said - and "foreword by Kurt Vonnegut," also not helpful. Then, five minutes after he started with the search engine, the reader said the magic word: "Availability."
 
"Ah, here we go!" he exclaimed, pouncing on it. If he had remembered that was the go-to word, he could have searched for it to begin with.
 
From there, he picked a candidate from the long used-and-new list. He changed the number of items to buy from one to three. He selected a shipping option, updated his credit-card information, hit "continue" - and then realized the subcontractor he had chosen for the book didn't offer gift wrap.
 
Ah, well.
 
Bullis decided to give it a break, search for his daughter's present and come back to Amazon later, since his almost-order would be preserved and he wouldn't have to start from square one. He called the wandering around to get to checkout "a little frustrating," but anyone could have been caught by the gift wrap.
 
"We're more alike than different," Bullis said of sighted and blind Internet users. "Yeah, my computer talks to me, but after that, I'm a guy who doesn't like to shop and is sometimes overwhelmed by the Web."
 
Not by the necessity of hearing a visual medium. By all the choices.
 
"I think that's a complaint that everybody has," he said.
 
 
 
 
 
Market Wire (Press Release)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
 
Talking Thermostats.com Introduces Commstat CEO-24 Telephone Controlled Thermostat
 
MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwire - November 28, 2007) - Talking Thermostats.com, a leading provider of specialized temperature control equipment, today announced the release and immediate availability of the Commstat CEO-24 Telephone Controlled Thermostat.
 
The Commstat CEO-24 is a full featured residential heating/cooling thermostat that can be remotely controlled from any Touch Tone telephone. The primary market for the Commstat CEO-24 is owners or managers of vacation homes, cabins or cottages, and condominiums that are not occupied at all times.
 
The Commstat CEO-24 gives the vacation home owner or property manager the ability to heat up or cool down their property before they arrive. One telephone call to the vacation home gives the caller the ability to monitor the current temperature of the property and remotely adjust the temperature set point to a level that will provide comfort upon their arrival.
 
The Commstat CEO-24 features an internal temperature alarm that can automatically dial out to up to three telephone numbers alerting the owner, neighbor or property manager of a heating or cooling system failure. An auxiliary input is also available to connect to an external device such as a water alarm or any other device with dry relay contacts.
 
The CEO-24 is the second generation of the Commstat family of telephone controlled thermostats. Attractively priced at $325.00, the product is now available for purchase by calling 763-591-9557 or at www.talkingthermostats.com.
 
About Talking Thermostats.com
 
With offices in Minneapolis, privately held Talking Thermostats.com has been supplying specialized comfort control products to the vacation home market for more than five years. In addition, the company also serves the needs of persons who are blind and visually impaired and seniors with accessible talking thermostats. For more information please visit
 
 
Contact:
Harry Cohen
763-591-9557
 
 
 
 
The Retail Bulletin (UK)
Friday, November 30, 2007
 
Latest Website Rankings of 100 Retailers
 
By Glynn Davis
 
After one month off the top spot of the table of the 100 retail websites tested this month Tesco's direct catalogue site direct.tesco.com pushed rival supermarket Morrisons into second spot as it regained its crown.
 
The comprehensive list of 100 sites, which includes not only the largest players but also some of the smaller specialist online merchants, has been created by The Retail Bulletin and specialist website testing company SiteMorse that used its automated testing of the first 125 pages of each retailer's site to generate a ranked table.
 
Lawrence Shaw, founder of SiteMorse, says the Tesco site last month suffered from broken links but these have now been fixed and it has jumped 17 places back to the top of the table with a score of 8.12 out of 10 compared with 5.5 last month. "This demonstrates that it is not rocket science to keep a good website. It just takes good housekeeping to fix it," he says.
 
Not doing so well is DSG Group, with its Dixons, Curry's and PC World sites all performing particularly badly for a group that sells technology. Dixons stands at 83 in the table while PC World and Curry's prop up the bottom of the table in the bottom two spots.
 
Shaw says one of the big problems with these sites is that the links that connect them to each other are broken so it is not possible to move from Dixons to PC World via the website links. He says this raises questions about the overall quality of these sites, especially for the Dixons website which only has an online presence and no physical stores.
 
Adding to its woes is the fact that 53 per cent of its pages do not have the keywords present for search engines to pick up on. And every page fails the accessibility test that checks whether the site is usable by visually impaired people.
 
Although House of Fraser also fails badly on the accessibility test it has still managed to perform very well this month - having moved up 24 places with a score of 7.44 compared with 4.52 last month. This follows its jump of 21 places last month. "It's a good score and represents a big improvement. The only thing that it now fails on is the accessibility test," says Shaw.
 
Breaking its score down, it achieves a maximum 10 for functionality, eight out of 10 for code quality, and eight out of 10 for performance. This means that had it sorted out its accessibility and improved its score from zero out of 10 to nearer nine out of 10 then House of Fraser would have topped the table. To improve this situation Shaw says that simply adding ALT tags onto images (to provide a textual description) would make a big difference.
 
Another disappointment this month was the number of sites that have been excluded as a result of them either been 'down' at the time of testing or because of their reliance on 'assistive' technology, which SiteMorse believes breaks the general "rules of accessibility" of internet sites. Whereas last month Gap was the only exclusion, this month it has been joined by Pets at Home and more surprisingly the heavyweight retailer Boots.
 
(Full Top 100 rankings table on source page.)
 
 
Bad Web Design Proves a Problem for Blind Internet Users
 
By Kate Hairsine
 
The combination of the Internet and computer screen reader software means blind people now have more access to written information than ever before. But bad Web design is making accessibility difficult.
 
A folded white cane lies next to piles of papers and coffee cups on computer programmer Günter Christmann's desk. He is blind and can't actually see the written text on the computer screen in front of him.
 
Christmann opens up his Internet browser using the keyboard curser and types in the name of the site he wants to visit -- the tap of his fingers accompanied by a fast-talking robotic voice that fastidiously reads every single character displayed on the screen.
 
Given the amounts of advertisements, pictures, links and headings on a single Internet page, it can sometimes take a while for a blind user to find the actual text that they want. But according to Christmann, even if it does take him longer to find what he wants, it's worth it.
 
Information on the Net
 
Previously, if Christmann wanted to read a newspaper, he had to wait for it to be scanned into Braille, which meant the reports were already days old.
 
"Nowadays, with Internet, I can go to the newspaper or magazine and I can read the newspaper directly," he said.
 
The Internet has an even more practical side. Before the advent of the Net, Christmann had to wait for someone to scan in his computer manuals so he could do his work.
 
"Now, I can search with Google and find everything I need," he said. "I can find more information that I ever dreamt of."
 
There are several types of screen reader software that Europe's 2.7 million blind people can use if they have computer access. Most of these programs can easily switch between the major European languages written in the Roman script.
 
Sounds good so far, but there are digital roadblocks, such as when German programmers use German expressions to describe drop down boxes and form fields in an English Web site.
 
This is what Christmann found when he tested the DW-WORLD's English page, a problem he comes across often throughout the Internet. A pure English speaker surfing the page would have been stuck.
 
New portable software
 
Christmannn works as a product manager for Baum Retec, a German firm based near the southern German city of Heidelberg specializing in products and services for the blind and visually impaired.
 
One of the products he supports is MyStick, a screen reader packed into a normal USB stick in U3 technology that is making computers and the Internet even more accessible for the blind.
 
Because it is portable, MyStick means blind users can log onto any PC running Windows, and start using the programs and surfing the Internet without having to engage in the arduous process of installing software first.
 
"I can go to a library or an Internet café and plug in MyStick and start using the screen reader," Christmann said. When he's finished, he just takes out the USB stick, and puts it in his pocket.
 
High-tech electronics
 
In addition to the screen reader, another piece of equipment that's essential for blind people who use the computer for work is a Braille display. It's made up of a long row of so-called "soft cells" that are each made up of six to eight tiny metal or nylon pins, which are controlled electronically and move up and down to spell out a line of text in Braille. 
 
"Just because I can hear the words, doesn't mean I know how to write them," explained Anna Courtpozanis, who has been blind since birth (which hasn't stopped her gaining a degree, having a family, and working full-time).
 
"If I write texts, I need to see if I have made a mistake," she said, as her fingers flew over the Braille line. "At home, I have a computer without Braille and it's more difficult to work there."
 
Courtpozanis tests Web sites to see how accessible they are for Web For All, a Heidelberg-based non-profit association aiming to reduce barriers for people using the Internet. 
 
It can take new users a while to learn the numerous keyboard commands that are necessary for using a screen reader or a Braille line. According to Courtpozanis, however, the main barrier to web use is poor Web design.
 
Descriptive text a must
 
Pictures are often a barrier because unless a descriptive text is provided, a blind person has no way of knowing whether the image is an unidentified photo or logo, artwork, a link to another page or something else. Videos and animated elements are also problematic for the same reason.
 
Courtpozanis personally finds online forms particularly annoying simply because they are an unavoidable part of daily existence but often have no description of what particular field is for.
 
"If I want my daughter's birth certificate but I haven't got time to go to the town where she's born, then I have to do it over the Net, but I can't fill in the forms," she complained.
 
Courtpozanis and Christmann are both what you would call power Internet users. And both of them are irritated that with all the investment in high-tech software and technology, it's the simple things -- a lack of descriptive words, for instance -- that can render a website meaningless for the blind.
 
Kate Hairsine
 
 
 

EUROPA (European Union)
Thursday, November 29, 2007
 
European Commission calls for an all-inclusive digital society 
 
Reference:  IP/07/1804    Date:  29/11/2007 
 
Brussels, 29 November 2007
 
Commission calls for an all-inclusive digital society
 
Despite technological progress and enhanced competition, more than one in three Europeans are still excluded from fully benefiting from the digital society. Benefits of ?35-85 billion over five years could be generated if society would be made more inclusive, websites more accessible and broadband Internet made available to all EU citizens. Today, the Commission presents its e-Inclusion initiative to Council, calling on Member States to support a number of key actions, including an awareness campaign for 2008 "e-Inclusion, be part of it!" e-Accessibility legislation, similar to that of the USA, is also under consideration.
 
"In today's society, access to information by all citizens is a right as well as a condition for prosperity. It is neither morally acceptable nor economically sustainable to leave millions of people behind, unable to use Information and Communications Technologies to their advantage" said Viviane Reding EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media. "With today's initiative, the Commission reinforces its commitment to overcoming digital exclusion in Europe. Progress has been only half as fast as it should be. The Commission is sending today a clear signal to all parties concerned: industry, regulators and governments that we must act together now to ensure a barrier-free information society for all."
 
In the Commission's view, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) must provide freedom of choice and be designed for use by everyone regardless of their personal or social situation, so reducing social disparities. In a Declaration made in Riga in 2006, EU Ministers committed themselves to clear targets, Eg to halve the gaps in Internet use and in digital literacy, and to achieve 100% accessibility of public websites by 2010 (IP/06/769). Such targets could deliver benefits of ?35-85 billion over five years.
 
Yet progress remains fragmented and slow, despite such targets and many actions involving public authorities, industry and civil society. Most of the Riga objectives will not be met on time. Accessibility of public websites remains stuck at 5%. Only 10% of people aged over 64 are Internet users while the average in Europe is 47%. Without further intervention, the gap will only be halved in 2015 instead of 2010. The latest assessments conducted for the Commission show that accessibility of websites, communication terminals, TV sets and other ICT remains problematic, with lower-educated, economically inactive and elderly people at the greatest risk of being left behind.
 
To address the challenge, this European initiative for an all-inclusive society sets out a strategic framework to:
 
Enable everyone to take part in the information society by bridging the accessibility, broadband and competence gaps.
Accelerate effective participation of those at risk of exclusion, and improve their quality of life.
Integrate e-Inclusion actions in Europe, and so maximise their lasting impact.
During 2008, the Commission will raise awareness through a campaign called "e-Inclusion, be part of it!" This will culminate with a Ministerial Conference towards the end of the year, to demonstrate real progress and to reinforce commitments at all levels.
 
As well as supporting research and pilots, the Commission will work towards a horizontal legislative approach to make the information society more accessible, to guarantee equal rights and to ensure an effective single market. Several EU Member States (such as the UK, Spain, and Italy) have already started to adopt legislative measures for e-accessibility. In the USA, the "Americans with Disabilities Act" of 1990 led to great improvements, and has recently been applied to on-line services such as websites.
 
Background:
 
In June 2006, 34 European countries committed to reducing the digital divide by 2010 in the Riga Ministerial Declaration (IP/06/769).
 
The Commission's i2010 initiative already prioritises e-Inclusion (IP/05/643). This has led to specific actions on: e-Accessibility (IP/05/1144), broadband digital divide (IP/06/340), ICT and ageing (IP/07/831) and e-Skills (IP/07/1286).
 
On 13 November 2007, the Commission proposed a substantial package of reforms for telecoms legislation in the EU with an explicit objective of giving all EU citizens access to broadband (IP/07/1677).
 
 
 
 
 
EE Times Online
Monday, November 26, 2007
 
Swedish design: upwardly mobile
 
By George Leopold  
 
EE Times (11/26/2007 9:00 AM EST) 
 
Quote: "The company tapped into the local government's large database, developed under its Intelligent Transportation System program, to come up with a mobile-phone-based prototype of a system that could help guide the blind from their homes to, say, the grocery store. "
 
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Even more than in most countries, it seems that life simply can't be lived here without a mobile phone. The industrious Swedes continue to come up with new ways to use the cell, ranging from helping the blind find their way to outgunning the BlackBerry in delivering mobile e-mail.
 
A whirlwind tour around Stockholm, its bustling suburbs and one of Sweden's technology hubs to the south, Norrkoping Science Park, revealed a hotbed of development- some of it disruptive, some of it in the category of technologies searching for a solution.
 
A recurring theme here is moving the Internet to the mobile phone. But that requires squeezing busy Web pages down to tiny, hard-to-read displays. Currently, most pages have to be reworked before they can be displayed on mobile phones, and most look lousy when compared with PC or Mac pages.
 
One startup (and there are an impressive number of tech startups in Sweden), Mobizoft, has come up with a way to improve the rendering of Web pages on mobile-phone displays.
 
Founded in 2005, Mobizoft claims its Publish2Mobile tool improves the delivery and presentation of mobile Web pages by leveraging device- and browser-specific data. The tool also offers image compression and conversion. Another Mobizoft product, Content-4Mobile, is being promoted as allowing users to post videos to the Web directly from a mobile phone.
 
On the road
 
Scandinavia has been a good test market for the tools, said Mobizoft board chairman Jorma Mobrin. Nevertheless, he and company CEO and tool developer Maria Christensen recently completed a U.S. road show to demonstrate their products to large but unidentified content developers. Those developers are searching for ways to stream video to cell phones in a manner that will approximate the viewing quality of a PC.
 
Swedish technology companies are also at the forefront of efforts to incorporate navigation into mobile phones. But those efforts go beyond merely guiding a tourist to a restaurant, for instance. The local government in Stockholm wants to replace, or at least augment, the seeing-eye dog with wireless devices that can guide the blind around this exquisite but, in some places, cramped city.
 
One effort, overseen by a startup called Mobile Sorcery, seeks to combine navigation technology with audio to deliver location-based services for the blind and the elderly. While the challenges faced by the blind in a large city are obvious, Henrik von Shoultz, Mobile Sorcery's vice president of business development, noted that about 10 elderly or disabled citizens get lost in the city on average every day.
 
The company tapped into the local government's large database, developed under its Intelligent Transportation System program, to come up with a mobile-phone-based prototype of a system that could help guide the blind from their homes to, say, the grocery store. Users enter a key on a handset to determine the best route to a destination. A mobile-phone earpiece tells them in advance when and how much to turn, alerts them to obstacles, and updates them on how far it is to their ultimate destination.
 
Developers Tomas Upgard, Mobile Sorcery's chief executive, and Antony Hartley, its CTO, quickly realized that GPS navigation can't cut it in modern cities as a tool for guiding pedestrians or bike riders. An accuracy of 4 meters or less is needed to determine, for example, the side of the street on which a pedestrian is walk- ing. That's too precise a measurement for GPS.
 
Company engineers found that, when used in large cities, consumer GPS data is plagued by multipath problems, causing GPS signals to drift. Their solutions included filtering and a dead-reckoning system to provide users with better position data.
 
Using an off-the-shelf dead-reckoning system developed for the military by Honeywell that incorporates a gyroscope and compass as a "step counter," Mobile Sorcery engineers tweaked the prototype with internally developed algorithms to make the system more accurate.
 
Von Shoultz said 12 users are currently testing the prototype system as part of Stockholm's e-Adept program. A product is scheduled to be ready by 2009, he said. The company is also touting a mobile-phone development application called MoSync, a collection of tools designed to ease the growing problem of developing and porting software to mobile devices.
 

posted by Editor at 7:56 AM | 0 comments

Friday, December 14, 2007

How companies can increase their revenues through accessible websites

Hi everyone!  I'm Heather DeMarco at the business desk and this evening I'd like to share an article with you which I feel can help to make the difference in whether or not you are able to increase your revenues through the Internet. 
According to many experts, the secret lies in you being able to design and develop accessible websites and the following article will give you some very important info.
If after reading this article you'd like to learn more, then please visit www.sterlingcreations.ca.  This very enterprising company will help you to design and develop accessible websites that will help you to increase your revenues, reduce your costs, and expand your customer base.
 

E-consultancy.com, UK
Thursday, November 22, 2007
 
Website accessibility for business dummies: Squiz names the six reasons you should care
 
By Press Release
 
Website accessibility for business dummies: Squiz names the six reasons you should care
 
Squiz, developer of leading enterprise open source CMS, MySource Matrix, today announced the availability of its new report on Web Accessibilty, which suggests that businesses of all sizes are missing simple opportunities to create new leads and generate new sales as a result of neglecting standard web accessibility practices.
 
The paper outlines six key business cases for implementing web accessibility measures, and how they will help to improve a company's bottom line. In addition, it provides a wealth of information about best practice guidelines from the W3C and how firms can build accessibility into their web production processes at low cost and with a minimum of fuss.
 
Squiz's six 'business cases' for implementing accessible web sites are:
 
to generate more site traffic through improved SEO
to create better user experiences, leading to more conversions
to attract and retain a wider audience, including those with disabilities
to reduce ongoing maintenance costs through the use of more flexible technologies
to reduce site development times by creating greater site flexibility
to reduce general legal exposures
 
The 20 page report is available for download free via Squiz's web site at:
 
 
The implementation guidelines, which have been compiled by Squiz's top development team, provide readers with a step-by-step overview of how to best build an accessible web site, including detailed breakdowns on key technology considerations, such as best practices for implementing accessible HTML, CSS, Javascript, Flash and Video. In addition, the paper examines each of the W3C's 'Priority 1' Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) and suggests how they can be satisfied in line with current web technologies.
 
"Through our work with leading public organizations like The Royal College of Nursing and Oxford University, we've come to learn a thing or two about web accessibility," said Steve Morgan, Managing director at Squiz UK. "And aside from showing firms how it should be done, we can also demonstrate that the benefits of good accessibility are further reaching than most people assume."
 
"Whilst extending your services to an important audience - the disabled - is critical, we can show you that an accessible site will enhance your SEO, make your site more usable, reduce your ongoing costs and widen your future development choices. Now in my book that's pretty much a 'wish list' for the ideal web site - and this new, free white paper tells you how to do it."
 
About Squiz
 
Squiz helps some of the UK's leading organisations to gain more control of their web sites and intranets. For example, Oxford University, The Royal College of Nursing and Future Publishing all use Squiz's MySource Matrix Content Management System. In doing so they're saving money, improving the services they're delivering to users, and gaining more control of their web development. We develop MySource Matrix as an open source product and then provide support services around it to help our clients get more value from their web spend. We're kind of like the Red Hat of the CMS world. Our approach is successful because of the strength of our CMS and our experience in diverse fields. We're also cost-effective because being open source, MySource Matrix costs nothing to acquire or use.
 
 

 At the business desk, I'm Heather DeMarco wishing you a very happy weekend filled with lots of shopping and merrymaking.

posted by Info@Untapped at 7:08 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, December 13, 2007

A very powerful little gem

Good day everyone!  I'm Jeff N Marquis at the business desk and I have a very powerful little gem to share with you.
This article recently came across my desk and I thought that with the holiday season, it would come in great handy for those of you who are inclined towards buying from eBay.
Enjoy!
 
 
 
Use RSS to Track eBay with fEEdBaY
 
By Michael McCarty
 
Thursday, November 29, 2007
 
eBay has got to be the hottest place on the net for finding great deals on just about anything. I love to surf the eBay site just to see what's up for grabs at any given moment.eBay does have a lot of links and other material to wade through. This is especially a problem when you're seeing their site through the eyes of JAWS or Window Eyes. Well, life is about to get a lot easier for those of us who love to shop eBay.
 
I'm happy to introduce you to fEEdBaY, where you can keep track of listed items on eBay through RSS technology.
 
RSS (Real Simple Syndication) is technology that allows certain programs called RSS readers to download new content from an RSS feed to your computer. RSS feeds are often found on blogs or forums and contain the latest posts to that blog or forum. An RSS feed can also be found on news sites and contains the latest articles found on that site. Just like an email program such as Microsoft Outlook saves you time by checking for new mail for you and downloading it so that you can view it, the RSS reader checks for updates for you and as soon as it sees an update, it will download it to your computer and can notify you by a popup message or dialog, etc.
 
The first thing you'll notice about the fEEdBaY site is that all the standard eBay catagories are listed. Simply click on the catagory of your choice and you'll be presented with another page full of RSS feeds.
 
The next section of note is their listing of the most popular feeds. Want to see what others are interested in? Simply add one of these links to your aggrigator and you'll be informed within minutes.
 
Now, if that weren't enough, there's a "Create a Custom eBay Search Filter for RSS" link that does exactly what it says. Enter your search Keywords, choose the number of results, the eBay catagory, and click the search button. You'll have a chance to preview the feed and if you like what you see, you can add it to your news aggrigator or or RSS reader. How cool is that?
 
Click this link to start tracking eBay with fEEdBaY:
 
 
Posted by Michael McCarty at 11:44 AM
 
At the business desk, I'm Jeff N Marquis wishing you a very pleasant evening.
 

posted by Jeff at 7:29 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Important news for consumers with special needs

Good morning!  I'm Kerry I Harrison at the business desk and it's time for our weekly news round-up for consumers with special needs.  We hope that you are continuing to enjoy our selection of articles.  Each week we strive to bring you news in the worlds of health and technology and we hope that you can use these articles to keep abreast of latest developments.  If you'd like to learn more about how you can reach consumers with special needs through products and services that can offer then please visit www.sterlingcreations.ca.
Here now are this week's articles.
 
Table of contents
 
December 12 2007
 
1 The Eyes Have It: A Step Toward Creating Peepers in a Petri Dish
2 TV remote and hands-free phone combo to aid vision impaired
3 Guide in the dark: Unique navigation system allows blind to "dare more"
4 Europe has new counterterrorism weapon: Blind detectives
5 NIST Licenses Systems to Help the Blind 'See' Images
6 Facebook Integrates SpinVox Speech-to-Text Applications
7 TTS Solution Fully Integrated with iPod and iPhone
8 SpeakOn, a very different kind of media player
9 The Dragnifier
10 Robot Suit May Help You Achieve a Perfect Golf Swing
 
 
 

Scientific American
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
 
The Eyes Have It: A Step Toward Creating Peepers in a Petri Dish
 
By Nikhil Swaminathan
 
Study fingers a enzyme that jump starts the pathway leading to the generation of eye tissues
 
Quote: "This work may have interesting implications for the stem cell field"
  
COMING TO A LAB NEAR YOU:  Researchers identify an enzyme that starts a cascade of cellular events involved in the development of eyes. 
An accidental discovery could pave the way to one day coaxing stem cells to develop into human eyes in the lab.
A team of scientists at the University of Warwick in England studying the development of motility in frogs found that a certain ectoenzyme (a cell-surface protein) injected into a tadpole embryo triggered the development of tissues that eventually form eyes.
 
Further experimentation led the researchers to conclude that the surface protein is, in fact, an early player in the cellular cascade that leads to eye formation. Researchers say the finding could be harnessed in the future to make an "eye in a dish," a tool that would be invaluable in coaxing stem cells to develop into ocular tissues.
"Our study provides clear discovery of upstream signals controlling a previously known pathway controlling eye development and therefore provides a step closer to being able to manipulate eye development," explains Elizabeth A. Jones, a professor in the university's biological sciences department and a co-author of the study published in Nature.
 
Ectonucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase 2 (E-NTPDase2) is an ectoenzyme that, along with family members E-NTPDase1 and E-NTPDase3, is known to degrade the chemical compound ATP (adenosine triphosphate) into ADP (adenosine diphosphate) for the purpose of sending messages to cells to change the fleet of proteins they are producing. Primarily, ATP functions as the energy currency of cells but, in some varieties, a tiny amount is secreted into the space between cells, where it latches onto a neighbor to induce particular responses and modulations. Both ATP and ADP, known as purines, can transmit signals to cells that change their developmental activity. The research team found that when it increased levels of E-NTPDase2 in tadpole embryos that consisted of only eight cells, they could cause parts of the eye to form not only on the heads of the amphibians, but also in tissues in other parts of their bodies, including their tails. Minute pulses of ATP are released into extra
 cellular areas mostly by cells in the head where the eyes are supposed to develop. Jones notes that at temporally distinct moments, other cells in the body may expel small packets of ATP, which in the presence of E-NTPDase2 can cause eye tissue to form.
 
Through many rounds of analysis, both by amplifying and decreasing the levels of certain chemicals as well as knocking out the function of certain genes that code for proteins that regulate eye development (called eye field transcription factors), the scientists determined that E-NTPDase2 (although not E-NTPDase 1 or 3) was the only ectoenzyme that could drive eye development. Further, they determined that it must act early in the pathway that leads to the formation of the eye. After it converts ATP to ADP, the level of the latter accumulates outside the cell and the purine can bind to a purine receptor called P2Y1.
 
"It is the activation of this receptor that either directly or indirectly turns on the expression of the eye-field transcription factors," Jones says. "We don?t quite know the mechanisms involved between going from the receptor and turning on the genes, and this is an area for future investigation."
 
Jones and her colleagues believe that most of the eye development pathway is conserved between frogs and humans. Damage to human chromosome 9 (of the cell's 24 pairs) where the gene that codes for E-NTPDase2 resides is known to cause eye and brain defects, such as microphthalmia-literally, small eyes. This means that down the road, researchers might be able to create an "eye in a dish."
 
"This work may have interesting implications for the stem cell field," says Richard Lang, a professor of developmental biology at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Research Foundation. "The activity of purine signaling in inducing eye field precursors," he says, "might be a very useful tool for the culture dish-generation of progenitor cells for a variety of eye cell types."
 
 

From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@GeoffAndWen.com>
 
Gizmag (UK)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
 
TV remote and hands-free phone combo to aid vision impaired
 
Designed by a Australian company Tiller + Tiller, the TeleMax®III combines a universal TV remote control and hands free phone in the one device. The unit is sleek, compact, easy to use, unbreakable and spillage proof. Shaped like a small tray with handles either side to allow for easy grip it features the latest ergonomic principles for comfort and function.
 
 
Button controls are large, and deliberately limited in number. They consist ofa normal keypad layout 1-9, a mute button, a large power button and sliding arrows for channels and volume control. Buttons have raised black lettering, which stands out well from a white illuminated background face, making them easy to see and use by those with visual and physical disability. The television automatically goes into mute mode when a call is received. Emergency numbers can be programmed for instant access.
 
TeleMax® will actually be a range of products with models I and II also available. TeleMax® I, the simplest model works as a basic universally programmable TV remote, and TeleMax® II has the same functionality but with an added button to link to and access cable TV.
 
Crichton has taken out patents for the product in Australia, Europe and USA but it is still in prototype phase while Crichton and Tiller + Tiller find a company to manufacture it. After three long years of research, design and prototyping, they hope the TeleMax range of products will be available worldwide in around 18 months.
 
Crichton cites figures of over 180 million people worldwide with vision impairments and an aging world population (483 million over 65 years of age) as the potential market for this product. No pricing has been set at this point.
 
 
 
 
The Prague Post, Czech Republic
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
 
Guide in the dark: Unique navigation system allows blind to "dare more"
 
By Victor Velek, Staff Writer
 
For a long time, the blind have not received many benefits from the rapid development of communication technology. Despite advanced navigation systems thriving worldwide, little research has been dedicated to their assistance, prompting continued reliance on long-standing aids: walking canes and guide dogs.But thanks to a unique navigational system for the blind developed at the Czech Technical University (ÈVUT) in Prague, the situation has changed.Combining a satellite-based GPS navigation system, mobile phone communications and a call center, blind people in the Czech Republic can now get immediate assistance whenever they lose orientation or experience unexpected health problems, says ÈVUT researcher Jiøí Chod, the gadget's creator."This system really widens blind people's horizons," says Zdenìk Bajtl, head of the technical department at Czech Blind United (SONS), an association supporting the blind countrywide. "With the device in your pocket, you dare more. It gives you
 a firm belief that you cannot get lost." Bajtl, who is himself blind, stresses that the navigation system is not a replacement for guide dogs - it doesn't offer immediate help for unexpected obstacles like pavement reconstruction, for example."On the other hand, no dog will bring you to the National Library if it has never been there," he says. "This does. . It's a great boost to our freedom, self-confidence and independence."Pocket protectorThe navigation system is quite portable, consisting of a small black box containing a GPS receiver and antenna, a mobile phone modem and a flash drive for data storage.Once activated, the unit sends data on its position to the call center, which is equipped with an intelligent map system. If the user gets lost or needs some guidance, he or she can then ring the call center, based at SONS, and get help from one of the center's staff, Chod says.According to both Chod and Bajtl, the system is a unique solution unparalleled elsewhere in the
 world. "In Spain they tested a similar system but they used automated navigation," Chod says. "We were also considering this option but eventually found the automated synthetic voice distracting and rather unhelpful."Another advantage of the ÈVUT system is its openness, based as it is on standard GPS and GSM technologies, Chod says. It's easily updated, with next-generation technology replacing outdated components. "It's an atypical application of standard technologies," he adds.Although the latest incarnation of the ÈVUT machine can fit in a pocket, the project's beginnings, in 2003, saw a much more cumbersome device."The GPS was so heavy and demanded so much power that you'd have to have one cart to carry the gadget and another to carry its batteries," Chod says with a smile.The project's next generation was less bulky but presented other problems, most notably from those reluctant to wear a prominent external antenna. "Blind people are sensitive about being conspicuous,"
 Chod says. "Some of them were reluctant to wear an alien-looking antenna on their clothes."Today, the device has an internal antenna, and the newest model will feature a camera that can transmit photos to the navigation center, so operators can give more detailed assistance, he adds.Call waitingCurrently, the navigation aid is used by about 35 blind people throughout the country; by the end of the year, that number should be 100, Chod says. And in the near future, it should be accessible to all."We hope that next year the device will be officially recognized as an orientation aid for the blind, making it eligible for state allowances," Bajtl says. Government subsidies will then cover the machine's costs, which run to 13,000 Kè ($680) for the latest and most advanced model.Access to the call center is also open to the visually impaired not on the system, as it offers additional services, Bajtl says. People can ask operators for transport information and detailed itineraries,
 for example.Within the last several months, the center recorded about 350 inquiries, according to Bajtl. Supported by the Vodafone Foundation, the center was launched at the beginning of this year: In September, Vodafone received the Via Bona award for its support of the project."This is the flagship of our foundation," says Inga Kaskelyte, executive director of the Vodafone Foundation. Vodafone has contributed 1.8 million Kè to the project and has earmarked further money for the blind. "It's a long-term project," she says. "And we will continue to support it in the future."
 
Victor Velek can be reached at vvelek@praguepost.com
 
 
 
 
 
International Herald Tribune
Monday, October 29, 2007
 
Europe has new counterterrorism weapon: Blind detectives
 
By Dan Bilefsky
 
Monday, October 29, 2007
 
ANTWERP, Belgium: Sacha van Loo, 36, is not your typical cop. He wields a white cane instead of a gun. And from the purr of an engine on a wiretap, he can discern whether a suspect is driving a Peugeot, a Honda or a Mercedes.
 
Van Loo is one of Europe's newest weapons in the global fight against terrorism and organized crime: a blind Sherlock Holmes, whose disability allows him to spot clues sighted detectives don't see.
 
"Being blind has forced me to develop my other senses, and my power as a detective rests in my ears," he said from his office at the Belgian Federal Police, where a bullet-riddled piece of paper from a recent target-shooting session was proudly displayed on the wall. "Being blind also requires recognizing your limitations," he added with a smile, noting that a sighted trainer guided his hands during target practice "to make sure no one got wounded."
 
Van Loo, a slight man who has been blind since birth, is one of six blind police officers in a pioneering unit specializing in transcribing and analyzing wiretap recordings in criminal investigations. An accomplished linguist who taught himself Serb Croat for fun, he laments that he is not entitled to carry a gun on the job or make arrests. But such is his acute sense of hearing that Paul van Thielen, a director at the Belgian Federal Police, compares his powers of observation to those of a "superhero."
 
When police eavesdrop on a suspected terrorist making a phone call, van Loo can listen to the tones dialed and immediately identify the number. By hearing the sound of a voice echoing off of a wall, he can deduce whether a suspect is speaking from an airport lounge or a crowded restaurant. After the Belgian police recently spent hours struggling to identify a drug smuggler on a faint wiretap recording, they concluded he was Moroccan. Van Loo, who has a "library of accents in his head," listened and deduced he was Albanian, a fact confirmed after his arrest.
 
"I have had to train my ear to know where I am. It is a matter of survival to cross the street or get on a train," he said. "Some people can get lost in background noise, but as a blind man I divide hearing into different channels. It is these details that can be the difference between solving and not solving a crime."
 
Grappling with his handicap, he says, also has given him the thick emotional skin necessary for dealing with the job's stresses. "I have overheard criminals plotting to commit murder, drug dealers making plans to drop off drugs, men beating each other up. Being blind helps not to let it get to me because I have to be tough."
 
The blind police unit, which became operational in June, originated after van Thielen heard about a blind police officer in the Netherlands, and was looking at ways to improve community outreach. He made the connection that blind people could prove more adept than the sighted at listening to and interpreting wiretaps. That idea, he says, was given added impetus after the Belgian government passed a law a few years ago giving the police extended powers to use wiretaps in the investigation of 37 areas of crime, including terrorism, murder, organized crime and the abduction of minors.
 
The police also recognized that blind officers like van Loo could be particularly valuable in counterterrorism investigations because wiretap recordings - derived from a phone tap or bug placed in the safe house of a terrorist group - are often muffled by loud background noise, requiring a highly trained ear to discern voices. Alain Grignard, a senior counterterrorism officer at the Brussels Federal Police, notes that wiretaps proved instrumental in the recent arrests of a large terrorist cell in Belgium recruiting for the insurgency in Iraq.
 
Beyond his keenly developed ears, van Loo is also a trained translator who speaks seven languages, including Russian and Arabic - a skill Grignard said makes him indispensable, since his knowledge of accents can help him to differentiate between, say, an Egyptian or Moroccan suspect. "You need every edge in a terrorism investigation, and a blind officer with languages could be a powerful weapon."
 
The Belgian police say they were amazed at the number of qualified blind applicants for the posts. Scoring high marks on a hearing test was a prerequisite for the job, as was being at least 33 percent blind. Van Thielen, the police chief, says he was forced to turn away dozens of applicants whose sight was too good, including one "blind" man who shocked police recruiters by arriving at his interview in a car.
 
Recruiting blind people posed other challenges, van Thielen recalls. Because they would be used almost exclusively for wiretap investigations and the force did not want to expose them to dangerous situations, they were given special status under a 2006 law tailored for forensic work that grants civilians some police powers, but forbids them from making arrests or carrying guns.
 
Van Thielen, a no-nonsense police veteran, also faced some resistance from other veterans on the force, who feared that having blind colleagues would be a burden. Others felt awkward about how to behave in front of blind people and wondered if saying "au revoir" - literally "see you again" - would cause offense. To assuage their concerns, van Thielen arranged for sensitivity training sessions with blind volunteers. One hint: don't leave computer cables trailing on the floor since blind officers could trip on them.
 
"At first when members of the police heard that blind people were coming to work here, they laughed and told me that we were a police force and not a charity," said van Thielen. "But attitudes changed when the blind officers arrived and showed their determination to work hard and be useful."
 
It wasn't only attitudes that needed updating. In addition to installing elevators with voice-activated buttons at the police station, the force issued each blind officers with a special ?10,000 computer equipped with Braille keyboards, and a voice system that transmits visual images into sound.
 
As van Loo transcribed a wiretap recording on a recent day, he wore earphones and passed his index finger over a long strip of Braille characters on the bottom of the keyboard, whose characters altered to replicate whatever was on his computer screen, which was turned off. When he goes outside, he carries a compact police-issued global positioning system device, with a voice that directs him to his destination, street by street.
 
A father of two, van Loo attributes his success to having parents who taught him at an early age to be independent. He recalls that, as a young child, his father, a film buff, took him to watch movies. His father also taught him to drive a car by hoisting him on his lap and guiding his hands on the steering wheel. His ability to adapt, he says, was further reinforced by his attending a regular high school. He also attended a special school for the blind, where he learned how to maneuver with a cane and to read Russian in Braille. To relax, he skis, rides horses and plays the Arabic lute.
 
"My parents accepted my blindness, which also helped me to accept it," he said. "That they were not risk averse also helped."
 
Cindy Gribomont, head of training at the Brussels-based Braille League, an institute for the blind that helped the police with recruiting, says that overcoming employers' prejudices is her greatest challenge. "Employers need to be encouraged because they are afraid of employing handicapped people."
 
Van Loo, for his part, says he remains determined not to let his handicap overwhelm him. "Being blind isn't always very easy," he said. "I don't focus on it. I don't deny it. But it is rather tragic that a blind policeman is still viewed as an exception."
 
 
 
 
 
Newswise.com
Monday, October 29, 2007
 
NIST Licenses Systems to Help the Blind 'See' Images
 
By NIST
 
Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Released: Mon 29-Oct-2007, 08:00 ET
 
Description
 
A recently completed licensing agreement for two novel National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) technologies may help bring affordable graphic reading systems for the blind and visually impaired to market. The two systems bring electronic images to life in the same way that Braille makes words readable. 
 
CAption: NIST Researchers John Roberts (right) and Oliver Slattery (left) using the tactile graphic display device to depict the NIST logo. 
 
Newswise - A recently completed licensing agreement for two novel National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) technologies may help bring affordable graphic reading systems for the blind and visually impaired to market. The two systems bring electronic images to life in the same way that Braille makes words readable.
 
ELIA Life Technology Inc. of New York, N.Y., licensed for commercialization both the tactile graphic display device and fingertip graphic reader developed by NIST researchers. The former, first introduced as a prototype in 2002, allows a person to feel a succession of images on a reusable surface by raising some 3,600 small pins (actuator points) into a pattern that can be locked in place, read by touch and then reset to display the next graphic in line. Each image-from scanned illustrations, Web pages, electronic books or other sources-is sent electronically to the reader where special software determines how to create a matching tactile display. (For more information, see "NIST 'Pins' Down Imaging System for the Blind" at
 
 
An array of about 100 small, very closely spaced (1/10 of a millimeter apart) actuator points set against a user's fingertip is the key to the more recently created "tactile graphic display for localized sensory stimulation." To "view" a computer graphic with this technology, a blind or visually impaired person moves the device-tipped finger across a surface like a computer mouse to scan an image in computer memory. The computer sends a signal to the display device and moves the actuators against the skin to "translate" the pattern, replicating the sensation of the finger moving over the pattern being displayed. With further development, the technology could possibly be used to make fingertip tactile graphics practical for virtual reality systems or give a detailed sense of touch to robotic control (teleoperation) and space suit gloves.
 
The inspiration for both NIST graphic displays came from a "bed of nails" toy found in a novelty store. Watching the pins in the toy depress under fingers and then return to their original state started the researchers thinking about how the principle could be applied to electronic signals.
 
Persons interested in licensing these or other NIST technologies should contact Terry Lynch, NIST Office of Technology Partnerships, terry.lynch@nist.gov, (301) 975-2691.
 
 
 
 
Speech Technology Magazine
Thursday, October 25, 2007
 
Facebook Integrates SpinVox Speech-to-Text Applications
 
By Lauren Shopp
 
  The online social networking community Facebook and Microsoft have a lot in common: college dropouts founded both companies, each started with a shoestring budget, and both have shown interest in speech applications.
 
While Microsoft has enabled speech solutions in many of its software products, Facebook will join the company in its launch of SpinVox's speech-to-text (STT) applications. Microsoft should note the announcement, as it follows the company's announcement today that it has purchased a $240 million share (a 1.6 percent stake) in Facebook. The networking site's estimated worth is approximately $15 billion, according to market research firm eMarketer.
 
England-based SpinVox's STT applications allow Facebook users to update their status (a message on their profile screen that tells users' friends what they are doing); write on a 'wall' (comment boards), send messages to other users, and post blog-like 'note' entries to their profiles. The deal gives SpinVox an edge in the social network industry and has the potential to expose the company's technology to Facebook's 15 million registered users. Daniel Dulton, SpinVox's chief strategy officer and cofounder, explains, however, that a free version of the STT application will be available to a limited number of users during early deployment stages.
 
"We're offering an introductory three-month free trial period to the first 10,000 users, after which we'll announce our plans to commercialize the service," he says. "One of the things we've noticed is that while people find it easy to understand the idea of speaking text, it is only once they have started to use it that they really appreciate just how much benefit they get from our services, so it's important that they are able to try it for free and see how it integrates with their lifestyle."
 
His statements echo what could be a hurdle for SpinVox to overcome: achieving strong adoption rates among Facebook's core audience of college students. While many Facebook users have mobile phones, the question of whether they will want to update their profiles through the service remains unclear. The site's strong visual elements (user photos, profile information, friend updates, and extra applications) draw many users to Facebook in the first place; an STT application does not allow users to view visual information. But, Dulton says, the users' ability to update their profile anywhere, at any time, is what will attract users to the service.
 
"It is compelling to be able to share the emotion as it happens, just by saying it and not having to wait until they're back at a PC and online," he says in reference to the company's Blogging Through SpinVox application.
 
Further, Dulton cites an 80 percent user retention rate among users of its Text Through SpinVox product, explaining that, while users may be reluctant initially, the application's sheer convenience will make users stay with the service. For the Facebook venture, Dulton says SpinVox will depend largely on user feedback and word-of-mouth to market its product, and hope it catches on.
 
"We're keen to let the community decide how best to share this service," he states. "We will be working with the community and the hosts themselves to make this as simple to get and use as possible."
 
 
 
 
Speech Technology Magazine
Thursday, October 18, 2007
 
TTS Solution Fully Integrated with iPod and iPhone
 
By Lauren Shopp
 
  The push for including speech applications in the iPhone and iPod won a small victory today. Polish text-to-speech company IVO Software announced that the newest version of its TTS software, Expressivo 1.3, would be the first application of its type to be fully integrated with iPods.
 
The software, which can come with one of three languages (English, Romanian, and Polish) and four personas, also works with other MP3 players, cell phones, and PDAs.
 
Expressivo converts both short and long texts, converting the translated text into an audio file that is automatically added to the iTunes library. The company claims the software's new functions accelerate audio file creation. The software can be used for work-related (reading emails, RRS feeds, or scheduled events from a calendar) or study-related (listening to lecture notes or aiding in the study of a foreign language) activities.
 
And, with more than 100 million iPod and nearly 1 million iPhone users, the company hopes Expressivo will make a strong case for speech technology in
the two Apple products.
 
Powered by IVO Software's IVONA TTS, Expressivo audio files can also be sent via email or published online. So far, the product has had the most sales in the business world, particularly telecommunications and customer service centers, and in the rehabilitation of the blind. But, with a pricetag of $29, the company hopes Expressivo will pick up greater steam in the commercial marketplace.
 
 
 
 
The Blond - a Blind Blog
Sunday, October 28, 2007
 
SpeakOn, a very different kind of media player
 
By vip_uc
 
October 28th, 2007 Time: 11:58 pm
 
If you haven't tried it already, could I recommend you try a very different kind of media player.
 
Called SpeakOn, it's free and can play a wide variety of audio, includig radio stations and feeds from Last.fm.
 
If you're blind, you won't need to struggle with the Last.fm interface, multiple players or elaborate key sequences. You won't have the worry of a complicated visual front end, because SpeakOn hasn't got one.
 
What it has got is a self-voicing menu system and now, in the the latest version, a simplified system of single key commands. If you like, you can operate the whole thing from a remote wireless numeric keypad while you take a rest.
 
There's support from clear documentation and a Yahoo! group hosted by Isaac Porat, who wrote Speakon.
 
For more info and downloads, please visit...
 
 
And the Yahoo! group is at...
 
 
Of course, because of Yahoo's dreaded CAPTCHA system, you might find it easier to subscribe by e-mail, in which case send a blank e-mail to
speakon-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
 
Enjoy the music!
 
The BAT!
 
 
 
 
The Fred's Head Companion (APH)
Monday, October 29, 2007
 
The Dragnifier
 
By Michael McCarty
 
Have you ever had to squint at the screen to see what's there? Do you create graphics for a living, and need accuracy? Do all those tiny icons get lost on your desktop?
 
The "Quick Dragging Magnifier" (or Dragnifier) is just what you need. One click or keypress will bring up a computerized lens, which lets you see every last detail on your screen at 2x, 4x, even 8x the original size. When you're not using the magnifier, you won't even notice it. An icon rests next to your system clock, ready to hop to service whenever you need the Dragnifier.
 
Dragnifier has been demonstrated as an excellent tool for those with sight disabilities. Sometimes a website will include very small print, or sometimes the icons on today's programs are too small to see clearly.
 
If you're laying out web pages or other graphic arts, having a measuring tool can be handy. Dragnifier's reticule helps you line up items or compare their sizes quickly.
 
Click this link to learn more about the Dragnifier.
http://www.halley.cc/stuff/dragnifier.html
 
Posted by Michael McCarty at 12:02 PM
 
 
 
 
PhysOrg.com
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
 
Robot Suit May Help You Achieve a Perfect Golf Swing
 
By Lisa Zyga
 
Published: 13:59 EST, October 31, 2007
 
Quote "visual feedback may not even be necessary with the wearable feedback suit, giving it the potential to be used as a training device for blind individuals"
 
Caption: A robotic feedback suit: markers on the right arm indicate the joints that are regulated by the system. Credit: Lieberman and Breazeal. ©2007 IEEE.
 
Researchers have developed a vibrotactile feedback suit to help individuals learn new motor skills more quickly and accurately than by mimicking human teachers alone. Besides golf, dance and sports training, the suit may also be useful for individuals undergoing motor rehabilitation after neurological damage, as well as for posture improvement.
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MIT researchers Jeff Lieberman and Cynthia Breazeal have published the results of the study in a recent issue of IEEE Transactions on Robotics. The study presents a proof-of-concept wearable robotic system that provides real-time tactile feedback over every joint simultaneously.
 
 "Oddly enough, the idea for the robot suit initially came from a dream," Lieberman told PhysOrg.com. "The dream involved people who weren't physically able to express themselves, but who were mentally normal, who used a machine that aided them to get their inner feelings out. This ranged from people with muscular difficulties to even toddlers and 'untrained' people who do not know how to wield a paintbrush. Upon waking and thinking about that idea for about an hour, the idea for this project was born, and I started doing research that day; the overall project was about six months for software and hardware development."
 
In experiments with arm motions, the researchers found that the suit increased students' learning rates by up to 23%, and reduced errors by up to 27%, as well as enabling students to learn movements "more deeply" by affecting their subconscious learning of motor skills. The latter can be especially important for patients with neurological injuries who have lost the ability to form new long-term memories, but can still build new motor skills.
 
The suit works by optically tracking body markers for the teacher's movement (or a pre-recorded ideal movement) and the student's movement with a Vicon motion capture system, which has millimeter accuracy. The tracking data is fed to software that compares the teacher's and student's movements, and generates feedback signals to the suit.
 
"The most challenging part was the human motion tracking system, which needs to function extremely quickly [about 100 hz] and be extremely accurate [about 1mm] to be able to adequately represent complex human motions," Lieberman explained. "The system we use is a very expensive one for very high-tech applications, and for this to be successful in the real world it has to be much less expensive, and very robust. Tracking systems are typically optical [needing a setup in the room] or exoskeleton-style [wearable] which results in high expense and high weight, respectively. We'd like to solve both those at the same time and are working on new possibilities, although it is not the main focus of the research."
 
Small actuators against the skin vibrate in proportion to the amount of positional error of the student's joints, giving the sensation of a vibrating "force field" around the correct motion. The suit can also correct for rotational errors of joints by sequentially vibrating individual actuators placed around joints clockwise or counterclockwise, giving the sensation that a rotating signal is urging the joint to rotate.
 
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Because everyone has different physical proportions, the system must first spend 10 minutes calibrating a new user's limb lengths and joint locations, and then match them to the teacher's proportions. Once a teacher's motions are tracked, they can be recorded, repeated, and played at different speeds.
 
As the researchers explain, the system has the potential to teach a student the precise motions of a teacher in place of the teacher. The system could therefore work well for teachers who are highly skilled, but are not good at teaching, by physically guiding a student who can simultaneously watch the teacher or a pre-recorded motion for visual feedback. However, visual feedback may not even be necessary with the wearable feedback suit, giving it the potential to be used as a training device for blind individuals.
 
"The biggest initial market is in a sport such as golf, which already spends millions annually on video analysis machines, which tell the student exactly what they need to change," Lieberman said. "But it tells them after they're done, and decades of motor learning research tells us that students will learn much more quickly if the feedback is given immediately with no delay. Imagine how easy improving your swim stroke would be if you didn't need to lift your head out of the water to improve it; after about 100 strokes, you'd be mimicking your teacher almost exactly."
 
He also explained that the health industry represents an equally, if not more exciting, opportunity. People with neurological trauma might use the suit for remapping their brains, and people with back pain could train their muscles with correct posture.
 
"We are developing a new system using this technology that will monitor your posture and give you vibrotactile cues to keep yourself sitting properly," Lieberman said. "Typically people only realize their posture is bad once pain starts, so this would give immediate feedback to prevent any pain, and retrain those who have already developed back pain. We should be running tests on this new device early next year. You can imagine having one suit, and 10 people each wearing it one week out of 10, to retrain their posture; the retraining of muscles should have a long-lasting effect, greatly helping those with back pain."
 
Before some of the complex motions- like a golf swing-are tested, however, the researchers say improvements are needed on the robot suit. These include creating a full-body suit with more than 100 actuators, defining ideal marker placement, investigating the human ability to respond to large amounts of feedback, and finding a less expensive and more mobile tracking system.
 
"With the golf swing, the difficulty lies not only in the fact that you need to monitor many more joints, but also that the mapping from teacher to student is much harder to clearly define," Lieberman explained. "In our tests, the mapping explicitly told the subject to try to copy the angles the teacher was making. In golf, it is more important that the end of the club contact the ball, and copying normal angles from someone taller than you will result in the club going into the ground, so it's very difficult to map that."
 
Related information: http://robotic.media.mit.edu
and
http://bea.st.
 
Citation: Lieberman, Jeff and Breazeal, Cynthia. "TIKL: Development of a Wearable Vibrotactile Feedback Suit for Improved Human Motor Learning." IEEE Transactions on Robotics, Vol. 23, No. 5, October 2007.
 
At the business desk, I'm Kerry J Harrison wishing you a pleasant day.

posted by Kerry at 9:45 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

A really great niche idea

Hello there!  I'm Matt Chadwick at the business desk and I'd like to spark your imaginations on this very slippery December evening.  It all has to do with using your imaginations to develop an idea that is niche, has lots of potentials to attract attention from a wide sector of the market, and an idea that has the potential to blow your competition out of the water. I found this article last week and just loved it.  So, give a read to it and see what you think.  If you need some more motivation to spark your imagination after reading this article then by all means, visit www.untappedwealth.com and there you'll find lots of great ideas on the newsletters page and the top business strategies page.
Now for the article.
 

Conde Nast Portfolio, NY, USA
Thursday, November 29, 2007
 
Bold Bottles: Wine labels talk, glow, and shock.
 
By Sharon Kapnick 
 
How to stand apart from the other 99,999 wines? With labels that talk, glow, and shock.
 
Extract: "Michel Chapoutier's Rhône Valley wines have had braille on their labels since 1996. There are even talking bottles-several high-end Brunello di Montalcino producers have had chips embedded in their labels so that "each wine can explain itself in the first person," according to Daniele Barontini, owner of Modulgraf, the Italian company that creates them. "
 
Winemakers have but a few square inches in which to encourage a sale. And until recently, most filled that real estate with sober images-stately châteaus, humdrum landscapes, intricate crests-meant to convey the refined nature of what was inside.
 
But several factors have conspired to push wine labels in a new direction. The modern attitude toward wine is more casual and less elitist; in Australia, Cassella Wines' Yellow Tail has seen phenomenal success with the wallaby "critter" on its packaging; and not least, there are now more than 100,000 wines currently available in the U.S., according to wine-industry consultants Gomberg Fredrikson & Associates.
 
To make their products stand out, many winemakers are taking clever, daring, and sometimes even radical approaches to labeling. They're putting as much attention into what's on the bottle as what's in it, turning to labels that shout "Buy me!" or, in some cases, "Touch me!"
 
Mollydooker, an Australian company known for its rich, intense wines, learned that buyers are "much more likely to purchase a wine they actually touch on the shelf," says Alicia Kelley Raymond, its U.S. director of marketing. Hence, what's attached to Mollydooker's flagship Velvet Glove Shiraz, made in outstanding years only, is, well, a black velvet glove.
 
While it has one of the more unusual labels, Mollydooker isn't the only company getting creative with its packaging. To commemorate its 130th anniversary, Veuve Clicquot used exotic ostri