Search results

The really sad thing is that Alexa is useful. It's an intercom, a clock, a timer, a weather and news check, an e-reader, an audiobook player, a music player, a gaming device, and so on and so on. It's actually a pretty significant part of the lives of my whole family. I'd absolutely pay for...

Here's a question: Why is Google so interested in downgrading its assistant while also upgrading a human-computer-interaction tool of a high class? Doesn't anyone at Google (or Amazon for that matter) recognize the inherent potential for integrating AI into their line of virtual assistants...

I hate to be a whiner. I hate, even more, to be a "I'm blind" accessibility whiner. Still, I'm excited about Windows handhelds because they offer a small form-factor gaming (etc) system that I can actually use. Valve is notoriously unconcerned about inaccessibility. After literally a decade...

I am typing this reply on a bluetooth braille display connected to the iPhone. braille displays are more universally supported: they work with all sorts of screen readers (the accessibility system for blind and low vision folks which captures and/or narrates content) en Windows, MacOs, android...

I sit typing this comment on my iPhone's builtin touchscreen using the braille keyboard. Until the braille keyboard came out a few years ago, I typed by memorizing where the letters were on my device and doing my best to notice errors. Yes, I use bluetooth keyboards. Yes, they are inconvenient...

I think the execs are being shortsighted again. Without Alexa or voice assistants in general, people are gonna use native music streaming services way less. People aren't going to deal well with companies saying "Sorry. We aren't making money, so these assistants are dead." People are too used...

So I can't help but be a little cohort-dependent here: This abstraction of sound and 3d printed shape may not explain the flames' processes or add to the discoveries one can make about the nature of flame, but one thing it really does is expose visually impaired persons such as myself and my...

This honestly makes me so sad. Mostly, it is what people have seemed to focus on, the end-of-life of a console because someone shuts down the relevant online resources, thus rendering your favorite titles unplayable and forcing a sales conversion. This is honestly fairly horrible, and I honestly...

Hi all. I was able, by asking sighted piers to get a description of the pictures here, but I'd like to note that this article departs somewhat from Ars' usual good standards by failing to describe the design and principals of the model being tested. This prevented me from gaining insight, as a...

First of all, I feel a deep sympathy for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.I want to say that right off the bat.But at the same time, I'm a blind (political correctness demands "visually impaired") person.Our accessibility to mainstream games is almost entirely non-existent. I do feel bad...

Maybe I'm just shouting stupidly into the wind, but ...WHAT ARE CBS THINKING?!This is a great opportunity here to try to patch up with a very vocal and disgruntled fanbase. They have the chance to support this project (hell, buy it out) because they have the money), and they blow it!Take it...

I am generally distressed by those who, when confronted by innovation, complain. Still, I must do so now. In the article, a feature of Facebook for the visually impaired was mentioned. This feature uses alt text and basic recognition to describe photographs. Now, apparently, Facebook is able to...

I recently discovered a kind of flight (Powered Paragliding or Paramotor) that offers pretty good flight characteristics, fuel efficiency, and safety on the fairly cheap (as personal aircraft go at about $7,000 to $15,000 depending on what you purchase). Single fliers also don't need a...

Full disclosure, totally blind. Long reply ahead, TLDR for convenience: We don't know where signs are. We can use tech stuff (iOS, Android, Windows, etc.) Some stuff works better than others. Long stuff begins: Honestly, we usually don't know where the signs are. There are some basic guidelines...

Honestly, I'm really stoked to see these technological advances and new form factors being applied in the accessibility space. Microsoft recently released a free app that leverages their computer vision research to read text, identify products (most of the time), recognize faces, all via a...

I haven't done any real research into this for a while, but I think I recall some sensing device using ultrasonics in glasses. I don't know whether it was stereoscopic, and I think I recall it being several thousand dollars. (Yep, if you want to charge high prices, make a product for some...

I've been hopeful for some kind of sensor net tech for a while now. Unfortunately, I'm not quite brainy enough to figure it out myself. I was wondering though, with the mass integration of radio signals from WiFi, cellphones, etc., couldn't we create some kind of fabric that reacts to...

As a blind individual myself, I am constantly on the lookout for devices and methods that will give me greater confidence in my daily life. Ultrasonic sensing isn't a new thing. Far from it. There have been devices around that perform something like this function, but they take up a hand. Hands...

Remember those AOL tin CD cases? Aah, AOL discs were the first I ever exploded in the microwave. Good times. Also, it's kind of like phone etiquette. If you're having a meaningful conversation, the phone's ring gets no response except, perhaps, to shut the damn thing up. Just today, I was on...

I think that the biggest problem is that we are losing, somewhat, the ability to carry on meaningful, natural conversations ala as little as five years ago. I've read on this site how people will spend at least a couple of minutes texting at dinner. I'm not trying to go all Emily Post or...