Google Glass seeking to help disabled with life-changing technology

#GoogleGlass #utopiaau #utopiamagaine #n1ki

Although Google Glass is not out on the market the potential to help the disabled is set to be a life changing device for the sight impaired. 

Imagine you are doing the mundane thing of going shopping. You are blind relying on a cane and a guide dog and your senses like sound and smell to navigate the world in which you have never seen a single thing.  Challenging huh! Now Imagine what a set of eyes so to speak, is speaking to you telling you every thing you need to know as you wear the head piece google glass. Seek and you shall find!

Google’s Glass seeking to help disabled with life-changing technologySource: AFP

Kelly Schulz, 31-year-old an employee of Telstra was born 97% blind was given the opportunity to test drive a new app on Glass. Google Glass gave Kelly a glimpse of what’s in front of her. Google’s head-mounted computer snaps a photo and a reads a description into her right ear.

A computerized voice tells her “it is a $20 note”, “a bottle of skim milk”, or “a can of BBQ baked beans”.

Kelly says Glass has massive potential. Usually if she wants to identify, for instance, a product at the supermarket, she must hold up a smartphone, double-tap the screen to take a photo, and listen to a description through headphones.Wearing the Google Glass device, the process is hands-free.

When there’s a guide dog leash in one hand and bags of shopping in the other, that’s invaluable.The potential is life-changing,” she says. “It becomes an essential piece of technology.”

This exciting technology can even be used by a person who has a hearing impairment. Text is displayed on the screen of the eye piece making it possible for anyone to know whats going on at a chosen moment.

Wayne Hawkins, disability policy adviser for the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network, said the future looked bright.

“For myself, a blind user, it would be life-changing to be able to walk into a supermarket and actually know what’s in front of me. “However, we urgently need app developers to include accessibility in all their apps,” he said.

RELATED LINKS 
Google Glass - Google Glasses
 How Google Glass is helping the blind see

Posted in: computer,disabled,glass,google,GoogleGlass,hearing impared,help disabled,kelly,life changing,n1ki,niki,technology,utopiaau,utopiamagazine,vision impared