There is a lab at MIT where they get to play with all the coolest and newest devices: AR tablets, Oculus Rift, Google Glass and lots of 3D printing — all used to find new ways for us to communicate with computers and for computers to make our lives easier. This is the Fluid Interfaces Group and their latest invention is a 3D printed ring that will help those with visual impairments read 2D printed texts.
Through the FingerReader even those with limited or no vision (that’s 285 million people worldwide, of which 39 million are fully blind, according to the World Health Organization) will be able to interact with all object descriptions anywhere, without having to necessarily rely on Braille text. Restaurant menus, billboards, bus or train schedules and, most of all, books will become accessible all the time.
The way the ring works can be seen clearly in the video below. The 3D printed prototype has sensors that recognize the shape of the text on the page, while helping the person wearing it move in a straight line though a haptic feedback system and a set of cues. For example a mild vibration will indicate the end and the beginning of a line.
All that the person wearing the ring has to do to read is point his or her finger at the written text. The FingerReader team said that they started from the concept that wearing a camera on your index finger would make for a natural interface, since people naturally point at things to ask questions about what’s around them. “About 2.8% of the population in the US has a visual impairment, and the solutions they use right now for reading text are far from optimal”, they explained. “We speculated that giving them a wearable device that is quicker to use and gives them real time feedback would make their lives easier”.
The system is far from perfect (this is how it sounds at this stage of development) but its potential is huge. It has already been configured to read eBooks as well as paper texts but once the final version has been finalized, its software can and will evolve to include a wide range of new interface possibilities, such as real time translations or obtaining information without looking away.
Through each new 3D printed iteration of the prototype, it will become more wearable and eventually – as is often the case with MIT projects and graduates – it will go into production. MIT has not yet thought out a marketing and commercialization plan, the enthusiasm and media attention has been overwhelming and it looks like this is going to be another, new… “What’s that word? I have it on the tip of my… finger.” Oh, right: paradigm.
Source: MIT Media Lab through ABC News
