The latest invention – a glove interface – help deafblind communicate with anyone with the same ease as when dealing in the “Twitter”, tells correspondent BBC Future.
The fact that the ability to communicate with other people – a priceless gift, a very well known Eddie and Laura Haug Shvengber, friends since childhood. Shortly after they met, a nine-year Haug lost his hearing and eyesight due to nerve damage caused by a congenital genetic disease. But children are very creative. “We began to invent their own languages and modes of communication, just because we wanted to play together – says Shvengber. – I hated that he could not hear me, and even write him I could not.” As a result of his friends invented a special tactile language.
Growing up, Haug and Shvengber (who later chose the profession of sign language interpreter) switched to a more common form of communication Deafblind – tactile alphabet Lorme (Lorm alphabet), in which each letter of the alphabet corresponds to a certain touch of the hand of the addressee. This method was invented in the XIX century Austrian writer and journalist Henry Landesman and published them under the pseudonym Hieronymus Lorme. He still used deafblind in German-speaking countries (there is also a version of the Cyrillic alphabet).
The ABC Lorme greatly simplifies the process of communication and Haug Shvengber. But she, like other forms of tactile language, has its drawbacks. The need for physical contact between the interlocutors restricts communication deafblind only those with whom they can regularly meet face-to-face (or, to be more precise, hand to hand) – and even in a usually small group, not all are willing to sufficiently to master this method to really fluent communication.
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For example, the social circle Haug now consists of about five people: his mother, Shvengber, teachers and therapists. Once a year he spends two weeks with relatives in Stuttgart. “The first five days they have to re-teach the alphabet Lorme that over the past year they have forgotten, and when they reach an acceptable speed communications, Haug is time to go home,” – says Shvengber.
However, this inconvenience soon may come to an end, if the invention Tom Bilinga get commercial development.
Tactile translation
Billing working in Berlin Tekhnotsentr Design Research Lab, has created a glove interface with integrated pressure sensors and miniature vibrating motor, tactile alphabet which translates into text and vice versa. Given the fact that the lion’s share of communication on the Internet is based on text messages, the mobile device is able to eliminate the need for physical contact when communicating between the deaf-blind, and give them the opportunity to communicate with anyone at all.
The glove resembling futuristic gadgets of James Bond films, earned its creator the main prize of the annual contest of Berlin Falling Walls Lab in 2014.
The first prototype was made of a membrane fabric gorteks and did not differ from the ordinary to the touch gloves, says Billing. When an incoming text message includes a built-in glove vibro motors starting to translate it – letter by letter – on ABC Lorme. In the current version of the device, users can adjust the vibration intensity and speed of transfer to the individual reading ability tactile alphabet.
In addition, in contrast to the first sample, and now the entire surface of the gloves acts as a touch keyboard – using sewn into it pressure sensors can be administered tactile symbols for later transfer them into text messages. The device detects and its spatial position relative to the holder, and the characters inscribed with your finger. If a character is entered not clearly glove chooses the closest to him in outline – like predictive typing system on your smartphone. For example, in the range of the alphabet corresponds Lorme Latin letters S, explains Billing, and if on the glove finger to draw a triangle or square, the system fills in the S type the text as near correct.
more independence
Haug, who happens to test the prototype gloves, says using tactile language (Shvengber translation) that the speed of the device is slightly behind the rate of live communication, to which he was accustomed. “At about the same rate type messages alphabet Lorme his mother and teacher – says Shvengber, which itself perfectly mastered this method of communication. – But all the same device he likes”.
According to Haug, send and receive messages using gloves “extremely easy”.
Billing created glove interface within the work on his doctoral dissertation on the relationship between industrial design and the quality of human life. He argues that intelligent design solutions can help in everyday life as people with disabilities, as well as any other – for example, not have to be confined to a wheelchair to use a ramp. Billing hopes that his invention will expand the circle of friends deafblind and facilitate their access to information, making them thus more independent. In addition, he hopes that the study of alternative communication systems ultimately will benefit all people.
Haug, who is now 22 years old, lives with his mother in the Spreewald area, 100 km from Berlin. He is studying massage therapy and wants to make it his profession. Haug would like to move to Berlin, says Shvengber, but so far he can not do it, because would helpless, living on his own. Glove Bilinga would give him the opportunity to keep in touch with people close to him at a distance. Moreover, with its help he could greatly expand your social circle.
Wide Horizons
Recently, in Haug, a new game – using Shvengber he speaks in the “Twitter”. Virtual interlocutors young man did not even suspect that he deaf and blind. On the Internet Haug – “just a man who expresses his thoughts,” explains Shvengber. According to Haug, “Twitter” in this sense is like a carnival, because “you have to face a mask out of which you can say whatever you see fit.” Not important physical features of the person, and his mind, I’m sure Shvengber. If Haug was a glove-based interface, it would be much easier to communicate on the Internet and do not require the help of others for this.
When asked what would be his first action, he Pick up a glove, Haug says that to begin to communicate with his cousin in Stuttgart and would ask him if he remembers the name of an interesting movie that they recently discussed. Haug and Shvengber often go to the movies; girlfriend simultaneously translates for him movies using Morse Lorme.
Most of us take for granted those amazing possibilities of communication that has brought us the technological revolution. For people with limited vision and hearing, until recently, these features were not available, but the glove Bilinga able to expand their horizons.
Read the original of this article is available in English on the website BBC Future.
The original article: Прикоснись my hand through the “Twitter”
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