[Art_beyond_sight_learning_tools] JORDY video magnifying goggle

[Lisa Yayla]

Hi,

Sending one article that mentions JORDY, a video magnifying goggle 
developed by NASA and it mentioned using it to view art in museums, a 
little bell went off. Thought this would be of interest. Anyone familiar 
with this device?

Link to original article and link to one just about JORDY.

Regards,

Lisa

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/columns/frog-design-mind-137133.php

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/nasa_develops_star_trek_glasses_for_the_visually_impaired_9227

A World of the Insatiably Enabled

By James Craig

My friend Randy is a technical consultant for IBM. He codes Java and 
provides user feedback for internal development teams. Like most of us, 
the majority of Randy’s work involves communication through phone or by 
email. And like most of us, his mobile phone is an essential tool for 
business and personal communication.

Randy has also been blind since he was 18 months old, due to a rare 
childhood eye cancer, retinoblastoma. As a result, he’s very keen on 
seeking out handsets designed for maximum accessibility—handsets that, 
in truth, benefit disabled and non-disabled users alike.

A 2004 survey by the American Foundation for the Blind lists the top two 
mobile phone accessibility needs as “keys that are easily identifiable 
by touch” and “voice output” — that is, the phone speaks menus options 
and settings, like the current time. Randy’s last phone had both 
features, but his current phone, a Sanyo SCP-200, lacks voice output — 
his phone no longer talks (back) to him — but it does have voice input 
features, such as voice-enabled dialing.

When I asked why he gave up voice output, Randy said the technology is 
not yet good enough to be truly useful for a blind person; not enough 
programs and settings were voiced. “Also,” he mentioned, “when I used 
the voicing feature to check the time in an especially long business 
meeting, the meeting organizer gave me a funny look.” (Did I mention 
Randy has a good sense of humor?) He now checks the time on a Braille 
wristwatch.

Though he can live without voice output, any phone Randy buys must have 
accessible features such as voice dialing and tactile keys. With rare 
exception, these design considerations make a handset more usable and 
desirable not just for the disabled, but for everyone. That’s because 
“accessibility” is really just “usability,” a concept that should 
concern everyone — especially designers.

The most ubiquitous example of accessible design is the curb cut. 
Required in the US by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), its 
intended purpose is to provide sidewalk access to the mobility-impaired, 
particularly those in wheelchairs. But think who else uses a curb cut: 
parents pushing strollers, bicyclists, delivery personnel, travelers 
with luggage, and a slew of other people. It’s a design for 
accessibility that benefits every user of public resources.

Who benefits from an accessible interface design? You. Have you ever 
used voice dialing? Do you feel the raised nibs on your mobile phone’s 
‘5’ key, or on your computer keyboard’s home keys? Ever bumped up your 
font size to read an article?

Imagine you’re running late to the airport. You are driving in rush-hour 
traffic but need to check your flight status. If your smart phone had 
voice output and the software to support it, you could. Most 
importantly, you could keep your eyes on the road while you did.

Dean Kamen invented a revolutionary gyroscopic stabilization technique 
first used in a wheelchair-like device called the IBOT. The IBOT allows 
paraplegics to go up and down stairs, and even “stand” upright by 
balancing on two wheels. Why should you care about the development of a 
gyroscopic stabilization device for the disabled? Because the technology 
was integrated into Mr. Kamen’s most famous project, the Segway Scooter.

The Joint Optical Reflective Display, or JORDY, is a video magnifying 
goggle named for the Star Trek character Geordi La Forge. The 
visually-impaired use JORDY to view art museums, attend sporting events, 
and otherwise enjoy normal lives, but it’s easy to imagine how future 
variations of the technology may be used to augment the vision of 
pilots, or other non-disabled people.

Dr. Alex Cavalli, of the IC2 Institute, envisions a time when all 
physical disabilities will be of no more consequence than myopia is 
today, a world in which biological and cybernetic enhancement yield the 
same final, improved result, no matter the recipient’s original 
condition: “With the advance of bio- and nanotechnology, coupled with 
modern convergent media, we can look forward to the possibility of 
having the word ‘disabled’ retired from our vocabulary. We will speak, 
instead, in terms of how enabled we are.”

Scooters, video magnifiers, voice dialing, curb cuts—technology advances 
and interface designs for the disabled almost always evolve to enable 
the needs and desires of the non-disabled masses.

The question now is, how enabled are you?

James Craig is a Senior Design Technologist in frog’s Austin studio.

The frog Design Mind column appears every Monday on Gizmodo. Read more 
frog Design Mind.