[gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?

Mike Freeman k7uij at panix.com
Mon Jun 27 19:56:20 UTC 2011 

Wayne:

I thought of VizWiz also. However, I think that, sooner rather than later, whatever entity has introduced this app is going to have to start charging a pretty penny to finance the "web workers" who are probably making minimum wage or less — or the service will pretty-much go belly-up just as Solona is doing. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!

Mike

On Jun 27, 2011, at 11:21, Wayne Merritt <wcmerritt at gmail.com> wrote:

> One possible solution, though it does depend on human interaction, is
> the new free VizWiz app for the IOS devices. Your IOS device needs a
> camera and preferrably a WiFi connection. Essentially, you take a
> picture of something, record a spoken question, and then submit it to
> several sources, including a collection of "web workers" (probably
> some sort of website/service, but not sure), a database of products
> that oMoby uses as well, email it to someone or post it to your
> Twitter feed for your followers to examine. Of these options for
> getting a name for a product, the web workers are probably more
> helpful since often they tell you the picture is blurry, you need to
> move the camera closer or that they cannot see whatever you're trying
> to identify. I used this app last night to identify some cans of pasta
> and was pleased with the results. At one point, I had 2 cans, one that
> was closer to the iPhone than the other. The result I got from the web
> worker told me that the nearer can was turned so they couldn't see the
> label, but they did tell me what the further can was. I mention VizWiz
> for CAPTCHA solving because I have read of one instance of someone
> using VizWiz to identify a CAPTCHA. The CAPTCHA ended up not working
> for the user, but the web worker correctly identified it. I've heard
> of other people using VizWiz to identify other things, like whether
> lettuce was fresh, what boxes and cans were, and so forth. The real
> power of VizWiz is that you can record any question, from "What is
> this?" to "What does my screen say?" to, "What's in this box?"
> 
> Anyway, just a thought. Hopefully at some point VizWiz will be taken
> to other platforms like Android and so forth.
> 
> Sincerely,
> Wayne Merritt
> 
> On 6/27/11, Peter Donahue <pdonahue2 at satx.rr.com> wrote:
>> Hello Gerald and everyone,
>> 
>>    Perhaps if screen reader users pressed their product developers to
>> address this issue something would happen. I saw the demise of WevVism and
>> Silona long ago. So much for relying on third parties to solve captchas for
>> you. Taking the user interaction out of the bot protection equation will go
>> a long way to resolving the accessibility issues these things have created
>> for the blind and deaf-blind. The ColdFusion Community is to be given credit
>> for taking a major step in eliminating the accessibility issues posed by
>> captchas on Web pages with the development of CFForm Protect. As I said
>> before we need to find out if there are similar solutions for other Web
>> languages, frameworks, and environments and promote their use instead of
>> captchas.
>> 
>> Peter Donahue
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Gerald Levy" <bwaylimited at verizon.net>
>> To: "Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List"
>> <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 11:46 AM
>> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The real problem is that the major screen reader companies, FS and GW Micro,
>> have so far shown absolutely no interest in adding captcha solving
>> capabilities to JAWS and Window Eyes, respectively.  This should certainly
>> be technically feasible.
>> 
>> 
>> Gerald
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
>> To: "Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List"
>> <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 11:50 AM
>> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>> 
>> 
>>> Not enough money; not enough personnel. I also heard a rumor that the
>>> person operating it has been ill.
>>> 
>>> If you ask me, *any* service dependent upon human interaction is bound to
>>> be less-than-reliable at best.
>>> 
>>> Mike
>>> 
>>> On Jun 27, 2011, at 6:20, Tai Blas <Tai.Blas at blind.state.ia.us> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> What is going on with Solona? Every time I try to use it, I am unable to.
>>>> Tai
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ______________ _
>>>> Tai Blas
>>>> Transition Vocational Rehabilitation Counselor
>>>> Iowa Department for the Blind
>>>> 524 Fourth Street
>>>> Des Moines, Iowa 50309
>>>> Office: (515) 281-1253
>>>> Toll-free: (800) 362-2587
>>>> Mobile: (515) 250-2160
>>>> Email: tai.blas at blind.state.ia.us
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> See what your state government is accomplishing at
>>>> http://www.idbonline.org
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> One Iowa, One Unlimited Future
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>>>> Behalf Of Gerald Levy
>>>> Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 3:03 PM
>>>> To: Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List
>>>> Subject: Re: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> This could become a serious problem.  At some point, the software
>>>> developers at Webvisum will simply give up trying to keep up with each
>>>> new release of Firefox.  And because Solona is already on life support,
>>>> there soon may be no captcha solving solutions left.  I suggest hanging
>>>> onto Firefox 4 or earlier as long as you can.  Besides, the screen
>>>> readers won't be able to keep up with each new Firefox release, either.
>>>> 
>>>> Gerald
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Ken lawrence" <kenlawrence124 at aol.com>
>>>> To: <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>>> Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 5:21 PM
>>>> Subject: [gui-talk] will Webvisum be rendered useless?
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> Hi Ken here.  I read in Kim Komando's email that firefox has started a
>>>>> new
>>>>> schedule they will be new versions of the browser every too months.  I
>>>>> just got the update automaticly today and they are recommending you
>>>>> install it since no more updates will be made for version 4.  So in two
>>>>> months for example version 6 or maybe 5 point something or other.
>>>>> Webvisum has been disabled since it isn't updated.  the firefox browser
>>>>> says it will enable it if it has an update.  But can webvisum possible
>>>>> keep up with a two months schedule?  is our capcha solver useless thanks
>>>>> to this new timetable by firefox?
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
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>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
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