From the article "Toyota develops wearable device for blind people", Toyota introduces the exciting gadget that developed by Project Blaid. This developed device will give information about the blind user surrounding by voice, they will notice what objects in front of them or which ways they can pass. The article tells "The gadget is worn on the shoulders and uses cameras to recognize surroundings, such as signs, then directs the wearer with speakers and vibration motors"
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According to the detail, give an example that "....how the device could be used to distinguish between one door marked gentlemen's toilet and another marked exit. Toyota said it was primarily intended to help users navigate indoors"
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My Yes/No question is:
Is a wearable device totally useful for blind people?
My answer is:
No, it is not a totally useful device for blind people because this device makes a noise all time like a navigator in car. In my thought, it is still have some error for blind people. People who cannot see anything around themselves must be careful an accident on a road or a direction more than normal person, so they should focus more on voice surrounding at that time. I think this gadget would make blind people have lack of concentration of it.
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Before giving you my answer, I am not sure if currently we have already technology or the advancement of medical treatments to make some blind people able to see again.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, as I see it, I would say the gadget would totally useful in some cases, especially in a house. Thus, noise from the device may be not a key drawback for this gadget. In contrast, it seems that there are a number of interesting, useful functions for this device. As long as there is no more advanced technology than this gadget, it would be so beneficial for the blind in terms of self-dependence.
Yes, I agree with P' Feem, if there is no such technology, the blind will not even know what are in front of them. To have such technology, I think it is good enough for now but not future. I hope there should be something like artificial eyes that allow them to have a clear and complete vision again.
DeleteYes, I agree with P' Feem, if there is no such technology, the blind will not even know what are in front of them. To have such technology, I think it is good enough for now but not future. I hope there should be something like artificial eyes that allow them to have a clear and complete vision again.
DeleteSince I am interested in the field of biomedical engineering, I have done a little research on this kind of stuffs. I found out that bionic parts of body including the bionic eyes have been under developments for more than 20 years now. Furthermore, there are still many ongoing visual prosthesis in order to improve the bionic eyes in the future. By the way, bionic eyes can be either functional or just as decorations for blind people.
DeleteMy reaction is Yes and But. For the disabled people, their wishes are to be independent and they would like to do anything by themselves not disturbing others. I've heard this before from one of these people. So any new technologies and developments for supporting them are to be welcomed. In the future, artificial eyes will be introduced, as Non says. Actually, to become blind is the most serious bodily harm judging on the insurance in our country.
ReplyDeleteWhen they lost their eye sights, they have to move most carefully concentrating their all nerves to one point. Naturally, they manage it well in moving like they can see activating their intuition. As the blog owner was anxious, I also worry about this new gadget of voice-guide as it may interrupt blind persons' instinctive judgement. Any gadget should not endanger other's life. Toyota will be needed more experiments with blind people and must assure the products before sending it to the market.
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ReplyDeleteIf the question asks whether those device are totally useful or not, I would rather say "no". As you have already stated that it might lead to the loss of concentration for the blind people and also that it might make mistakes, I would like to add about the advancement of the technology. I don't think that the memory card or whatever that stores the information of the objects can contain that much information as it would require hundreds of gigabytes or maybe even more than a terabyte to store all the pictures in it. Even though the device may be able to connect to wifi or online storage, it still can't be in full function for the technology nowadays. By the way, I think that if this device comes out, it would still be very expensive and might be even more expensive than bionic eyes.
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