Techwire

For people who use sign language to communicate, interacting with people who do not know sign language can be an enormous challenge and create barriers for people who are hearing impaired. Until now, the best alternative might have been writing out notes on a piece of paper. However, an upcoming product from a company called MotionSavvy hopes to offer a better solution. The solution does not look like the advanced piece of assistive technology that it is, but rather looks like a thin tablet with a Leap Motion device attached to the front. The Leap Motion senses the motion of the users hand to recognize signs using multiple cameras. Once the table recognizes the signs it can display the signed phrase as text on screen or even as spoken words with text-to-speech . This allows the other person that does not know sign language to understand what is being signed. Then the other person can speak into the tablet and speech recognition technology will allow the words to appear on the screen f...

Google is rapidly developing new wearable technologies. Google's first attempt at wearable technology, Google Glass, has attracted a lot of press attention, but is still not available on the mass market. They also cost $1,500. Google's next foray into wearable technology maybe less flashy and less expensive, but may have a greater assistive technology impact. Google's smart contact will sit on the eye like conventional contacts, but do much more. Google's initial idea is to measure blood sugar in tears for diabetics with electronics integrated into the contact. Instead of drawing blood to monitor blood sugar Google's smart contact would analyze blood sugar within tears. This system would eliminate or reduce painful finger pricks and also allow for more frequent testing. A small LED light inside the contact would then illuminate different colors depending on the blood sugar reading. While this technology is still in development the idea is very exciting. If smart co...

Both iOS 7 and Android KitKat include the ability to customize captions. Now both major mobile operating systems include the ability to customize movie and video subtitles system wide.. For iOS, the customization settings are under Settings > General > Accessibility > Subtitles & Captioning. From that menu you are able to change the appearance of subtitles of any video played through the default iOS video player. There are many options for customization including font, font size, font color, and background color. Android includes a similar feature that can also be accessed in the settings menu. These options are a welcome addition to mobile devices and can make subtitles much easier to see. It is great to see both Apple and Google improving accessibility on their mobile products.

A service called Amara allows YouTubers to get crowd sourced help captioning their videos. Millions of people, particularly those with hearing impairments, rely on captions in order to watch movies and videos. Amara's goal is to have more captioned videos on the web. Anyone with a YouTube account can register with Amara.org for free. Then volunteers caption the videos for free. After the volunteers caption the videos the captions are then added to your YouTube video. Captioning videos can be difficult for individual video creators. Now with Amara there is no reason for YouTubers not to have their videos captioned. People can also volunteer to help caption more web videos.

While video chatting has helped deaf users communicate with each other, conventional video chatting runs into problem when an interpreter is involved. Google is attempting to solve this problem with its sign language interpreter app for Google+. Google+ is Google's social networking service. Google+ Hangouts now supports sign language interpreters for deaf users. With the app installed the deaf user sees the interpreter in the top right corner of the window.  When the the interpreter speaks for the deaf users, the app recognizes who is speaking and then makes the speaker the focus of the Hangout. It is encouraging to see Google vigorously improving the accessibility features in Google+.

As 2012 comes to a close I decided to make a run down of my favorite assistive technology apps and products that I have been using this year. This list is in no particular order. Click read more view the list. Sky WiFi Smartpen from Livescribe The Sky WiFi Smartpen is easy to use and seamless. It has a built in recorder and camera that, when used with specialized paper, syncs audio and written notes in the cloud. To read the Sky WiFi Smartpen review click here. iPad mini iPad mini is a great tablet because of its size, app selection, and accessibility. The lower price point makes it even more compelling. Most of all iPad mini runs all the apps that the full size iPad does and has accessibility features second to none. Click here to read more about the iPad mini. iOS 6 While iOS 6 many have been short on mainstream features it has several useful accessibility features including Guided Access , highlighting with Speak Selection, Siri improvements, and VoiceOver improvements. Click...

Apple announced the iPhone 5 at an event today in California. The iPhone 5 includes and bigger screen, better camera, faster processor, thinner design and more. The iPhone 5 will run on iOS 6 Apple's mobile operating system which includes accessibility features such as VoiceOver , Guided Access and Speak Selection. Click here to learn more about  iOS 6 . The iPhone 5 will be available for pre-order on September 14th and for sale on September 21th starting at $199. Click read more below to view more images of the iPhone 5.

Today, Apple  announced that iOS 6 , the software that runs iPhone , iPad and iPod Touch, will be released on September 19th. The free software update will include new accessibility features such as Guided Access, Speak Selection with highlighting and improved Siri. Click here to learn more about Guided Access . iOS 6 will also include Made For iPhone Hearing Aids which allow hearing aid users to better use the iPhone. Along with accessibility improvements iOS 6  includes an updated maps app and more. Click read more below to view more images of iOS 6 from Apple.

Apple announced today that it will be holding a special event on September 12. Apple is rumored to announce a new iPhone , iOS 6 release data and possibly more. iOS 6 will include many accessibility enhancements including Guided Access . The new iPhone may include a better camera, faster processor and larger screen. Come back on September 12 to hear all the new from Apple and how it effects the world of assistive technology.

A new iBook called Pointy Three includes built in American Sign Language ( ASL ) video narrations. Click here to download the iBook . Pointy Three costs $4.99 but you can download a sample for free. It is the first iBook to include ASL video narrations. An iPad is required to read the ebook. These video narrations are great for people learning ASL or parents of deaf children. Hopefully, the selection of ebooks with ASL narration will increase. Watch the above video to learn more. Click read more below to view screenshots of Pointy Three.

For the millions of deaf people communicating is a large challenge. EnableTalk is attempting to solve this problem with a pair of computerized gloves that recognizes sign language and uses text-to-speech to convert the signs to spoken language. Watch the above video to learn more. The prototype gloves link with a smart phone and use a variety of sensors to recognized the signs. An app on the users smart phone then speaks the signs using text-to-speech so people who do not know sign language can communicate with the deaf user. The gloves could end the need for a sign language user to pass notes to non-sign language user, but the non-sign language user would still need to pass notes back to the hearing impaired person. The EnableTalk seem promising and will hopefully be available to consumers in the near future. Click read more below to view a picture of the prototype gloves.