During the upcoming total solar eclipse over North America in April, special devices will enable blind and visually impaired individuals to experience the event.
This device, the LightSound box translates changing light into sounds. Created by a collaboration between astronomer Wanda Díaz-Merced and Harvard astronomer Allyson Bieryla, it produces different sounds corresponding to the brightness of the sun during the eclipse.
The Perkins Library in Massachusetts plans to broadcast the changing tones of the LightSound device over Zoom, allowing members to experience the eclipse remotely. Additionally, the Cadence tablet from Indiana’s Tactile Engineering will provide a tactile experience for others, including students from the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. This tablet allows users to feel the movement of the moon over the sun, enhancing their connection to the event. Overall, these initiatives aim to make the eclipse accessible to individuals with visual impairments, ensuring that everyone can participate in this rare celestial occurrence.
How Has Technology Developed To Help The Visually Impaired?
Assistive technologies, as defined by the Technology Related Assistance to Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988, encompass a broad range of tools and devices aimed at enhancing the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. These technologies can be categorised as “high tech” or “low tech,” ranging from simple items like canes and lever doorknobs to more sophisticated solutions like voice recognition software and augmentative communication devices.
Mobility Technology
In terms of mobility, service dogs play a crucial role in assisting individuals with specific disabilities, such as guiding those with visual impairments or aiding those with poor balance. Additionally, various types of canes, including the long cane, provide navigation support for individuals who are blind or have low vision.
Electronic mobility aids utilise ultrasonic waves to detect obstacles in front of the user, offering additional assistance in navigation. Examples include the Ray Electronic Mobility Aid and the UltraCane, which combine electronic aids with traditional long canes to enhance obstacle detection capabilities.
Assistance Technology
Reading assistance technologies cater to individuals who are blind or visually impaired by offering a variety of software and devices. These include screen readers like the JAWS Screen Reader and Kurzweil Education software, which convert text into speech or braille. Additionally, refreshable braille displays enable users to access digital content and read printed material.
The Science Eye By Science Corp
The Science Eye, developed by Science Corp., holds promise for restoring vision to those who are blind due to diseases affecting the eye’s light-sensing cells. This innovative device consists of a microLED display attached to a small electronic package. Implanted atop and within the eyeballs, it aims to stimulate remaining cells within the eye to receive and interpret light signals. The device boasts an impressive resolution, approximately eight times better than an iPhone 13, with about 16,000 pixels packed into its wafer-thin design.
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To achieve vision restoration, Science Corp. employs a multifaceted approach. Firstly, a specially designed opsin is injected into the eye to modify retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), making them responsive to light. Then, the FlexLED device pulses light of specific wavelengths to stimulate the modified RGCs, sending signals to the brain. While not yet offering perfect vision, the Science Eye provides a semblance of sight, allowing individuals to navigate and interpret their surroundings. Ongoing research and development aim to refine the device’s efficacy and safety, paving the way for potential future applications beyond vision restoration.
Startups Giving The Gift Of Sight
GiveVision
GiveVision is a software suite designed to empower blind and visually impaired individuals through smart glasses technology. Developed by a team of three software engineers, two of whom are blind, the software converts visual information into audio cues, enhancing independence and mobility.
Compatible with any Android smart glasses with a camera, GiveVision’s features include a user interface for hands-free smartphone control, computer vision for object and text recognition, and magnification capabilities. The project, initiated in June 2014, has completed proof of market validation and is currently in closed beta testing.
With partnerships established with major UK blind charities, GiveVision aims to target the UK market, serving over 2 million visually impaired individuals. The company has garnered interest from numerous charities and is actively engaging in product development and distribution.
OrCam
OrCam, an Israeli company founded by Professor Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram, introduces groundbreaking artificial vision devices to assist the blind and visually impaired. Their flagship product, the OrCam MyEye, is a voice-activated wearable device the size of a finger. Recognised as one of TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2019, it enables users to read, perform daily tasks, and live more independently.
Alongside the MyEye, OrCam offers the MyReader and OrCam Read devices, utilising smart cameras and AI algorithms to convert images into spoken words in real time. These devices provide essential functionalities like reading text aloud, facial recognition, identifying objects, colours, and more. Partnering with renowned football player Lionel Messi, OrCam aims to raise global awareness and promote equal access for the blind and visually impaired community.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
