Beacons are being set up throughout Toronto that will use the app BlindSquare to help the blind navigate.
Turn on sound , audio that the app emits

Future Society

Beacons are being set up throughout Toronto that will use the app BlindSquare to help the blind navigate.

Turn on sound , audio that the app emits

Two Hundred Venues in Toronto Are Currently Installing These Beacons

<h2>A Road to Helping People with Disabilities</h2>
Autonomous vehicles have the potential to revolutionize travel, but there is one segment of society, who have so far been overlooked, that they could greatly benefit: people with disabilities. Driverless cars, according to <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_zNkD1Y1-w5dkhMYnd2TDcxYW8/view">a report by the Ruderman Foundation</a> &#8220;offer significant potential for reducing transportation obstacles for Americans with disabilities.&#8221;
The report is divided into subsections that make suggestions for specific disabilities. For the deaf community, it states that visual cues and instruction capabilities would be helpful. Intellectual and developmental disabilities could be provided for by creating a means of operation with minimal complexity, and caretakers for those with these disabilities could ensure their safety if tools such as GPS tracking and remotely accessible video cameras were provided.
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/laws-and-ethics-for-autonomous-cars/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/02/Homepage-Thumbnail-25.jpg" alt="Laws and Ethics for Autonomous Cars" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/laws-and-ethics-for-autonomous-cars/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
For those with physical disabilities, the priority is to make the vehicle accessible, which an automatic ramp could do. A Siri-esque, voice-controlled communication system between car and driver would help them operate the vehicle once they are inside.
In order to benefit the disabled community to the maximum degree possible, solutions such as these will have to be designed and integrated &#8220;as early as possible in the design and manufacturing process,&#8221; according to the report. If not, the disabled community may face clumsy, expensive, and inefficient solutions when fighting for back-end accessibility.
<h2>Helping the Economy by Helping Millions</h2>
In 2015, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0730-us-disability.html">statistics from the CDC</a> showed that one in every five American adults has a disability; they also wrote that because of their data source, this number was likely underestimated. Designing driverless cars that accommodate this community therefore has the potential to help more than 22% of the population. Getting from point A to B independently is a huge problem for many people in the community, and therefore designing autonomous cars with disabled people in mind would not only increase their travel situation, but quality of life in general.
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While public transport provides a partial solution to travel for people with disabilities, driverless cars could represent a huge step forward for accessibility and independence — and in the process rectify the imbalance of opportunity, wage, and education that those with disabilities face. This would be beneficial not only to individuals, but to the US economy as a whole, because it would decrease the rate of unemployment and the market failure caused by immobility of labor.
While the future of driverless cars looks bright and exciting — with companies like Mercedes <a href="https://futurism.com/videos/mercedes-benz-has-unveiled-a-new-driverless-car/">making sports car versions</a> and stories such as autonomous vehicles <a href="https://futurism.com/watch-an-autonomous-car-prevent-a-traffic-jam-from-forming/">preventing traffic jams</a> becoming more common — perhaps car manufacturers should instead focus on the opportunity of improving the living standards of nearly one in every five Americans. If driverless cars are a revolution, let them be a revolution for all of us.

Driverless, autonomous, autopilot vehicle

Advanced Transport

A report has stressed the importance of using the new era of transport represented by autonomous cars to also benefit people with disabilities.

Autonomous Vehicles Could Change the Lives of People Who Are Most in Need

But it's up to us to make it happen.

<h2>Team Tactile</h2>
Six engineering undergraduate students at the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/" target="_blank">Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)</a> have designed a portable device that converts text to braille in real time. Their first prototype was created in a 15-hour hackathon in early 2016. Since that time, the device, <a href="http://www.teamtactile.com/team/" target="_blank">called Tactile</a>, has undergone extensive development. Now, it&#8217;s the size of a candy bar and completely portable. The students have applied for a patent for the device, although they are already working on its next iteration.
What really sets Tactile apart from other braille translators, though, is its low cost. Most of these devices are expensive and limited to the translation of text that is available digitally. For example, the <a href="http://store.humanware.com/hus/brailliant-bi-32-new-generation.html?___store=us_en" target="_blank">HumanWare Braillant</a> attaches to a computer or mobile device to translate text into braille, and it costs $2,595. Tactile&#8217;s creators hope to sell their device for less than $200.
<figure style="width: 798px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/05/Braille-device.jpg" alt="Via Lemelson, MIT" width="798" height="380" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Image credit: Lemelson/MIT</figcaption></figure>
The students who invented the translation device have plans to improve Tactile, and they&#8217;ve also got the means to do it. They recently won one of the $10,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prizes for 2017, which they will spend refining and improving the device.
“Currently, the camera only takes a picture of its field of view,&#8221; team member Chandani Doshi explained <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/device-translates-text-braille-real-time-180963171/" target="_blank">in an email to </a><a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/device-translates-text-braille-real-time-180963171/" target="_blank">Smithsonian</a>. &#8220;We are aiming to make the device similar to a handheld scanner that allows the user to scan the entire page in one go.” If they&#8217;re successful, this would make the device simpler to use and eliminate the reader&#8217;s need to remember where they are on the page.
<h2>New Access</h2>
Accessibility for people with disabilities is getting more attention now than it has in the past as the movement for inclusion grows. The <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20170425IPR72340/products-and-services-to-be-made-more-accessible-for-disabled-persons-in-the-eu" target="_blank">European Union has drafted rules</a> that will mandate that products and services be more accessible to people with disabilities, including the blind. The Women&#8217;s March on Washington even added <a href="http://mashable.com/2017/01/18/disability-march-womens-march-on-washington/" target="_blank">a virtual branch</a> so people with disabilities could attend that way if they chose to.
<figure style="width: 360px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/technology-for-good-how-edtech-startups-are-democratizing-education/"><img src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/05/HomeThumb_v2-2.jpg" alt="Six EdTech Startups Democratizing Education [Infographic]" ></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text center"><a href="https://futurism.com/images/technology-for-good-how-edtech-startups-are-democratizing-education/" target="_blank">Click to View Full Infographic</a></figcaption></figure>
There are <a href="https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/braille_literacy_report_web.pdf" target="_blank">1.3 million legally blind</a> people in the U.S., and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/" target="_blank">285 million people worldwide</a> are visually impaired — 39 million of them are blind, and the remaining 246 million have low vision. <a href="https://nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/pdf/braille_literacy_report_web.pdf" target="_blank">The American Foundation for the Blind estimates</a> that fewer than 10 percent of blind people can understand braille, mostly due to a chronic teacher shortage in this area.
Even so, Tactile, which should be on the market within two years, will make any book in any library accessible to those who do understand braille — and it will also make braille itself far more accessible and easy to learn. In fact, using Tactile might be the revolution braille needs to bring a higher level of literacy back to the blind community.

Robots & Machines

This will open up a world of reading material to the blind.

MIT’s “Portable Translator” Can Convert Text to Braille in Real-Time

Welcome to the future of communication.

Artificial intelligence is helping the blind “see.”

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is helping the blind "see."

Artificial Intelligence May Be Better Than a Guide Dog

<h2>Transformative Technology</h2>
Our society demands mobility—in fact, much of the new technology being introduced in this modern age is anchored in this fact. Unfortunately, a significant portion of our population, those people with visual impairments, are unable to capitalize on this.
However, the promise of truly autonomous vehicle technology is becoming a reality. Enter: <a href="http://optimusride.com/">Optimus Ride</a>, a startup in Cambridge, Massachusetts that is developing self-driving technologies for electric vehicles. One such vehicle was used to shuttle students and staff around the Perkins campus, the U.S.&#8217; oldest school for the blind, using a laptop as a guide.
“Autonomous vehicles will be transformative for people who are blind,” <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602555/the-blind-have-high-hopes-for-self-driving-cars/?utm_campaign=internal&amp;utm_medium=homepage&amp;utm_source=top-stories_2">says Dave Power, president and CEO of Perkins</a>.
<blockquote>“For the first time, they will be able to get to school, work, and community activities independently, regardless of distance. There is tremendous enthusiasm about it, both here and nationally, among the blind.”</blockquote>
<h2>Optimus Ride</h2>
Advocates for the blind say this advancement is set to revolutionize their lives by giving them more independence. After the demo, Perkins employees gave Optimus Ride numerous suggestions, such as making sure to provide adequate floor space for service dogs.
They also emphasized the need for a non-visual interface that passengers could use to communicate with the car. It could function using voice-over technology or haptic feedback, much like the gesture-based screen readers the blind use on their smartphones.
Jim Denham, Perkins’s educational technology coordinator, anticipates creating an app that will work alongside the vehicle. It will summon the vehicle and give periodic status updates about the vehicle’s progress.
In the end, this isn&#8217;t just about creating self-driving vehicles for the blind. Advocates like Power want car makers to be sure they are creating disability-friendly autonomous vehicles.

285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide – and they're missing out on some of the latest developments in transportation technology.
Optimus Ride is developing self-driving technologies for electric vehicles that can benefit the visually impaired. 

Self-Driving Cars Could Transform the Lives of the Visually Impaired

“Autonomous vehicles will be transformative for people who are blind."

This tablet’s smart liquids create raised Braille on the screen.

This tablet's smart liquids create raised Braille on the screen.

Blitab Is the World’s First Tablet for the Blind

Created by Microsoft​, this incredible AI can describe what it sees to users, and is even capable of reading emotions.

Microsoft’s Latest AI Was Created To Specifically Help The Blind

<h2>Two Billion</h2>
On any given day, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp users send and share more than two billion photos. But for those who are blind or visually impaired, this is an experience that they are largely left out of.
This has prompted the Facebook team to try and create technology that will enable this community to experience, and enjoy, Facebook the way that others do.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/161529744" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" title="Introducing Automatic Alt Text" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Automatic Alternative Text</h2>
<a href="https://code.facebook.com/posts/457605107772545">Automatic alternative text</a> is an advanced neural network that basically generates a description of an image. It uses Facebook&#8217;s sophisticated object recognition that runs down items on the photo—which means anyone using screen readers can hear a basic description of the photo, painting a visual image of each.
Prior to this technology, users of screen readers could only hear the name of the person who shared the image and identify it as a photo when they come across it on their feeds.
“Now we can offer a richer description of what’s in a photo, thanks to automatic alt text. For instance, someone could now hear, &#8216;Image may contain three people, smiling, outdoors,&#8217;” Facebook asserts. True, this isn&#8217;t exactly ideal, but it is a step forward, and could lead to even better technologies in the coming years.
The technology will first be available on iOS screen readers set to English, but Facebook has plans of rolling it out on more platforms and more languages.

Facebook is building technology that will help the blind community experience visual content, allowing them to use social media the way that individuals without visual impairment do.

Facebook Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Help the Blind ‘See’ Visual Content

Facebook is working to help the blind use (and experience) Facebook the way others do. 

We told you all about <a href="https://futurism.com/links/could-scientists-create-dragons-using-crispr-gene-editing-bbc-news/">Joseph Paul Cohen&#8217;s app</a>, BlindTool, the app that tells blind users about their environment through audio and vibrations. Since its release, Cohen has been contemplating ways he could improve on the technology.
Recently, he launched a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2114076460/blindtool-v2">Kickstarter</a> campaign to raise the money needed to develop a more user-friendly version of BlindTool.
<figure id="attachment_21083" style="width: 200px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-21083 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/01/joseph.jpg" alt="joseph" width="200" height="200" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Cohen, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephpcohen">Source</a></figcaption></figure>
<h5>Challenges With BlindTool V1</h5>
Although the original app was met with praise, there were some challenges with the app that Cohen hopes to overcome:
<ul>
<li class="p1">The app does not understand many household objects and concepts (e.g. wall)</li>
<li class="p1">It is confused by some objects (sometimes misidentifying)</li>
<li class="p1">It doesn&#8217;t turn on the flashlight when it is dark</li>
<li class="p1">It doesn&#8217;t have any options to customize it</li>
</ul>
The data set that BlindTool V1 is trained on is actually kind of randomly selected. Cohen says the words that the app knows, such as &#8220;goldfish, great white shark, hen, ostrich&#8221; (to name a few), aren&#8217;t important to blind users&#8230;.aside from visually impaired zookeepers, of course.
<figure id="attachment_21085" style="width: 274px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="wp-image-21085 " src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2016/01/blind-1.jpg" alt="blind" width="274" height="400" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2114076460/blindtool-v2">Source</a></figcaption></figure>
<h5>What Will BlindTool Version 2 Do?</h5>
<ul>
<li>BlindTool V2 will still be completely free (Note: Cohen says he does not want to charge visually impaired individuals for the app for ethical reasons)</li>
<li>The app will gather labels and images from users of what they want to have the system see and then train the system to identify these things</li>
<li>Add a way to customize the systems interaction by filtering out some labels or add different names for identified objects</li>
<li>Test the app more with blind users to make sure it is something they want to use everyday.</li>
</ul>
Creating a better database of objects is Cohen&#8217;s main goal. However, there&#8217;s only so much processing that can be done on the phone, so Cohen can&#8217;t just add a ton of new labels.
Instead, Cohen plans to add a button to the interface. Pressing this button will allow a user to say &#8220;this object is important to me.&#8221; That information will be sent to a server, which will take all the new data and essentially train a new neural network.
Once that network has been trained, it could take up to two weeks to process. When this is completed, the server will feed that information back into the app as a newer version.
Over time, this process will create a huge crowdsourced collection of images with labels that are relevant to users, resulting in better quality and relevant predictions.
<h5>Getting to know Blindtool</h5>
We recently talked with Cohen in order to better understand BlindTool and the ideas behind it.
Futurism: How did you come up with the idea for this device?
JPC: Many years ago, I worked with a blind programmer and learned all about how things worked for the blind. We talked about things, like how math was difficult for the blind, and I was able to introduce him to LaTeX, which allows the blind to read and write math with their screen reader. It is also used by mathematicians in research, so it is really convenient.
I felt there was a better cane that could be made.
I wanted to make a cane that would work better and explain the things in front of the person, like &#8220;The doorway is 4 feet ahead and there is a step up.&#8221; At the time, I didn&#8217;t know about any of the technology that is used in the app.
Futurism: Did anything in particular motivate you to create it?
JPC: Recently, when I was learning a machine learning library called <a href="https://github.com/dmlc/mxnet">mxnet</a>, which could be run on Android, it clicked that I could turn this technology into a tool for the blind that could be deployed at a massive scale on almost all android smartphones. I knew that it was possible, and I rushed to make it.
I think a lot of motivation comes from my fear of becoming blind.
As I was making it, I would say to myself that, if I became blind tomorrow, I could use this.
Futurism: How do you see this tech being used from a practical standpoint? Essentially, explain it like I am 5, what will it allow people to do?
JPC: Currently, it only detects objects that take up the entire camera&#8217;s view. I would put my phone in my shirt pocket with an earphone in, look around on a table, and have it say what was there. It worked okay for that, given that it didn&#8217;t get a good look at the objects. I imagine that users can use it while in a kitchen while cooking to help them sort out what is on the table; or use it in an office looking for a keyboard. Or just to get an extra sense of what something they can feel looks like to the tool.
Futurism: Why did you turn to Kickstarter for funding as opposed to other avenues?
JPC: I thought Kickstarter would be the easiest method to fund further development.
Selling it to blind users is something I am not comfortable with. Without a monetization strategy, I don&#8217;t think an investor would give 
me any money.
I worked on applying for grants in the past to the government and private groups for a different project. We would put in so much effort 
only to be told no, even when when we did the quick proposals. To submit to the NSF (National Science Foundation), you need to get so many identification numbers from different groups&#8230;I feel it is a complete mess and took so much time.
I think you have to specialize in grant submitting to go that route or hire someone that is.
So I feel kickstarter takes the least amount of time on my part, so I can continue to work on all the other things I want to work on.
Futurism: Finally, Star Wars or Star Trek, and who is your favorite character?
I think it is Han Solo, even though he probably is a cylon.
<h5>What Does My Investment Get Me?</h5>
<ul>
<li>$1- You will be credited as a supporter in the app</li>
<li>$9- Your name will be listed in the app as someone who funded the project</li>
<li>$50 You will have access to an early version of the next release and your name will be listed in the app as someone who funded the project.</li>
<li>$500- You can set the default name of an object. &#8220;Instead of speaking &#8216;Coffee Mug&#8217; the app will say &#8216;Cup o Joe&#8217; or &#8216;Cup o Frank&#8217; or even &#8216;OMG COFFEE.'&#8221; These names can be changed by the user after so you won&#8217;t subtract from the day-to-day usage, but the default names will be yours.</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2114076460/blindtool-v2">The project goal is $5,000 by Saturday, February 6 at 11:00 AM EST.</a>

Sci-Fi Visions

BlindTool is an app that allows the visually impaired to experience their surroundings in a new way, and it is free for anyone to try. 

/Blind

Future Society

Two Hundred Venues in Toronto Are Currently Installing These Beacons

Advanced Transport

Autonomous Vehicles Could Change the Lives of People Who Are Most in Need

Robots & Machines

MIT’s “Portable Translator” Can Convert Text to Braille in Real-Time

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence May Be Better Than a Guide Dog

Robots & Machines

Self-Driving Cars Could Transform the Lives of the Visually Impaired

Future Society

Blitab Is the World’s First Tablet for the Blind

Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft’s Latest AI Was Created To Specifically Help The Blind

Artificial Intelligence

Facebook Will Use Artificial Intelligence to Help the Blind ‘See’ Visual Content

Sci-Fi Visions

BlindTool: This Free App Verbally Identifies Objects For the Blind

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