Greetings:
Many of you will remember the ongoing debate last year about
navigation aids for the blind and the back and forth discussions
I was having with one Patrick Kallewaard of Ireland.
Well, it occurred to me to inquire of Mr. Kallewaard concerning
the progress of his work. Here is the response I received.
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Date: Thu, 26 Jan 1995 16:38:46 +0000 (GMT)
From: Patrick Kallewaard <93701420@vax1.dcu.ie>
Subject: Re: Your Research
To: curtisc@winternet.com
Message-id: <01HMB16YXDH28WWPRV@vax1.dcu.ie>
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From: Patrick Kallewaard
Dear Mr.Chong,
It's been a while since I heard from you, thanks for your
continued intrest in our work. Since I last heard from you,
several new projects have started up in the college some of which
may intrest you. One in particular should yield some intresting
results. Work has started on a device which will be capable of
identifying objects by means of a camera and should be able to
read any text on them. It should be possible to use this device
to differentiate between similar cans, bottles, packets and so
on. Another project has begun which converts colours as seen by
a camera to audible tones. As for my own work, the end is quite a
long way off. As you know, I started off by trying to establish
end-user requirements for a navigation aid. I must admit I was
overwhelmed by the amount and variety of the responses. I
received several hundred replies from people on the net and also
from various organisations. It became clear to us that the
concepts we originally envisaged would only appeal to a very
limited number of people, in sharp contrast to our intentions.
Currently, we are concentrating on developing a software package
that will have many applications to the navigation aid problem,
including the idea you mentioned in your last mail. The package
will be able to interface with spatial information databases and
load in architectural drawings of buildings or larger complexes.
The program can calculate routes from any point within a complex
to another point, according to user-defined criteria. The output
detail of the system is user specified and can vary from step by
step guiding to much more general information such as the
distance and direction of the final destination. It is hoped to
eventually use this program to develop a full navigation device
incorporating a portable user interface. Again the program will
be capable of dealing with many different types of positioning
systems and human-user interfaces. The fully functional
navigation device will esentially be a portable interface to the
program coupled to a positioning system such as GPS or a radio
direction finding system. The device could thus be used to
establish and/or verify orientation and position and could be
interogated to yield such information as the names of nearby
buildings or the locations of the nearest pedestrian crossings
and so on. It would of course also act as the navigation aid we
originally intended to design, but incorporating user specified
output level and type and allowing users to specify preferences
such as stairs or elevators, or routes with minimum amounts of
turns in them as opposed to simply the shortest routes. Your idea
about letting a person explore a destination before actually
going there could easily be implemented using the software we are
developing. A speech output enabling people to identify or locate
various items could be incorporated quite easily. Thanks again
for writing. If you have any comments on our work to date or
proposed work, be they good or bad, I would sincerely like to
hear them.
Patrick Kallewaard.
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Regards,
Curtis Chong
curtisc@winternet.com
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