Smartphone Audio Guide for Visual Impaired

Tactile paving for people with visual impairments in Japan has recently been enhanced with audio guidance, as the developers of the technology aim to improve the lives of people with partial sight and assist sighted tourists. The new braille blocks are marked with black stickers in special patterns. By scanning the coded blocks with a smartphone camera and app, users can listen to audio information about the location and its surroundings. The system was jointly developed by the laboratory of Kanazawa Institute of Technology and Tokyo-based W&M systems LLC.

Those behind the technology hope it can also be made available to tourists and foreigners as they walk the streets of Japan, whether they are sighted or not. The special braille blocks were first introduced in Kanazawa, central Japan, in 2019 and have since been installed in other areas, appearing at train stations, pedestrian streets and public offices in 10 prefectures, including Tokyo and Osaka, as of April. The developers plan to make the system available in multiple languages and are considering enabling it to answer questions by incorporating generative artificial intelligence capabilities.

More information:

https://japantoday.com/category/national/speaking-tactile-sidewalks-enrich-lives-of-visually-impaired

Apple Will Support BCIs

Apple is embracing the world of brain computer interfaces, by taking early steps to enable people to control their iPhones with neural signals captured by a new generation of brain implants. It could make Apple devices more accessible to tens of thousands of people who can’t use their hands because of severe spinal cord injuries or diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.

Apple has worked on a new standard with Synchron, which makes a stent-like device that is implanted in a vein atop the brain’s motor cortex. The device called the Stentrode has electrodes that read brain signals. It translates the signals into selecting icons on a screen. The Synchron device effectively translates brain waves, allowing a user to navigate around a screen and select an icon.

More information:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/apple-wants-people-to-control-devices-with-their-thoughts/ar-AA1EGt32

Pixel Smartwatch Predicts Heart Attacks

Pixel Watch 3 in the United States that has the potential to correctly identify two-thirds of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in people wearing the smartwatch. The feature uses AI to detect when the wearer no longer has a pulse, and it’s meant to combat the quiet killer of cardiac events that occur at home when people are alone and unable to call for help.

A team of Google researchers and scientists at the University of Washington recently published a study testing the software, with the aim of balancing the need for a low number of false positives (when 911 might be called but not needed) with the desire to identify a loss of pulse in as many cases as possible.

More information:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/heart-attack-smartwatch

Superman-Inspired Imager Chip

Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and Seoul National University have developed an imager chip inspired by Superman’s X-ray vision that could be used in mobile devices to make it possible to detect objects inside packages or behind walls.

Chip-enabled cellphones might be used to find studs, wooden beams or wiring behind walls, cracks in pipes, or outlines of contents in envelopes and packages. The technology also could have medical applications.

More information:

https://news.utdallas.edu/science-technology/superman-inspired-imager-chip-2024/