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AudioGames.net Forum → Off-topic room → New Fitbit Device for the Blind
As reported by [arstechnica] today: The Sunu Band smartwatch is designed for people with visual impairments and utilizes ultrasonic sonar pulses to detect nearby objects, and then vibrating to varying degrees to inform the wearer of those objects proximity. The device will start selling later this month for 249$ to 299$, plus 50$ shipping to the UK.
Hi, speaking of fitbit devices, it makes me think about a fitbit whatch, which leads to my question.
are there any accessible smart whatches for the blind that can make use of talkback?
if there are, can any of you please give me a list of them?
best regards and thanks!
Hi.
Well, sounds good and all, but I would have found it a better idea to make the fidbit fitness bands accessible to blind people, because apparently they are quite good, but I think that the apps to configure the bands is not accessible.
Ok, now for the watch, the price sounds reasonable, well, still expensive, but better than the 3000 dollars expensive Orcam, but that's another topic. The thing I am wondering about is, how effective will the device be? What I don't know is how the proximity sensors are layed out, because some people walk with there arms just dangling somewhere, some hold them up to their chest, so everyone, or let's say, many people have different ways how they hold there arms while walking. And that's what I think is a big problem because when I have to hold my arm in a straight line, this would make me more than feel uncomfortable and not buying the device.
Does someone have more information about the product?
Greetings Moritz.
The article goes into details as to the Bands functionality, its customizable using an iPhone app via bluetooth, with the ability to adjust walking speed and buzz strength, and has an effective object detection range of 15 feet. The device itself appears physically similar to the fitbit but has a traditional rubber wrist watch band, has two small buttons on the side, and has a circular speaker roughly 1 centimeter in size jutting out away from the wrist on one side. The top of the device also acts as a touch pad interface.
There's a collection of video tutorials on [their site] as well [here] that goes more into how its configured and used. It can be used to tell the time, and also has physical tags you can attach to items to keep track of them with the device, but the guides don't state any ability to count steps at this time. Also, the device does not appear to have any voice playback of any kind and seems to rely on vibration and buzzing to navigate its menus. It appears the speaker should be facing inwards towards the users thumb, and scanning with the device involves holding your arm at your side and turning your wrist, you can watch the relevant video guides [here].
I can't really say how effective or user friendly the device is, but one of the company founders Fernando Albertorio is legally blind and provided a demonstration of the device:
In a demonstration for MIT Technology Review, Albertorio smoothly navigated the bustling streets of Mountain View California at lunchtime. The device bounces high-frequency ultrasound waves on nearby obstacles, which allowed him to steer around branches and planters and detect doorways by sensing gaps between buzzes. He stopped at an intersection and pushed the crosswalk button by detecting the pole. He said he had even used the device to hike and run a 5K race.
Another user from the company testimonials Howard Sumner who recently lost his vision and can only see light and shadow made the statement that it has the potential to be a Fitbit for the blind, and went on to say that while it may not replace his walking cane it could be a good companion to the cane.
@ashleygrobler04
Digging around abit it appears android watches support talkback functionality as of Android Wear 2.0, there's an article [here] on how to enable it. there's a list of Android Wear brands [here] which features the LG Style, LG Sport, Moto 360 Sport, Fossil Q Founder, Tag Heuer connected, Moto 360 for Women, Asus Zenwatch 3, and Moto 360.
I have something similar to this called the miniguide by gdp research. It's a light palm-sized device that vibrates when obstacles are present. The speed of vibration increases the closer you get to an obstacle. It can also be set to different distances, and has a setting specifically for finding gaps like doorways. It's not perfect and it couldn't replace a cane, but I find it invaluable for helping keep me in the centre of the pavement, and for finding gaps between parked cars etc. It's as if you can trail an invisible hand along garden walls, fences, bushes and stuff, and by doing so, know you're not straying out to the road, nor too close to the inner pavement to be hitting lamps or whatever. It just stops you from having to bash lots of stuff with the cane. The downside to these devices is they don't tell you anything about the sort of obstacle you're avoiding. For instance, there could be a bin or something that nudges you out to the kerbside of the pavement, then a parked car that's high on the pavement pushes you farther out into the road if there's a flat kerb to someone's driveway. The next thing you know, you're walking down the road mistaking a line of parked cars for garden fences. This could never happen with a cane because you wouldn't mistake bins and cars for fences when hitting them with a cane.
I would never spend that much money on a device like that when I can simply clear an area of obsticles and do in place exercises.
It may not be as much fun as walking outdoors, but it is a lot safer and I get to keep my $300.
If I do decide to spend money on exercise equipment, it would be on stuff like exercise bikes or treadmills or rowing machines, not a vibrating watch.
Hi.
How accesible is a samsung smartwatch?
I'm not sure if the Sunu is meant solely as an excersise device, but more as a navigation assistant. Its true there are other devices similar to it on the market as flackers mentioned, such as the [iMerciv] which is priced in the same range and about the size of a pager stuck to your chest. Though unlike those the Sunu is much smaller and fits as a wrist watch which may be more convient to carry around. Of course, whether people find it worth it is a different question.
It appears that the Samsung Gear S series does have a screen reader function mentioned in their documentation [here], though turning it on may require sighted assistance. You can rotate the outer watch dial to move through options and tap the center of the screen to confirm them for navigation. The Apple Watch also seems to come with VoiceOver support as well, along with haptic feedback covered [here].
Thanks.
I heared yesterday on the gear s is a screen reader and you do not need to use the circle to acces the obtions.
You can use it like a samsung phone with swipes and double taps.
It's a bit strange the way they're pitching this device. Calling it a smart watch and such. As far as I can tell it's a mobility aid, but nowhere does it say that. When I first heard it described as a smart watch, I thought it connected to the net and stuff as well as having a sonar sensor function. I can only assume they're avoiding the term mobility aid to distinguish it from other similar devices. I'd like to try it out to see if it's better than the miniguide, but I'm not convinced it would be. It'd be more convenient to have it as a wrist band rather than on a lanyard like the miniguide, but I'm not sure how much having it on the wrist would limit where you can point it. The useful thing about the miniguide is you can point it at a 90 degree angle to the direction you're walking, which is great for going around corners and stuff. As you walk around the corner, you can keep adjusting the angle until you find the straight again. Having it on the left wrist, how easy would it be to direct the beam horizontally 90 degrees to the right across your body, and then continue to adjust it to sort of feel your way around a corner/obstacle. Imagine having a torch on the wrist and trying to direct the beam as effectively as if you had a torch in the hand. Also what happens when you're wearing long sleeves, do you have the wrist band over your clothing. That's not going to be very convenient when wearing a coat. I'd love to do a comparison of the two devices, but given the postage costs to the UK, I'd probably end up losing quite a bit of money if I had to return it. And being outside the EU, they could well decide to charge a 20% restocking fee, or even just offer me store credit, both of these has happened to me in the past.
hi Flackers,
Are the mini guide devices expensive? also where can I get one.
They are pretty expensive at an ex vat price of £300. You probably already know this but there are lots of organisations including the RNIB who offer grants to help buy devices such as these. Once upon a time your local authority might have funded it, but those days are long gone.
If you're in the UK it's pamtrad.co.uk. Here's the link to the product page:
http://pamtrad.co.uk/product/miniguide/
And here's the link to the manufacturer's product page which is based in Australia. I've had an email chat with the guy and he genuinely seems to be interested in making life better for blind people.
http://www.gdp-research.com.au/minig_1.htm
It is a bit of a strange marketing angle, in the video tutorials they even refer to the programs on it as apps. It gives a strong impression that they'll be adding in other programs and functions to it, although there's little mention of how or in what way they would do that other then the mention of configuring through bluetooth in the arstechnica article.
On the topic of scanning mobility, if you put your arm at your side and place your palm flat against the side of your leg, the circular scanning speaker on the device would be sticking straight out away from where your facing at a 90 degree angle. If on your left wrist, to direct the detector 90 degrees to the right you would rotate your wrist clockwise 90 degrees so your palm is facing behind you, and move it up a bit so it isn't obstructed by your body. To scan 90 degrees to the left you would rotate your hand 90 degree's counter clockwise so your palm is facing out in front of you. Long sleeves or coats may indeed be an issue though, as the speaker device appears to have to be unobstructed to scan properely.
Hi.
Hmm, interesting device, but I find it way too expensive and with limited functions. So where should I have my Apple watch when wearing the other thing which they call a smartwatch, which only seems to be a navigation tool? Maybe if it gets more developed I might be interested, but after having some experience with the previously mentioned Miniguide, I wouldn't replace this new device with my Apple watch.
Excellent idea, overpriced product. This is something one could put together with an Arduino Miniboard, an ultrasonic censor or two, and a vibration motor from an old cellphone or an old pc speaker if you prefer beeps, for a fraction of the price of this watch.
That's the trouble with technology for the blind, it's all so over-priced. I have a pearl camera to go with the FreedomScientific's OpenBook software. It's seems to me to be just a glorified webcam and it costs a small fortune.
The price of OpenBook and pearl together is outrageous, especially given OB isn't very good at all for reading books, which is ironic given that's the whole point of it. I only really use it as a convenient scanner. On the rare occasion I have to read a physical book, I scan it in OB, export it, and read it in QRead because it's a much nicer experience.
Luckily I was given a copy of OB, and the RNIB gave me a grant that covered two thirds of the cost of the pearl camera, so the whole set up cost me just over 200 quid.
Thank god these organisations exist to help us in Britain now local authorities have next to no money to fund what I believe are fundamental tools blind people need to live an independent life.
On the subject of the mobility watch, I experimented with holding my miniguide in a way that mimicked having it strapped to the wrist, i.e., holding it in a clenched fist so it points the same way as having it on the wrist, just a few inches lower down the arm. I actually found it works well holding it that way, and now hold it like that all the time.
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