News - Microsoft pilots a smart 'Alice Band' used by the blind

[HEXUS]

The sensory device gives information to the wearer through an earpiece.

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[TheAnimus]

Alice Band.... Not Laforge band? Disappointed!

[LSG501]

Alice Band.... Not Laforge band? Disappointed!

first thing I thought of too lol

[eiamhere69]

Tesco, Barclays, Costa Coffee, First Great Western and First Group.

It won't guide you where you want to be, it'll guide you to the highest payer. Cue hundreds of blind people wandering Tesco looking for their GP. Basically an extension to Google, Bing, like everything else.

[shaithis]

Guide dogs will be having words with their union reps!

[Saracen]

Hmmm.

I think I'm about as cynical and sceptical as anyone, and more so than most. But I'd like to know a lot more about this before knocking it.

Most notably, I'm not blind, so I'd like to know what those that are think of it. I find it hard to really understand what being blind must be like, other than knowing that it'd mean losing access to so many things I take for granted, from the freedom to jump in a car and drive to wherever I want to be, be it the local supermarket or a friend hundreds of miles away, to being able to scan products on a supermarket shelf and decide which brand of olive oil, or balsamic vinegar, looks like the best buy.

So, ANYTHING that genuinely helps the blind with a little more independence, a little more ability to do what I just take for granted, is a good thing in my book, if they find it to be.

So yeah, I'm as cynical as anyone, but I just feel I'm not equipped to really judge or have an opinion on this, at least, not in it's implementation aimed at the blind. And however cynical I am, IF it helps the blind, I hope it's a success.

[Spiralking]

When I saw this, I thought they'd invented something else... then it occurred to me how the blind could see in 3 dimensions (bear with me)

Strap a wide 2 inch band across forehead and have a system where pressure is applied according to proximity of objects via sensors - as objects get closer there would be more pressure and possibly even allow the blind person to reach (they'd see their own hand in that pressure field) and grab the object....

If you think it's crazy, run your hand across your forehead and see how sensitive the nerves are - would be easy to have a great deal of scale of the pressure field.

Can't believe how simple that solution is and a great place for the tech to be placed - the brain would retrain in a few hours...