Inspiration
They estimate that 1 million Americans were legally blind (20/200 vision or worse) in 2015. The estimated number of people visually impaired in the world is 285 million, 39 million blind and 246 million having low vision; 65 % of people visually impaired and 82% of all blind are 50 years and older. It's easy for us to use our thumbs to text, but it's hard for the blind. There is no good input method for braille, and it's not always convenient to use speech input. Therefore, we decided to design a IME for the blind to text with only one thumb.
What it does
An input method in Android for the blind with one thumb.
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
- Design an algorithm to analyze path and recognize what character is.
- Since the blind cannot know whether their input is right, we need to implement a voice feedback system.
- Once we enter the input method editor, we want a notification to tell us that the IME is ready for input. So we want to add a vibration notification.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We don't need to reach the specific area of the screen, we use the trend of the gesture. We can only use one thumb to complete all the input. We considered left-handed users by offering identical settings.
What we learned
Pattern analysis. Android application development. Use the technology to help others, especially people with special needs.
What's next for Thumb Braille IME
1.Extended Braille:Since there are many different braille, we can extend our system to compact more kinds of languages. 2.All Platfom: We want to develop this input method editer to all platform including IOS, Windows. 3.Associative word: We'd like to realize associative word to make the input more efficient.
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