Lesson 2 Humans and Technology
Teen-Designed Tech for Improving Access
At least one billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability.
In order to fully function in everyday life, they need to have the same physical and social access to the places, goods, and services in their communities as everyone else.
For many of them, however, access still remains an issue.
Here are two teenagers who presented new inventions to tackle the issue at an international science competition.
3D Braille Map
While thinking about her homework, Seoyoung Jun closed one eye and successfully picked up her pencil holder.
At that moment, she realized that orienting herself in a 3D space didn’t require both eyes.
This surprised her.
With research, she learned that the brain can process 3D information without any vision at all.
And with that, the idea for a new device for people with visual disabilities was born.
Those who have lost sight get their spatial information mainly from touch, not vision.
She based her new navigation device on this fact.
This little device sends a beam of infrared light to gather 3D information about what may lie around the user, including walls and furniture.
The bounced beam conveys that information to the device, which then raises little pins to indicate where those obstacles are.
By “reading” the positions and heights of those pins, the user can understand the arrangement of structures and objects lying ahead and navigate around them.
The heart of this device is a 3D depth sensor connected to a small computer.
Seoyoung coded the computer to control the nine motors lined up in three rows of three so that each motor could move a pin up and down.
The sensor can scan eighteen blocks of space before it, each 0.06 m3 in size.
When it detects an obstacle in any of these blocks, the corresponding pin rises to either the middle or high position, depending on the height of the obstacle.
By running your hand over the nine pins, you can tell where the obstacles are and how high they are.
When Seoyoung’s device worked for the first time, she didn’t believe it.
To be sure it wasn’t a mistake, she shut it off and rebooted it.
When it worked again, she started screaming with joy.
It had been seven long months of research, building, and testing.
She imagines a future version that could be connected to a smartphone, with more pins and more height positions.
Sign Language-to-Speech App
As a coder, Nand Vinchhi wanted to invent something that didn’t require a mechanical device.
One day, he was brainstorming with friends, and the group came up with an idea for an app that could translate sign language.
In the end, they decided not to develop it, but Nand couldn’t stop thinking about the translator.
In just a few months, he developed an app based on artificial intelligence for translating American Sign Language (ASL) in real time.
Nand’s app was basically a speech-to-text app for sign language, where hand movements corresponded to speech.
The hardest part was figuring out how to make the app recognize hand gestures.
At times, he felt he was stuck.
When that happened, he would go to sleep.
For Nand, sleeping on it paid off.
He decided to focus on the body parts which are important in signing, such as individual fingertips.
Using a machine-learning program, he then taught the app to identify those key points in the videos he took.
When the user runs the app, gestures are captured by the camera.
Then, the app uses an algorithm to match the movements with words in ASL, which are turned into text and then spoken aloud.
According to Nand, his system now translates signs with 90.4% accuracy, and the delay from signing to translation is only about three-tenths of a second.
He imagines the technology could someday become part of existing communication platforms.
That could help ASL speakers communicate with those who don’t know the language.
What these inventions have in common is a creative use of technology to enhance the daily lives of people with disabilities.
Their efforts will go a long way toward a more accessible world for all.
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