Matt Oppenheim has developed a radio that speaks to an Android smartphone. He designed the gadget to help the visually impaired learn the layout of a new device. Push a button on the radio, and it speaks its function.
Oppenheim took an Arduino Uno, touch-sensor shields, and a USB shield and connected them to a Nexus One Android phone. He added the audio-enhanced touch sensors to the radio. When a control is touched, the phone plays an audio tag describing the function.
Matt Oppenheim has devised a radio that speaks to an Android smartphone to help the visually impaired learn the layout of a new device.
Without having to be activated, an audio tag describes a function when a control is touched.
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I have indeed found that using eplorer will allow me to play some of those videos, but after the last explorer upgrade it does not work any more. I have not looked into just why because mostly Chrome is OK for what I do.
William K -- as for getting the video to work, I've often found that switching to a different browser can make all the difference. Seems like a lame solution, but it works on a lot of instances.
I stated in the video that the XKitz boards use the mTouch technology for their touch sensing. This isn't the case. Custom firmware written by XKitz is used instead.
Coupling sound tags to touch sensors is nothing new - what I aimed to do here was present an implementation using easily available off the shelf boards and an Android phone. Prior to this I have had to spin my own boards to produce multi-channel touch sensors.
Ross Tsukashima and Ha Le Cao wrote an article for the June 2006 edition of Circuit Cellar which coupled toys to touch sensors and a speech board to help teach children language.
My Arduino and Android code can be downloaded from here:
I would have seen that in the video, except that for whatever reason I could not get the video to play. Sorry about that.
Announcing the button before it is pressed is indeed a very good invention. That should be a benefit to a large segment of uor populace. You have a game changing winner in hand now.
Thanks for sharing your invention. As it was stated this can be used in so many other applications. I could see it being used in learning toys for children. Ardunio seems to be the duck tape of electronics. Lol. My class uses them for various types of labs, they are great.
This is exactly what the device does already. The touch sensors activate before the control is pushed, allowing the user to select the correct control before operating it. I make this clear at the start of the video.
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