Assistive Technology moving into the mainstream
By Joel Zimba, Special Projects Coordinator, MDTAP
We’ve featured several posts here on the Assistive Technology Blog about how Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) products can also be used as assistive technology. The converse is also becoming increasingly common. Many technologies have matured in the realm of assistive technology and moved into the world of consumer products.
This January, at CES, the Consumer Electronic Show, you will find many such examples:
- Eye Gaze technology may soon be common place on all computers. An initial version of this technology is an inexpensive USB add-on which brings a modified version of the Tobii Gaze system to the masses.
- Automobile manufacturers are also getting in on the action. Speech recognition technology is one of the biggest features being previewed for the 2014 auto season. Much of this technology is designed to function via your SmartPhone, like Apple’s Siri Eyes free. Ford, however, is releasing a development platform which will let third-party developers write additional speech-enabled apps for your vehicle.
Vehicles and computers are not the only products incorporating speech-recognition. In the next few years, expect to find your TV, your remote, your gaming systems and your home’s thermostat to obey your every command.
Several months ago, the MD Assistive Technology Blog featured a blog post on Fleksy from Syntella. Fleksy is a smarter typing system for your ios device. In fact, the makers of Fleksy say it is so smart, you don’t even have to look at the keyboard to type. They know this, because most of their current users are blind. Fleksy will soon be releasing an android app as well as apps aimed at the sighted user as well. Their goal is to make typing on a touch screen as easy as typing on a hardware keyboard. As a frequent Fleksy user, I can vouch for their proof of concept and I look forward to further advances in their technology.
Currently, Fleksy cannot replace the system provided keyboard in iOS. If I were a betting man, I would expect this to change in coming months. Of course, this limitation does not exist on Android, though Fleksy will find stiff competition from the popular Swipe keyboard technology.
Assistive technology helps everyone is a common mantra in the AT industry. We’re now seeing the proof of that in a very solid way. And as 2013 begins, I suspect we’ll see even more technology moving into the mainstream.
