 |
Souped up Huawei Vision gives insight to the blind |
When members of the blind community petition the National Federation of the Blind about cell phones, they repeatedly ask for two things: a mobile phone that's easy to use, and audiobooks.
So says Odin Mobile, a new mobile network catering to the visually impaired. The Huawei Vision, Odin Mobile's star of the show at launch, promises to deliver both of those most-wanted attributes as soon as July -- and then some.
Less important than the coincidentally named and preexisting Huawei Vision debut device is the modified operating system that's loaded onto the Android phone. Called Project Ray, or Ray for short, the OS combines gestures with audio feedback in a way that helps sight-impaired customers navigate around.
For example, let's say you're in the dialer. Anywhere you place your finger on the touch display becomes the 5 button, the center of the dialpad. Based on that orientation, owners slide their finger on the display, lifting to select when the audio feedback reads out their desired number. This is a typical behavior for cell phone interfaces for visually impaired users, said Boaz Zilberman, Project Ray's founder
