[Matt Oppenheim] wrote in to share his work with us. He has been modifying the interfaces of electronics for the visually impaired. It started off with cassette decks. As [Matt] points out, many people who are visually impaired use cassettes for their audio books and newspapers. [Matt] added some touch sensors to the buttons so that he could have something announce what each button was as the user felt them. This allowed them to quickly learn the layout of the device.
After finding that the simple interface on the cassette player was learned very quickly, thereby making his addition no longer needed, he decided to go after something a little more complex. [Matt] set out to modify a digital radio with many more buttons that are less touch friendly. As you can see in the video after the break, he was able to pull this off quite nicely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyznfwFCHGQ&feature=player_embedded
The link above shows how he did it with his android phone in conjunction with an IOIO board. If you wanted to replicate this with an arduino, he has also published an entire build for you to follow.
Filed under: handhelds hacks, home hacks
