Ok, so now that my internal clock, based in New York, is back on track, and I think my sleep schedule is back in order, let's review all that went on at the CSUN Technology Conference in Los Angeles.
Humanware, GW Micro, Serotek, LevelStar, Freedom Scientific, among other assistive technology industry leaders made announcements about new products for all to see, touch, feel and experience at the CSUN Conference held at the Los Angeles Marriott and Renaissance hotels between March 10th and 15th, 2008.
Humanware:
From the announcement released on Wednesday, March 19, 2008:
HumanWare unveils a new talking GPS for people who are blind. The Trekker Breeze is designed for use when traveling in familiar surroundings and provides talking GPS directions that help users know where they are and where they are going whether on foot or in a vehicle. This new model is an addition to the popular Trekker and BrailleNote GPS systems, which have thousands of users worldwide. The Trekker Breeze is small, compact and certainly much more affordable at $895 and might be the solution for you.
From the announcement released on Wednesday, March 19, 2008:
HumanWare unveils a new talking GPS for people who are blind. The Trekker Breeze is designed for use when traveling in familiar surroundings and provides talking GPS directions that help users know where they are and where they are going whether on foot or in a vehicle. This new model is an addition to the popular Trekker and BrailleNote GPS systems, which have thousands of users worldwide. The Trekker Breeze is small, compact and certainly much more affordable at $895 and might be the solution for you.
Deaf-Blind Communicator:
HumanWare, in partnership with the Washington State Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (ODHH), has developed the Deaf Blind Communicator (DBC) which provides three types of communication for deaf blind users: face-to-face, TTY, and SMS Texting. The DBC consists of two separate components that deaf blind users can easily carry wherever they go. These two components communicate wirelessly with each other using Bluetooth technology. The community of the deaf-blind is relatively small, but imagine the opportunity for someone to utilize the BrailleNote MPower and a cell phone to communicate with a store clerk, waiter, etc.
It was reported that the Victor Stream Reader has sold nearly eight thousand units. This unit is vastly becoming the item of choice when wanting to read books from the pilot program of the National Library Service, Bookshare.org, RFB&D, Audible.com, Text and HTML files and much, much more. Additionally, with the recent release of firmware version 1.2, you now can use the Victor Stream with content from the System Access Mobile Network if you are a subscriber.
GW Micro:
If one announcement was not enough, try to digest multiple all in one week.
If one announcement was not enough, try to digest multiple all in one week.
GW Micro unveiled the Braille Sense Plus, a unit which will retain all the current features of the Braille Sense, and add in an 8 Gigabyte flash drive for use with the GW Micro Sense Navigation GPS solution and built-in Wireless and Bluetooth capabilities.
In addition to that GW Micro also announced the Sense View Duo, which once again retains all the features of the Sense View currently and adds the handwriting camera attachment as a built-in feature. It also has the ability to view objects a distance of seven feet and beyond with magnification.
GW Micro also provided seminars on using Window Eyes 7.0 to use scripting to customize applications which might not necessarily work automatically with Window Eyes.
So the GW Micro staff have been busy at work and I do certainly think they have been listening to customer queries and feedback since the CSUN show in 2007. All items mentioned here are set for release and shipping in May of 2008.
Serotek:
Serotek includes magnification as part of the System Access Screen reader.
Mike Calvo and crew stepped up to the plate and absolutely crushed the pitch right out of the park. Now with your System Access account you have the opportunity to magnify in addition to using System Access as a screen reader. You can magnify from one and a quarter times the normal size of a screen to 6X or 600% larger. This exciting development enables System Access to grow in the arena of providing solutions for both blind and low vision.
Serotek includes magnification as part of the System Access Screen reader.
Mike Calvo and crew stepped up to the plate and absolutely crushed the pitch right out of the park. Now with your System Access account you have the opportunity to magnify in addition to using System Access as a screen reader. You can magnify from one and a quarter times the normal size of a screen to 6X or 600% larger. This exciting development enables System Access to grow in the arena of providing solutions for both blind and low vision.
LevelStar:
Well, if the Icon is not now fully packed with all that you could ever want, let’s review its newest features! You can read the NLS books, play the protected content from System Access Mobile Network and much more. It is a pocket size PDA which enables you to read books from Bookshare.org, utilize e-mail for sending and receiving, surfing the internet, reading newspapers, playing media files, etc. The newest and attractive feature about the Icon is the docking station which will be out in May. It has a sleek design and the Icon fits right in to the side of it and boasts portability.
Well, if the Icon is not now fully packed with all that you could ever want, let’s review its newest features! You can read the NLS books, play the protected content from System Access Mobile Network and much more. It is a pocket size PDA which enables you to read books from Bookshare.org, utilize e-mail for sending and receiving, surfing the internet, reading newspapers, playing media files, etc. The newest and attractive feature about the Icon is the docking station which will be out in May. It has a sleek design and the Icon fits right in to the side of it and boasts portability.
Freedom Scientific:
The staff of Freedom Scientific introduced a software demo which will be good through August 2008. This will enable anyone to take the demo disk with both JAWS and Magic on it through the summer shows and see how both Magic and the screen reading capability of JAWS can work together in one package.
The staff of Freedom Scientific introduced a software demo which will be good through August 2008. This will enable anyone to take the demo disk with both JAWS and Magic on it through the summer shows and see how both Magic and the screen reading capability of JAWS can work together in one package.
These are just a few of the items that different manufacturers unveiled at CSUN. More bits of information will follow in our next posting.
Independent Living Aids Inc.
"Products for your Active Independent Lives"
The low vision aids industry leader for over 31 years Independent Living Aids provides the tools and technology to enhance, enrich and support active lifestyles. Visit the ILA website, www.independentliving.com for a comprehensive and constantly updated selection of products for the blind and visually impaired including, canes magnifiers talking watches talking clocks large print books Zoomtext magnification software Braille text talking cooking gadgets
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