blindness

Modern luxury vehicles are available with a wide range of driver assistance technology and use a variety of sensors to power that tech. Lane departure warning systems use front-facing cameras to watch the lines painted on the road. Blind-spot monitoring uses sonar arrays to check the area around the vehicle for obstructions. Rear proximity detection also uses sonar arrays to detect objects behind a reversing vehicle. The 2013 Nissan Altima will be able handle all three of these functions with only one rear-facing camera.

Nissan's system uses a rear-facing camera that constantly watches the area behind and to the … Read more

Skins let you totally change the look of apps like media players and image editors, but you can do the same and much more to Windows with Stardock's WindowBlinds. This program makes it easy to change the look of Windows without having to change everything manually in Appearance and Personalization. With preconfigured skins you can customize, WindowBlinds lets you create and customize Windows in ways the built-in tool could never match. WindowBlinds is free to try for 30 days, with a few options disabled.

WindowBlinds' user interface resembles a Windows feature, but with its own touches. It displays available … Read more

Color blindness, also known as color vision deficiency, is not an issue I've had to deal with. In fact, it's not something that crops up in women much. Statistics show about 1 in 10 men have some form of color blindness, so if you're not color blind yourself, you probably know someone who is.

That means there's a good chunk of the population that wouldn't mind a little assist in the color department. This is where sunglasses maker EnChroma hopes to make its mark. … Read more

A cure for blindness could be brewing at a Cornell University laboratory.

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York say they've successfully decoded the brain signals that allow mice to see. Using this information with a new type of prosthetic retina, they were able to restore vision in mice.

Next up, the researchers say they've cracked the code of a monkey retina, which is nearly identical to that of a human. If the prosthesis works on monkeys too, the researchers think they may eventually be able to help people who've lost their eyesight.… Read more

This blog is meant to examine the world of social media, but sometimes I will stray into the world of apps because so many of them are inherently social, even if they aren't technically of or about social media itself.

When I review and critique apps, I plan to ask, on occasion, for experts with specific knowledge to share their insights with all of us.

So when I heard about an iPhone app aimed at the blind, I turned to someone better suited to the task than anyone else I know. More on her in a minute.

Since the … Read more

For the blind and visually impaired, it can be nearly impossible to follow along when a math teacher spends most of a lecture in front of a blackboard or projector drawing shapes, parabolas, X-Y planes, and other visuals.

It's about time there's an app for that, thought mechanical engineering grad student Jenna Gorlewicz, who'd spent a few years at Vanderbilt's Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory miniaturizing endoscopic robotic capsules and was looking for a more people-oriented project.

So Gorlewicz, who says she loves both teaching and math, set out 18 months ago to try to develop a tablet app that uses haptic (or tactile) technology to help the visually impaired learn math and other subjects with a strong visual component.… Read more

Most of us have at least tried to text without looking at our phones before. I confess to having shot off a quick message while stopped at a red light, or immediately following crazy goals and tackles at soccer matches, or even from the confines of my pocket at parties.

Now a free, open-source app called BrailleTouch is about to make this form of multitasking that much easier--for the visually impaired and sighted alike.

Designed at Georgia Tech, the app incorporates the Braille writing system into a touch-screen device. It essentially turns an iPhone's touch screen into a soft-touch … Read more

Last time, we took a look at how cars protect their passengers in the event of a crash. This week, we're taking a look at a few high-tech ways that modern vehicles can help prevent accidents in the first place.

Modern tech cars can be equipped with a host of driver aid systems that help make driving easier for your average commuter. From road-aware cruise control systems to self-aware headlight systems, cars are getting smarter every day.

Adaptive cruise control If the standard cruise control system was the first step toward vehicular autonomy, then adaptive cruise control system is … Read more

Several new headphones exhibited at CES last week featured an ambient noise boost, by which the user is able to hear the surrounding world without removing the 'phones. Such a feature may not only prove convenient--it could also save lives, according to a new study tracking headphone-related pedestrian injuries and deaths.

Serious injuries to pedestrians who are listening to headphones more than tripled between 2004 and 2011, researchers from the University of Maryland report in the journal Injury Prevention.

The team analyzed case reports from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Google News … Read more