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War is futile: just drink beer
Someone told me long ago that he had seen an experimental site that relied only in a navigation dependant on sound effects / music made especially for blind people.
Does someone have any more information about it?
Regards,
David
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hi phooka,
i think this is the one you might be looking for >
http://www.thunderhouse.com.br/cannes/laramara/
its a pretty interesting concept, I wonder where it will end up?
ij
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War is futile: just drink beer
This is exactly what I was looking for! I wonder what can be done now with F5 AS? I mean, the whole thing seems to be reacting to buttons... but with the new routines we could detect the "way" the cursor moves!?
Thx ever so much ijohn! WHen I finish my actual portfolio, I am planning on experimenting in this area!
Regards,
David
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No Problems Mate, glad to be of help.
I think this one was actually an FK featured site for a while, many moons ago. I've had it in my favourites ever since.
A lot of what i do is involved in trying to enhance and optimise the user experience, if only i had more time and less to do at work I would love to play with this stuff some more. It strikes me as a seed which could grow into a phenomenal idea.
My previous forays into catering for the visually impaired involved integrating the 'betsie' browser (pioneered jointly by the BBC and RNIB here in the UK a couple of years ago) into a government site for last years isi/interforum ecommerce awards (unfortunately the site's gone now as they're in the ramp up to this years).
I have to say i didn't find it the most effective tool - it basically tried to interpret the html within a page and represent it in a more clear fashion (ie bigger text, easier to recognise links). Unfortunately it dodn't handle tables too well and more often than not got things horribly wrong.
We had a bit of a mini thinktank (corporate byword <cringe> ) after seeing the laramara site, came up with all kinds of ideas like textured mouse mats for compatable sites, ways of creating an audible navigation that you couldn't get lost in etc... but, as always, something more important (read: profitable) came up and our attentions were diverted elsewhere
Anyway, let me know how you get on & please feel free to bounce any ideas you may have.
Best Regards,
John
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War is futile: just drink beer
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only half-nerd
COOL PROYECT
well, i had heard about this kinda site before, and it interested me a lot cause i wana make my design thesis proyect about it. i saw once on discovery channel something similar exept it wanst the web. it was like gogles that had cameras on them and took and image and turned into vertical, diagonal and horizontal lines, and each of these made a different sound, and blind people actually could "see" trough the sound every picture made...i dunno where this study was taking place...i sure wish i could get more info on that, anyway that site is a really good aproach, probably the way to go.
got a lo of work to do if i really wana do a thesis work like that
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You don´t need an optician...
Phooka, you need an ergonomics specialist, or maybe an industrial designer (sorry, i´m not very good in ergonomics). This kind of studies are made since the second world war.
I´m interested in experimental sites too (not only for blinds), we can start a thread with them (i have my collection).
Hasta la vista amigo!
Alberto
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War is futile: just drink beer
Hi there!
Alberto, I haven't started any kind of experimental sites of this sort, but I am going to do it now. I want to create a site where sound plays a great role, not only voice but sound effects... The thread is a good idea. I will need feedback for the project.
But I suppose I'll post in Site Check where I am prone to get feedback from experienced site checkers!
BTW, what is an ergonomics especialist? I thought ergonomy refered to the way sofas where made?
Regards,
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ergonomics...
... is the way to write the numbers on a watch too, to read them easier. Braun (the household goods) has made a lot in this way. And ergonomics helps to make things for old people, for blinds, etc (even sofas...).
I wanted to say, my site is experimental, but that´s not interesting, i think it would be interesting to start a thread with other experimental sites like this, or in other way too. I collect this addresses.
Alberto
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this is a great topic
imho -- flash will *hopefully* be able to bridge the gap in the internet for those visually impared simply because sound can be huge in a flash site...
i have always wondered how the internet can cater to those that can't see... after viewing this site, i know that it can be done!
phooka --- your site and concept of making it more user-friendly to those 'impared' folks is wonderful... i wish you the best of luck with it
right now... i would assume that most people in the visually-impared community don't use the internet that often... my biggest question is how will they even GET to the site???
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War is futile: just drink beer
After reading the response in this thread I've left the work on my site for a week (after all, I've been working on it for 3 weeks non-stop ) and decided to make a few experiments with sound navigation... I'll keep you informed!
david
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yeah phooka, defenitely. I read this thread with great interest and thought of somehting myself, I will try doing something maybe and then ahve it layed down in here, hop it works.
But sure it's aneat project to do, I totally liked it.
you could do the whole news and everything like that, just have someone red the news and then a navigation like the one we saw on that site.
etc..etc..etc...
this is great , keep it up!
yo
ICEBERG
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does anybody know / remember the url of one of thise sites that has the menu that follows your cursor round the page as a small box, then when you click it opens up to be a navigation list?
was thinking that something like this could be very useful in overcoming some of the problems of cursor position on the page.
ie when clicked, it initially brings up four selections around where the click takes place. These could be home, sound control, navigation and favourites, for instance.
from this point the user selects which menu to browse, which then folds out vertically into a standard hierarchical menu, as can be seen on msnbc.com for indexing news stories (you might have to dnload a small app to get it to work).
if there's a way to get flash to extract the links in a users favorites folder and build them into the nav this also overcomes some of the problems with traversing sites.
was also thinking that if the position of the cursor is no longer needed for site navigation, then cursor movement can be more freely utilised for other forms of interaction in the site.
you'd also probably need to commit the cardinal sin of full screening to prevent cursors jumping outside the browser, so i guess we'd better include an exit option on the menu
that was a bit more of a brain dump than planned, but thoughts/comments appreciated.
ij
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War is futile: just drink beer
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War is futile: just drink beer
BTW, I think that we could control the Up/Down situation of the cursor by making a higher pitch when the _ymouse position goes Up the screen and lower when going down... What do you ppl think?
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Modding with Class
I just had an idea for navigation...
What if instead of having a "point-n-click" navigation to move a user through a website, you used a "key-press" scenario? i.e. pressing 1 would take you to the homepage, 2 would take you to products, 3 would take you to compny profile, etc.
When a key is pressed, a voice-over would say something like, "You chose 'products'. To confirm this choice, please press 'enter'."
This would be very similar to a telephone prompting service that many largescale businesses use. Perhaps this is the solution!
A site could be made with dual-interactivity. Upon entering, an audible message would say, "Press the numeral 1 on your keyboard to navigate this site in voice-assisted mode."
What do you think? Perhaps a few of us could take one of our existing sites, and do a true test by simply adding this type of navigation to it. This would let us know how easy it would be, not just to 'create' new visually impaired sites, but to 'enable' existing sites. I'll give it a try!
Regards,
Jabez
[Edited by JabezStone on 01-29-2001 at 10:25 AM]
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hey phooks,
i like the idea on your site, unfortunately i'm not actually a flash master (although you would be forgiven for thinking so )(<---- JOKE!!) so can't help ya with the code.
my role here is more of a consultant / planner / information architect. i really find stuff like this intersting though, so if there's anything i can help with on this one pls let me know either on the board or by mail.
keep going with the work though,
best regards,
john
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Modding with Class
Originally posted by JabezStone
I just had an idea for navigation...
What if instead of having a "point-n-click" navigation to move a user through a website, you used a "key-press" scenario? i.e. pressing 1 would take you to the homepage, 2 would take you to products, 3 would take you to compny profile, etc.
When a key is pressed, a voice-over would say something like, "You chose 'products'. To confirm this choice, please press 'enter'."
This would be very similar to a telephone prompting service that many largescale businesses use. Perhaps this is the solution!
A site could be made with dual-interactivity. Upon entering, an audible message would say, "Press the numeral 1 on your keyboard to navigate this site in voice-assisted mode."
What do you think? Perhaps a few of us could take one of our existing sites, and do a true test by simply adding this type of navigation to it. This would let us know how easy it would be, not just to 'create' new visually impaired sites, but to 'enable' existing sites. I'll give it a try!
Regards,
Jabez
I just wanted to add a little to my previous thoughts. The "keypress/vocal" navigation I suggested could easily be fitted to a normal HTML website as well, simply by including a small, 20X20 .swf file somewhere on each page of the site that uses GetURL to navigate through pages. The only thing I can think that would cause this not to work is that many times, you must actually click in an .swf to 'activate' it before it can recognize user input.
I think that this idea would really aid in utilizing existing sites and future creation of dual purpose sites...
Just a thought.
Jabez
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War is futile: just drink beer
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Modding with Class
Phooka,
Your site is looking great! Very nice graphics and voice-overs. Can't wait to see the finished product!
I am looking through my portfolio now to decide which site to voice/key enable. I'll let you know when it's posted.
Jabez
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