Patents for the Blind Archives

This image depicts Sound Captcha written over it with a red color background. This image is relevant as A patent granted to Towson University was granted this patent to validate captcha for blind person using their voice. Click on this image for more information

Sound CAPTCHA – Patents for the Blind 3

This post was published on September 01, 2014. At one point, access to technology, especially the Internet, was only a dream for the visually disabled. For a long time, online tools were not accessible owing to either the lack of availability or high cost. But today, popular screen reading software applications like Job Access With Speech (JAWS) and open source screen reading software applications like NVDA are available for free. These applications allow a blind person to access a computer and…

August 15, 2019 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Patents 0Comment 946Views 0Like

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Sound Sign Posts – Patents for the Blind 2

This post was published on August 25, 2014. Last week we discussed the talking walking stick innovation. Today, I am here with another patent, brought to my attention by the reliable, Naveen. Banking on certain patents to navigate your way through the world, is not an uncommon feature in knowledge driven industries and I embark on a mission to learn a few tricks. This patent, filed in 2008, by Universidade Do Porto, Portugal, seems to be an outcome of Academic Research. The Guidance, navigation and…

August 5, 2019 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Patents 0Comment 874Views 0Like

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Talking Walking Stick – Blind Patents 1

This post was first published on 19th August, 2014. Every blind person aspires to live a life of independence, a life of freedom and free will, a life free from intrusion, physical and psychological. Some patented inventions have attempted to enhance this very independence, and I will, in my upcoming posts, endeavor to take an unbiased look at some of them. In 1991, Hsieh Chi-Sheng filed a patent for an electronic talking stick for the blind. Before we get into details, one must understand…

July 25, 2019 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Patents 0Comment 1301Views 0Like

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This image depicts a person wearing a black glass. This image is relevant as the post is about Wearable navigation assistance for the vision-impaired. Click on the image for more information

Sense your Surroundings – Patents for the Blind 5

This post was first published on 15th September, 2014. In my earlier posts (Post1, Post2, Post3, Post4), we discussed the mobility of a visually disabled person that is directly proportional to his awareness of the environment. The more he knows about his surroundings, the easier it gets for him to move around. An issue in achieving this, is the extent of the person's sensory involvement. Most blind people use auditory signals to understand the state of the environment and a navigation device is…

July 25, 2019 BananaIP Reporter Intellectual Property, Patents 0Comment 812Views 0Like

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Distant Touch – Patents for the Blind 4

This post was first published on 4th September, 2014. A cane, as I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, is a blind person's lifeline. It allows a person to make his way around by means of touch from a distance. The length of the cane may vary based on a person's height, and on an average, it allows a blind person to feel for objects up to about a distance of 1.2 metres. Traditional canes operate completely on the basis…