*preroll music*
Herald: Good afternoon everyone. As you all know this is going to be an
interesting talk for sure. It is titled Sense Without Sight. Our next speaker is
Sai and without too much ado please give him a big round of applause.
He's going to be here shortly.
*Applause*
Sai: So you might be thinking that I am Daredevil. I'm not sadly. Well, probably
better for my health. And I do not have any magic powers, unfortunately. I just
have extra disabilities that make it harder for me. Nevertheless -
one two back - yay live demos! dum di dum where did that move?
Angel: Are you going to fall off stage? Sai: No I'm not going to fall off stage.
Angel: Because you're right at, you're going to be falling soon.
Sai: No I can walk around without my cane. It's a little hard to precisely target it,
but as you can see I don't fall off stage.
So just to make this clearer, I am not
faking this. And the way you can tell is I have a blindfold on. This blindfold is for
real. This is a sleep mask. I can't see anything right now. So you don't need to
ask how good my sight is or why, because I can't see.
The issue that I have is light blindness.
Basically I can see if it's really dark and I can't see if it's really
bright, and lights that are as bright as the lights here actually hurt my eyes,
kind of, right now through the blindfold. So I definitely would not be able to do
this with my eyes open and my glasses off. I do a lot of different things. Blindness
is not one of them. On my shirt, and my slides, and my website, there's all sorts
of stuff that we can talk about. Let's please talk about that stuff, not the fact
that I'm blind. Except during this talk or during my workshops when you're - it's
okay to ask questions about that or talk about that. Exception is if you want to
work with me on stuff or if you have feedback I welcome that. But let's talk
about something else like how to analyze a few terabytes of court data. Anyway!
I have assistants for this talk. One of them is what I'm going to be calling the
"helpful asshole" aka my herald. Herald: You're welcome.
Sai: Come up. I also have Bit. Bit, where are you?
Bit: Here! Sai: Good! And I have someone running
slides for me because obviously I can't see my own slides. Fortunately for you
that means I'm not giving the talk like this to do to do what I've just talked
about. Yeah it is okay to make sound. If anything it's helpful because it I can
hear where you are. So you might wonder how I walked onto stage without my cane.
I'm going to go over that in a second but first, the cane is really, really useful.
So it gives me a number of things. For instance, right here, you might not notice
it, but there is a difference in the floor. There is this carpeted section here
and there's this wood section here... *different knocking sounds*
Right? Now if I just brush this with my feet I can feel it. And that's how I
walked on stage. But if I do it with my cane - hear that whack?
*slinging and whacking sounds* You can say yes in response to questions.
You hear that wack? Audience: Yes!
Sai: So even if I'm lightly walking I just keep that out at a known degree and I can
easily walk alongside of it. I can also feel the texture. So one thing you may not
notice but may as well try now is that the texture of the carpet under your feet -
under your feet, the people who are live in this audience - I don't know
about you people at home, sorry. But this stage I have checked out and it is
smoother from the front of stage to the back of stage and is smoother from the
right of stage to the left stage. And I believe that's true for most of the floor
and the audience but it's made out of separate squares. So some of them may be
oriented in a different way so feel with your feet, for real, like right now, feel.
and feel if you can see if you can feel which way it's smooth and which way it's
rough. With the cane, when I drag it like this, it's smoother, when I drag like
this, it resists, and especially if I'm holding it like this with a firmer grip -
this is nice and smooth. This way it sort of resists, it bends the cane a little bit.
What else. There's sound, so something I can do really well with a cane
that's hard to do with my feet but I can
*stomping*
I can do that. But I can also do this
*sharp whacking sounds*
so... *lower pitched whacking*
that those two sound completely different, right?
*different whacking sounds*
In fact...
*whacking sound changes again*
Here the stage is not hollow underneath.
Here it's firmer and then
*whacking sound changes dramatically*
suddenly it's echo-y.
*alternating whacking sounds*
Right? So that helps me tell just sort of what ground I'm on.
Similarly, actually in the front of the stage. So
*different whacking sounds*
and then near - sorry about your mic
the stage edge,
*whacking*
it's really sort of resistant, whereas
*more solid sounds*
there, it's got much more of an echo to it.
One thing this is very useful for is echolocation. I am not a bat but it is the
same principle. There are some people who are much much much better than I am about
echolocation. I'm not that good. But what I can hear, and what you can hear, and
what you're going to try to hear right now, is the size of the room. So I'm going
to whack the stage with my cane. What I want you to do is while I'm doing it,
close your eyes. You're not going to miss anything. The slide's not going to change.
I'm just here. So close your eyes and move your head from side to side as I do it.
And you can even sort of look behind you, and listen for the sound of the size of
the room. You'll be able to hear how large the room is around you and you'll hear the
echo of my cane from the back of the room. Kill the PA for a sec.
*whack*
Right?
*whack*
PA!
*more whacks*
OK so that's a simple version. Another
version is these stage curtains. How do I not faceplant into them. Well there's a
few ways. For one, I can just run into it with my cane.
*speaker feedback noise* That's the speaker, sorry about that. And
that is curtain, nice and soft. There are several other things about this I'm going
to show in a bit, but also if I'm - sorry about the speaker - if I'm walking through
this and I walk through the side curtain, sort of behind.
*whacking*
Huh, they've added extra stuff to the stage. Yay!
*whacking*
It absorbs the sound when I am tapping near it
there's that.
Bit, where are you?
Bit: Looks like you're lost, you need some help?
Sai: Sorry?
Bit: Do you need some help? Looks like you're lost.
Sai: Thank you dear angel. No I do know where I am. So my dear signal angel, my
herald is representing that person who is trying to be helpful to me several times a
day, and kind of annoys me, or ranges from annoying to actually dangerous.
I obviously know where I am because I'm navigating the stage is just fine, and you
saw me walk on without even my cane. So thank you. But no, I don't need
directions. Bit! Bit: Here! Howdy!
Sai: So with someone who's right next to you like this, how do I - how can I tell
that he's there. I'm not touching him with the cane, although I can and I do. So if I
whack you in the ankle: sorry but that's how I can tell you're there, especially if
you're standing really quiet. It's really hard to tell that someone's there and
especially in a crowd like this. So yes I'm going to hit you in the ankle, too bad.
That's how I can tell you're there. But in this distance I can feel his body
heat radiating. So from about this distance away, meh. From this distance, I
can definitely feel it on the back of my arm. There is his shoulder, there's his
cheek. So actually I would like you to try doing that. So turn to the person who's
next to you, ask their consent first. I have asked Bit's consent for everything
that we're going to do. And what I would like you to do is put your hand up next to
them. Try to almost touch their cheek without quite touching their cheek. And
then deliberately do so. So almost, but not quite, just by the heat, with your
eyes closed, and then trade off. Yeah, go ahead!
*audience murmurs, giggles*
*light whacks*
So another place that I feel this is on
walls. This wall for instance, the front of the stage, there is actually wind
coming through these little holes in them. That wind is colder than the ambient
temperature of the room. If I get my arm really close to it, then at about this
distance, I feel the cold air from it, and then at about that distance, there's
actually sort of a sheet wind that is really tight close to the wall and then,
there my hair - the hairs on the back of my arm tingle, and there, I can touch it.
So we have people who are in the audience on scooters and such. They're going to
drive through the aisles. I want you to close your eyes and see if you can feel
the wind generated by them moving past you,
and also the sound.
*rhythmic rumbling*
Some of them are louder than others.
So you feel how when they pass you there's a breeze in their wake. This happens a lot
in Congress. There are lots of people on scooters and hover boards and motorized
couches or whatever - gods know what people motorized around here. Or it's
someone just walking really fast like me. They all generate a wind in their wake.
Another thing you'll notice in Congress is - there's these nice tunnels. So for
instance from CCL to Hall 2, there's this tunnel through the glass hall. When you
walk through, the wind characteristics of the room completely change. You start
feeling a crosswind. So if I'm walking this way and the tunnel is on my right
then suddenly I will feel a crosswind from the tunnel that is colder and wasn't there
before. Similarly with the wall there's just sort of stops. Next?
Oh yeah. So...
everyone please close your eyes. And I do mean everyone. Not the audio angels or the
video angels. But everyone in the audience please close your eyes. If your phone
number ends with the number 1 please move your arms in such a way as to make some
wind. If your phone number doesn't end in the number 1, point to the person who's
making some wind. I can't see you so I'm not going to judge you.
So do you feel that? Yes? No?
Audience: No.
How about people whose phone number ends in 1 stop, people whose phone number ends
in 4 make some wind like wave your arm in front of you.
Feel that? Try pointing to them.
Not the people who ends in 4, you can point to yourselves, I guess.
People whose number ends in 7.
So that's movement. When people move by you, it
generates wind. When there is a tunnel and there's an air differential, like the air
under this stage is colder. And that's why there's a wind out of it. Actually -
*du bi dub di dub*
Herald: Let me hold your hand and get that for you.
Sai: Ah, thanks.
Herald: No? You're good? You're sure? Sai: Yeah, let go of me please!
Sai: Oh yay! More stuff.
*cane hitting wall and railing*
So down here
*whacking*
If open the door and I walk past it, there is this crosswind, I was mentioning
a second ago, about the tunnel. So here there's a sort of flat to my right and
then here I walk a little bit forward. Suddenly there is this crosswind
from that opening. Similarly when people were biking by you, you could tell that.
Similarly if I crack my cane
*whacking*
I don't know if you can hear that very well, but try. There's...
*barely audible whacking*
there's a sound off to that side
that sort of ends at the door. And then if I knock my cane here
*whacking*
there's a little reflection through that door.
And yes I do know how to close a door.
I know, amazing!
Similarly for these walls
I can feel the
that I'm close to the wall, or not. Tingley, not tingley.
What's next.
Yes. So yeah you've added more random crap.
Herald: Can I move these chairs for you, so you can...
Sai: Uh, no, please. Herald: Would that be helpful?
Sai: Sometimes that would be helpful. But at the moment not so much, because if you
were to move it when I've already found where it is, then suddenly it wouldn't be
there any more, and it'd be hard for me to orient. One of the things that is
difficult about being blind is you have to have quite a lot of memory. So the things
that you probably don't notice because you outsource your memory is how much of the
environment around you changes. So ask a blind person they probably hate
construction work. *audience laughs*
I do. And if I try to go sit down for instance for that matter - there's a chair
- if this had moved a lot, it would be really hard for me to take a seat. Now, he
doesn't smell that bad, but some people have a pretty significant smell, because
they're wearing perfume or cologne or Axe or something like that. If you've ever
been in a public transit terminal and you've taken the elevator, maybe you know
the distinct aroma of the elevator in public transit. Definitely lets you know
you're in New York City. So the next group, start moving. So my assistants in
the audience are moving through the aisles with something in their hands. What I want
you to do is close your eyes. Smell, feel the wind current, smell what is it, point
to them. You point exactly where they are.
Hhm, yummy orange.
So now I'm really hungry.
So if I'm walking past a coffee shop for instance, it has a distinct
smell, smells like coffee, shockingly enough. A drugstore smells like alcohol and
cleaning solution. A clothing store smells like leather and this weird perfume that
they put in clothing stores for some reason. I don't know why, but they do. And
if you ever visit one hopefully you'll notice it now.
So let's see, next? Huh?
Ah, right! Dear asshole, you know your lines?
Herald: [inaudible]
Sai: Bit! Do you have your blindfold on?
Bit: Uh, no. Sai: Please do.
Bit: I don't have one. Sai: I don't have an extra one.
Bit: [inaudible]
Sai: *laughs* Did you move his blindfold also?
Bit: [inaudible]
Sai: Shall I lend you mine?
Bit: [inaudible]
Sai: Ah, that get's bright! Ow.
So if you are going to try to help someone navigate.
First off say would you like some help.
Bit: So I'm pretty confused now, so, yes, please!
*laughter*
Sai: So don't just randomly assault people. Just because I have a cane does
not mean it's cool to assault me. Then if you're going to touch them, do so with the
back of your hand. This way he knows I'm not just randomly grabbing him and yanking
him around. That's really annoying. So I can offer you my arm. We can walk. Let's
go have a seat.
*laughter*
Here we go. That's your seat. Now some people will like grab the hand and put it
down. Instead I can just say: here's a chair.
Ta da!
So follow me for a sec.
Can I have a sidewalk beep in the back?
*scratching*
So let's do a little crack.
*whack**whack*
Do you hear the back of the room, where that is?
Bit: Can you do it once more?
*whack*
Bit: I think it's in front of me, a bit to the right, maybe.
Sai: So one thing you really don't want to do when someone is possibly trying to
figure out their orientation is to randomly come up to them and grab them,
and pull them. Dear asshole? Herald: Yes please? Can I help you,
can I take you somewhere? Sai: Let's pretend that you think he
wants to go down the stairs. He thinks he wants to walk towards the audience.
Let's walk towards the audience a little bit.
Herald: So here the stairs are this way.
Yeah.
*laughter*
Sai: OK, pause for a sec.
Herald: ... for the stairs. Bit: No, not.. really not.
Herald: I'm pretty sure you are. You look lost!
Bit: I'm trying to go elsewhere. Sai: Yeah, fuck off please!
*laughter*
Sai: Now, Bit, can you please point to the back of the room?
Yeah, not quite is it.
This is what happens when you mess with
someone's orientation. Please don't be that asshole. So if you want to be helpful you
can be helpful, you can be nice. Say: "shall I lead you back to the chairs now?"
"Would you like a hand?" They hold you, you don't hold them, and then you can lead
them back to the chairs. There we go. Have a seat. May I have my blindfold back?
Bit: Yeah. Sai: You can tell this is improvised. And
here I am again walking without my cane on the crack. So it's not just a party trick,
as I'll show in a sec. Next.
Yeah, right. So, some of you may have the response of
thinking, "oh wow Sai can walk across the stage, or talk or make decisions". I wish
I were kidding but that does happen pretty regularly. Can we clear the stuff off the
stage, please? So instead of that, I'd like to show you something that actually
does involve a little bit of skill. Namely about a decade worth of aikido. For those
of you who don't know, aikido is a martial art from Japan. Anne?
Anne: Yes! Sai: So I've spent about five years or so
learning to use a cane. Anne has spent well more than that doing aikido and is a
second degree black belt. I am not! However I'm wearing a blindfold and she is
not. So what I want to demonstrate for you is how I can tell that she's about to grab
my hand. So there is the sound of the feet on the ground making this sort of sound.
There is the hand approaching me, the wind,
there the vibration as her hips sort of rotate
towards me with my slow fist attempt here.
There I can tell she's starting to lean back,
and there, I put her to the ground.
Again!
So sound, movement, air flow, heat.
Here is a nice little head, vibration, wrist, the crook of the wrist.
Full speed!
So the blindfold hasn't come off. This isn't magic. And again I'm not Daredevil.
I just can't see. I didn't get extra super special securing powers. My hearings is
pretty good but it's no better than the average person - I'm - it's actually a
lot worse in the rain. So that thing it isn't really a thing. So just to prove
that it doesn't just work in this sort of deliberately set up special thing, Anne is
going to just attack me, however she wants, and I'm going to
throw her around a bit.
*laughter*
Note that I can still focus on her.
I can still pin her if I want.
*laughs*
*laughter*
*applause*
And no, I didn't tell them what to do in advance. That's real. Yes, I am a little
bit out of breath. It's been a while since I actually exercised. Well and again I'm
still facing you, right? I haven't forgotten where this line is. Between the
wood and the carpet, and in fact I can knock it with my ring. Sometimes against
the wall is a little better to generate a nice echo sound. So if you want to not be
an asshole, please remember, first off, ask! I may not want your help, or need it,
and what you think may be helpful to me, maybe, probably is, completely wrong. So
listen to what I say and if I say, "yeah I would like you to please, lead me to X."
That does not mean grab my arm and start dragging me to X. I prefer to follow
people by sounds so I'm just going to tell you to scuff your feet when you walk,
*scuffing* so I can follow you by sound, or to just
keep talking. Some people do prefer to follow by hand. Bit? So if it comes up and
I want directions to the stage center, lead me to say center, please. Ta da! Not
that hard. If you are going to touch someone like here, unless you know you've
invited them to attack you because you're going to do an aikido exercise, don't just
randomly grab them and yank them around. Touch them, say "hi my name is Sai, would
you like some help?" Bit: Hi Sai, I would. Thank you very much.
And then you can offer, or you can say: "what would you like." "Are you lost."
Bit: Actually I'd like to go to your place thanks.
Sai: Maybe later. *laughter*
And one important thing to note. When people do simulations of disabilities,
they sometimes try to do it by just pretending to be blind, or pretending to
be in a wheelchair, or something. Like you sit in a wheelchair for a day, and then
you think, oh it must be so hard to be in a wheelchair, because my arms hurt so
much, and I couldn't figure out how to get to the second floor. That's because you've
done it for a day and someone who actually uses a wheelchair has done it for probably
years and years and years and has much better arms than you do. And they know
where everything is, and they know how to get around. Similarly, I know how to get
around without using my eyes. You don't. If you just try to put a blindfold on and
grab a cane, or let alone those blind experience museums where they just put a
blindfold on you, and don't give you a cane, and have you walk around. I actually
went to one once and they wanted to take my cane away from me? Like hell no. That
ain't happening. I actually lent it to my partner so that my partner could not feel
afraid of the surroundings of accidentally walking into something or accidentally
walking off - not a stage, but off a step or something. So you don't know what you
dont know. Most of the things I've showed you in this talk you probably have never
realized that there even a thing. Like have you noticed how many different
floorings there are in the mess hall? How many different textures there are? How
many different sounds there are, smells, the wind, the ceiling heights. You
probably don't pay attention to that. I do and without the experience you're just not
going to be able to learn that. That said, I am teaching workshops. You're welcome to
come to them if I saw the energy to run them. One is going to be right after this
talk and the rest to be determined. My volunteers: can you please come up on
stage if you're willing to be on camera. This talk is complicated if you ask the
35C3 content crew and the VOC crew and everyone else. Kind of a pain to run
something like this because I'm doing stereo recording. That doesn't affect you
in the audience live because the PAs are mono, but hopefully those of you listening
at home you've been listening to this with stereo headphones on, and hopefully you'll
hear it from my perspective what it's like when I crack the cane, and you can hear
the echo in the room.
So thank you very much. Thank you very much. Take a bow, please!
*applause*
Herald: Thank you Sai for a very interesting talk! Questions?
Sai: Can we have the Q&A slide please? So if you have questions, and you're okay
with being on camera, and possibly being asked to come on stage so I can answer
your question depending on what your question is, please queue up to the camera
that's on stage right. Otherwise there's cameras or there's microphones...
Herald: ...we can also do just plain questions. If you don't want to come on
stage, you can just answer questions from any one of the four microphones in the room.
Sai: Bit?
So first question from microphone number 2.
Sai: Which one is 2? Herald: It's for that person asking.
Sai: Which one is the... Herald: Sorry?
Sai: Which one is the one on stage right. Can I ask them on stage.
Herald: Oh let's see if they want to come on stage.
Sai: Which number? Microphone number two is...
Herald: Number two is the microphone - you want to come on stage?
Question: Yeah, sure. Sai: I just want to know if...
Bit: Microphone #2 is in front of you in the aisle, #3 behind there. #1 left on the
aisle, and #4 right. Sai: So it goes to number four if you're
willing to get on camera. Herald: So the question is right here.
Sai: Can you please bring me my canes? Question: Thank you for the really
impressive talk. Sai: Thank you.
Question: My question is the following. So when - I want to know how your imagination
works. So when someone says, imagine a box, what's that you think of. Is that the
material or how it sounds, how it feels, just how does it work.
Sai: Well there I would actually go to my kind of psychology talk that I gave a
27C3, and a box is a category, theoretic concept that has a prototype, possibly.
It's like asking: imagine a furniture. Hhm. Imagine a box! What kind of box? Is a
shipping box? Is it a box of mate that are those little crates that I walk into etc.
There are all different kinds of boxes. Is it an elevator? Yeah I don't know how to
answer that kind of question. Question: So maybe I got that incorrect,
but what I want to say is that when they try to think of something I had no idea
and you project plan, or etc. I imagine how it looks. So how I am at a certain
place or how I, for example, see a box if someone's talking about the box. So my
brain works like visually creating visual pictures. So I was interested in how that
works for blind people. Sai: Well, that depends on the blind
person, I have - I've never really had a visual thought process. So when I've
talked to people and asked them what is it like to think for you? So if people in the
audience, think about this, if you're imagining like what you did over the last
day - try it - okay. Many people here feel that as sort of a quasi audio monologue.
That's like a voice in their head, except it's their voice, it's not other voices.
Many people have it, like you have it, a sort of visual experience. Some people
have it as scrolling text. Can I get a clap for anyone who has their thoughts as
text? Anyone? No? Okay. Like two or three people who have that. For me it's purely
abstract. But if I wanted to think of a box, yes I can think of a box. I can
imagine it visually, I can imagine what it feels like, etc. Also please remember I
can see in dark light. I can't see here because - even looking up is painful with
my eyes closed under this blindfold. There is enough light coming through that it
hurts. I definitely would not be able to open my eyes and I could take my blindfold
off temporarily but that was because I was willing to tolerate some pain. So if it's
a dark room then I can see just fine. Herald: The next question is from the
Internet so they won't be able to go on stage.
Sai: Yes, the internet! Question: How do you feel about
the app Be My Eyes. Sai: Be My Eyes. It's actually not bad.
There's Be My Eyes, TapTapSee, BeSpecular, several for iPhone which I've never used
because I've got an Android. Though iPhone, for what it's worth has, and Mac
products in general, have really excellent support for blind people. TapTapSee is
useful. It's not as useful for me because at home, like if I want to identify a can
of soup or whatever, I will just look at it with the lights down, so I can see it
myself. And it's too much of a pain to use if I'm out, like if I'm grocery shopping.
That's something that's a real pain to do and an accessibility issue. For those of
you thinking about such things: if you only support the operation search or the
operation look up and say I walk into a grocery store - which I have done - yeah,
shocking. And they come up to me and say, hey how can I help you, what do you want.
I say well I don't know what I want. What do you have. I would like a savory snack
that's vegetarian. What do you have. Well what do you want. Name it. And if I name
it they'll get it from me but I don't know, especially if I'm in Germany. I have
no idea what they sell here yet they still ask me. So browsing is much harder and
with TapTapSee and with Be My Eyes and so forth, it's really for identifying a
specific object. One thing that you may not be used to here but in more barbaric
countries, all the paper currency is the same size and has no distinguishing
features. Except for the next print run, because the American Federation for the
Blind sued the U.S. Treasury and won. So the next generation of bills except for
the one dollar note which the Treasury is not allowed to change by law,
*laughter* the next generation will have blind
accessibility features. Here, they have different sizes. If you feel your euros
they have a little strip on the edge of them. And some versions of them have
little braille dots that you can tell what they are. So that's that's not as bad
here. Be My Eyes is more useful for someone who's blind at home as well. But
it's a great app! Herald: Another question from microphone 4
that's to the right of the stage. They can ask from there, but if they want to come
up... Sai: Thank you!
Herald: Do you want to come up? Sai: Ask first!
Herald: I'm going to - sorry for all the...
Question: So it was very impressive how you pick up on all the these things that
like, I normally don't. So I was really curious when you meet a new person. What
do you pick up. What do you pickup about them. Like how do you assess the person.
How do you know they're like interesting, attractive, like how do you.... Because I
use visual cues for that. Sai: So I'm going to answer you assuming
that I'm blind at the time. If they come up to me and say "how much can you see?"
then they're probably not a person I want to continue interacting with.
*laughter* If there is someone who comes up to me,
they've read my shirt about all sorts of different things that we can have a
conversation about that's substantive, and they say: "hey how would you like to
implement liquid democracy", or "how do you make a non-linear writing system", or
something like that. Then they're more likely an interesting person or they
introduce themselves and are nice. How do you evaluate people? Like, you can't value
them just by what they look like. I can tell your age and your approximate gender,
and your approximate place that you were raised linguistically, and if you were at
the same floor level, I can tell your height. I can probably tell roughly your
weight just from your heat, your - the sound of your voice, the amount of
pressure that you're making on the floor - depending on what kind of floor it is,
like if it's the stone out in the Messe, I'm not going to get anything from that.
Yeah blind people can be racist too if that's what you're thinking.
*laughter* Everybody can be racist.
*singing* We're all a little bit racist. Yeah same way anyone else!
Herald: So we will do one last question for microphone number two, that's center
aisle. Question: So thank you for your talk. I
think that was very inspiring. I was wondering, most of the methods you showed
where rather analogue. So have you also tried something like maybe a smart cane so
you have some more technical approach to detecting surfaces and obstacles, or other
things, and what's your experience with this kind of thing?
Sai: Hopefully my slide is still up there, where it says I'd be interested in
collaborating on that. Eric Boyd at SenseBridge of NoiseBridge, where I used
to be, made a nice anklet called the NorthPaw, which is basically a series of
pager buzzers that vibrate to point to which way is north. I sadly broke mine,
and if any of you have a working one, I would really like to have it! Absolute
orientation is really difficult. So relative orientation, like what I was
doing with the aikido, I can tell like where someone is. I can focus on them but
then it's easy to lose track of which way you're facing. So something like that is
quite useful. There are some products that do this on demand. So I forget what it is
called, but the LHZ Dresden had this product, which is a tactile feedback
compass and clock. So if you click it and it will vibrate in different ways to tell
you which way you're facing. That's - it doesn't really work very well. What you
would want is something continuous. I've heard of canes where they've like attached
a camera to either the cane or to the to the grip, and it beeps or something when
there's something there. I've never used one, so I can't comment on that directly
but from blind friends, who told me about experiences with them, they tend to be
engineered by sighted people who have no idea what it's like to be blind. That
said, it is true that tree branches are a real obstacle, because if I try to sweep
something and something is above this height like a tree branch at about this
height or a metal sign like in Boston or D.C. or New York, or well really anywhere
in the U.S. Not so much in London, they're pretty good about that except for the one
time I walked into a government building and there was a monitor affixed to the
wall at this height. *indicates height of his head*
I cleared the column, hit the column. I knew there was a column there and I was
just walking past the column and walked smack into the monitor. This was in a
government building, sadly. But usually they're pretty good about it and I haven't
found any like that here. But trees, there's always trees. Bus stops often have
sort of the the sign on on the side, right? And there is like this gap that
might be this high *indicates knee hight*
because I have a fairly long cane. Canes are usually anywhere between sternum and
nose. And mine is just at the edge of my nose. If I'm standing up tall. It's quite
long because I walk really fast. So mine has a lower angle and that means that it's
more likely to go under that and then I'll hit it like here when I'm almost at it.
Tangles up my cane, it's kind of a pain. Yeah. So it's possible that something that
detects a higher range will be useful. One thing that I'm specifically interested
because it's something I'm bad at, is absolute orientation. So if you are an
engineer or a hacker who is interested in collaborating on something like putting
things in the cane grip or in a hat or on the side of eyeglasses or something like
that, that would tell me which way is north, constantly, please get in touch. Or
for that matter if you can make glasses that will take standard lenses and have
zero light leakage, please get in touch. Because it turns out there aren't any such
frames on the market for some reason. That's the technology.
Thank you very much! Herald: I think we're out of time.
Thank you Sai for a very interesting talk, big round of applause.
*applause*
*postroll music*
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