How it would work
Your smartphone is mounted on your chest with the camera pointing forwards. Push the button on your phone to activate the menu. Move your hand up and down in front of you to hear the options in the menu. Touch your fingers and thumb together once to select an option and twice to go back to the previous menu.
Wear bone conducting headphones. The GPS knows where you are and the compass which way you are facing. Record an audio message and post it on your location. You can hear in 3D where others have left their posts on all the different social networking sites.
Connect to ticket and vending machines through bluetooth and use your phone to purchase tickets instead of a touch screen.
The Initiative
Blinput was developed by Erik Hals in an attempt to tidy up the application market for the visually impaired and make it more available for everyone.
Although the initial goal was to design a product, the benefits of mass production and investment in new technology by the smartphone manufacturers made it difficult to beat through product design alone.
Enhancing the capabilities and combining the applications of the smartphones made more sense than designing yet another advanced piece of metal and plastic that would be too expensive to manufacture. Upgrading and supporting the product on the same level as smartphones was also deemed unfeasible.
The Philosophy
Many people feel left behind by the escalating speed of technological development. They simply give up trying to learn using computers and mobile phones and stick to more familiar concepts like letters and landline phones. There is nothing wrong with this, and sometimes it is good to step off the conveyorbelt and view the world from a different perspective.
However, technology is creating a gap in society between those who find it difficult, such as elderly and people with impairments, and those who adopt it easily and it is harder and harder to cross. Someone must develop the technology to integrate those who are behind rather than pushing the early adopters even further away. This is the main aim of blinput.