Blind Bargains

#CSUNATC19 Audio: Feel Books And More With Feelif


Books can be so boring just sitting there and not responding to your touch or swipes. It would be so cool if you could tactually interact with them somehow. Well, Rebecca Zerovnik, Business Developer for Feelif, gives Shelly an opportunity to do just that with the many products the company is hoping to bring to the U.S. soon. Each device utilizes a Samsung phone or tablet, with a tactile overlay, to give a user the ability to learn more about pictures and text through haptics and sound. The company's apps provide access to games, books, object identification in pictures and more. While not available in the U.S. just yet, the products mentioned can be shipped from the EU. To learn more about the product range, visit the Feelif website

CSUN 2019 coverage is Brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.

For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings, access technology book reviews, and mobile apps, and how they can enhance entertainment, education and employment, log on to AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind's free, monthly, online technology magazine. Visit www.afb.org/aw.

Transcript

We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.

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Transcribed By Grecia Ramirez

Direct from Anaheim, it’s blindbargains.com coverage of CSUN 2019, brought to you by AFB AccessWorld.
For the latest news and accessibility information on mainstream and access technology; Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon offerings; access technology book reviews and mobile apps and how they can enhance entertainment, education, and employment, log onto AccessWorld, the American Foundation for the Blind’s free monthly online technology magazine, www.afb.org/aw.
Now, here’s Shelly Brisbin.
SHELLY BRISBIN: We’re back on the floor of CSUN 2019 with Rebecca from Feelif, and she’s going to tell us about a product that probably most of us haven’t heard of yet, but we’re about to.
So hi, Rebecca. Nice to have you here on the show.
REBECCA ZEROVNIK: Hi. Hello. So –
SB: So tell us what you have here.
R: We developed a technology that enables the blind and visually impaired to feel pictures and shapes on the touchscreen. So what we did, we developed a tactile grid that we put on our smart devices, and with the help of vibration, you get to feel the pictures and shapes on the touchscreen, not just using the audio descriptions.
SB: So is that an Android tablet, or what is that device we’re looking at right now?
R: Yeah. The device is an Android tablet. For now, we are using Samsung. That gives us a really good haptic feedback.
SB: So you put, sort of, an overlay over there, and it’s covered with a grid full of dots.
R: Exactly.
SB: Okay.
R: The grid will help you to orientate, to give a better feeling where you are around the touchscreen, and it will enable you to feel the shapes.
SB: Okay.
R: Uh-huh.
SB: So it’s sort of a – is that, like plastic or polyurethane or some sort of –
R: Yeah.
SB: Yeah.
R: Exactly. It’s, like, a plastic grid --
SB: Okay.
R: -- that’s static. It doesn’t move at – around.
SB: Right.
R: Uh-huh.
SB: And so where do the pictures – how do the pictures get on the grid for people to feel?
R: It’s basically – you use the tablet as any other Android tablet. And in our applications, you focus on the edges of the objects, and you can feel the edges and so get the shape of the object that’s on the picture.
SB: Okay. So can we see how it works?
R: Yeah. Exactly.
Computerized voice: 21 – Device unlocked.
Sb: So she just turned on the tablet.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Menu, education. Page one of one. Education: Feelif.
R: We have different kind of applications in different fields.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Feelif Camera, Feelif –
R: What we are going to do now, we’re going to feel the – we’re going to feel the picture that we have here.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: This picture should contain –
R: Artificial intelligence will tell you what’s on it.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- keyboard.
R: It will give you information about the content.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Showing picture at two times zoomed.
R: And you will get the haptic feedback. If it’s darker, it’s going to be more intense. If it’s lighter, you’re going to get more simple. And you have to use only one finger at a time.
SB: Oh. One finger.
R: Yeah.
SB: Okay. So – and – so you can see through the overlay that you have and then use one finger to touch the grid.
R: Uh-huh.
SB: And I can sort of feel it – I can’t – I don’t really know what the different –
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: -- laptop –
R: If you use –
SB: So heavier means darker. Okay.
R: If you would – held your hand underneath the tablet, you would feel the vibration stronger.
SB: Right. And if you hold your finger on it for a longer period of time, you feel it too. Like, if you move your – I was moving my finger around too much, maybe.
R: Uh-huh. Yeah. Exactly.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Computer keyboard.
SB: So it’s identifying the objects as I put my fingers on them; is that what it’s doing?
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Laptop.
R: Exactly.
SB: Oh. Okay. I see.
COMPUTERIZED VOICE: Computer – glasses. Sunglasses, light brown.
SB: So when you take a picture, any picture, it gets that information. The AI gets that information?
R: Exactly.
SB: And then –
R: Yeah.
SB: -- the haptic feedback is generated by the tones of the images on the –
R: Exactly.
SB: Okay.
R: Yeah. It will give you the information of the shapes, and if we enable the second function, we will get the edges. We will – the haptic will only give the information about the edges so we can get a better information where the objects are.
SB: -- tell where the boundaries of the object are?
R: Yeah. Exactly.
SB: Okay. Cool.
R: So this is it. And we work in the field of education, so for example, what we did is an application for learning graphs, because graphs are really hard to learn for the blind and visually impaired. So just a second. I’m just making –
SB: -- loading a graph.
R: There you go. This is a basic graph, and you will feel different vibration depending on the –
SB: Yeah.
R: -- X’s and the function.
(Musical tones.)
SB: And it’s making tones as well, I guess.
R: Yes, it does.
SB: So is that like – what is the tone indicating to me?
R: The tone is indicating into which direction the line goes.
SB: Oh, I see.
R: This is coming –
SB: Right. So right to left is –
R: Yeah. Go right – yeah. Exactly.
SB: And this is up and down.
(Musical tones.)
SB: There we go.
R: And there’s nothing – there’s empty.
SB: Right. It’s not making any sound, there’s nothing there.
R: Exactly.
SB: Yeah. Yeah. So I saw you flipping through several applications, or were they just samples? You have one app, or do you have a bunch of different ones?
R: We have a bunch of different apps. So –
SB: Okay.
R: -- what we did is we developed applications in the field of entertainment, so we developed games like Chess, Battleships, and memory games. Then, in the field of education, we have an application for learning Braille, for learning shapes, for learning graphs, and for drawing. We enabled the blind to draw on a tablet, and then even feeling – to feel their drawing. We made a digital version of tactile books. We call them FeelBooks, and they are very interactive. It combine – we combine graphics with sounds and vibrations so they – for the students to better engage with the topics. It’s much more multisensory.
And we developed a camera that you can easily take a picture with it, and then feel that picture’s content like what we did before. And then, we also developed our own browser that will help you. When you’re browsing the internet and you get to a picture, you can open that picture again in our picture gallery and feel its content. So you don’t have to rely on the description all the time.
SB: So you’re selling the tablet with the overlay and the software on it; is that right?
R: And the software. Yes. That’s correct.
SB: And is it available in the U.S. right now?
R: It’s available online on our webpage. We are selling it worldwide and – for now. But we are hoping to be presented here as well.
SB: Okay. So it’s not in the U.S. as yet, but it’s online?
R: Physically –
SB: You can buy it online.
R: -- not. Not physically.
SB: Okay. I see.
R: Not physically, but it’s online, and we care for the shipment and stuff.
SB: And what’s the product called?
R: We have three products altogether. We have a smartphone and two smart tablets. So it’s called – the smartphone is called Feelif Gamer. The first tablet is Feelif Creator, and the second, our premium version, is Feelif Pro.
SB: And that’s – the second one is a little bigger. That’s probably – what – a 9-inch tablet, and that’s a 7, maybe? Something like that?
R: Exactly. Yeah. The Pro version is a more premium design with a bigger screen and a more dense tactile grid, and the Creator is better for beginners who just started to use the tablets.
SB: Okay. And what’s the price range?
R: The price range, I can tell you in Euros. So the Feelif Gamer, for example, is 700 Euros. The Feelif Creator, the first tablet, is 1500 Euros; and the Feelif Pro, our premium tablet, is 2500 Euros. So it comes together, the device, the tactile grid, and all the software that we developed.
SB: Tell people where they can find you online if they want to know more.
R: Please visit us on our website. It’s feelif.com, or you can find us on Facebook as well.
SB: So online at feelif.com or on Facebook. Sounds great. Thank you so much for being on Blind Bargains.
R: You’re welcome. Thank you.
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This has been another Blind Bargains audio podcast. Visit blindbargains.com for the latest deals, news, and exclusive content. This podcast may not be retransmitted, sold, or reproduced without the express written permission of A T Guys.
Copyright 2019.


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Joe Steinkamp is no stranger to the world of technology, having been a user of video magnification and blindness related electronic devices since 1979. Joe has worked in radio, retail management and Vocational Rehabilitation for blind and low vision individuals in Texas. He has been writing about the A.T. Industry for 15 years and podcasting about it for almost a decade.


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