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Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

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Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#21

Post by ewyueywu »

falsedan wrote: post #20
ewyueywu wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

true, but consider other sighted animals but which have a different dominant sense: dogs (smell), moles (touch), platypus (electric-fields) even sight-dominant animals may have radically different vision to ours. Cats for example are more sensitive to motion than to static resolution How we obtain our data about the world is a huge influence over how we conceive of it. I wonder how different programming would be were…

All of your examples are related to food acquisition. Consider /imagine the non-sighted analogues of them, and how 'successful' they are/would be e.g. a worm the size of a mole[0] & how trivial it would be for predators to prey on it. [0]: not these ones tho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Gippsland_earthworm

yes i guess the evolution of our vision was driven in part by hunting (being able to resolve animals at a distance) and gathering (being able to discern colours of berries)

Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#22

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

tschuy wrote: post #15

I could potentially see technology like this being useful even for people without vision issues. The ability to read information from a display without needing to glance down at the watch would be great.

Indeed that is the origin of one of Braille's forerunners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_writing

Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#24

Post by new_hackers »

ewyueywu wrote: post #21
falsedan wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of your examples are related to food acquisition. Consider /imagine the non-sighted analogues of them, and how 'successful' they are/would be e.g. a worm the size of a mole[0] & how trivial it would be for predators to prey on it. [0]: not these ones tho https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Gippsland_earthworm

yes i guess the evolution of our vision was driven in part by hunting (being able to resolve animals at a distance) and gathering (being able to discern colours of berries)

also the medium in which we primarily exist (i.e air). If we existed in water, or in soil, then the collection and classification of light would not be as important.

Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#25

Post by micheled »

tschuy wrote: post #15

I could potentially see technology like this being useful even for people without vision issues. The ability to read information from a display without needing to glance down at the watch would be great.

You should totally check Eone's watches then https://www.eone-time.com/. A friend has one, they look amazing as well as allowing exactly that.

Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#27

Post by joelcollinsdc »

anton_tarasenko wrote: post #23

Any reason for the blind to use this over earbuds paired with Siri, Alexa, or any other voice-based interface?

The made the mistake of asking this to my gf who is a teacher for visually impaired kids. Braille is reading, and listening to earbuds is not reading. We teach our sighted kids to read even though they could just all have audiobooks, just like we should teach children Braille even though they can still listen.

Another good argument she made was it's about multiplexing. What if someone wanted to learn the time while listening to an engaging conversation, they wouldn't want to stop listening just to check the time.

Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#28

Post by vegabook »

too cool - I'd love one of these for those long meetings / dates / presentations etc so I can just casually "feel" what time it is without being noticed looking at my watch or phone. I'd have to learn at least a subset of braille (numeric digits?) but it could actually be interesting to do that too.

Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#29

Post by melloclello »

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #14
melloclello wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sometimes wonder what technology would look like if it were developed by an alien culture with no sense of vision.

I somehow believe that the evolutionary pressure towards sight is so large (i.e. the benefit of sight is so great) that we're essentially guaranteed any sentient biological extraterrestrial will have it.

I suppose sonar could be an alternative worth considering.

Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch

#30

Post by riskable »

masterponomo wrote: post #16
mrgrowth wrote: post #7

I read that as, "The First Braille Sandwich"

You could do that easily with a 3D printer using an edible medium on bread with a sturdy crust layer. SnackChat?

Yeah but after the security geeks tear it apart there will be offshoots... Sandwatch and Burnberger. Better to wait for the sesame seeds to settle before biting off more than you can chew.
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