[Accessibility] Audio-tactile maps on smart phones

[esther loeliger]

Hi list,

Audio tactile maps for Smartphones sound a brilliant idea, especially free
ones.

I programmed an Audio map for desktop computers in 2010. The XAPI server I
got the OSM data from was rather slow and was unfortunately shortly after
discontinued.

Just mentioning, that such a project might also involve providing a server
for the map-data.

If you are to choose Android as a platform, maybe it's an idea to do a
GoogleMaps mash-up? Google maps have a brilliant navigation feature, might
be worth to look into it?

Otherwise how about building an HTML5 app that can be wrapped for
deployment on more than just one platform?

Best wishes,
Esther


On 12 December 2011 10:31, Nolan Darilek <nolan at thewordnerd.info> wrote:

> It occurs to me that this should be fairly easily done on Android 4.0
> using its new accessibility APIs, and maybe without any custom plugins for
> the nav apps.
>
> http://developer.android.com/**reference/android/view/**accessibility/**
> AccessibilityNodeInfo.html<http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/accessibility/AccessibilityNodeInfo.html>
>
> The key would be making the map view export itself as a hierarchy of
> AccessibilityNodeInfo objects. One challenge would be dividing all map
> features, even things like curving roads, into a series of rectangles. You
> would then create an AccessibilityNodeInfo for each of these rectangles and
> set a meaningful content description via setContentDescription().
>
> There might need to be a bit of support on the screen reader side, but the
> result would be a map that works both visually and accessibly.
>
> No time to work on such a project myself, but I'm happy to provide
> whatever screen reader support I can in Spiel. This would be a neat project.
>
>
> On 12/12/2011 04:17 AM, robert wrote:
>
>> Audio-tactile maps on smart phones
>>
>> I would like to have an OSM map accessible for visually impaired users
>> with a program that makes sounds when you move your finger over the map.
>> A different sound for the different map items (roads, water and
>> buildings) and that speaks the names on the map. By moving your finger
>> over the map  you know what is where on the map.
>> You know where your finger is on the device and you hear what is under
>> your finger so you can make an image in your mind what is where.
>>
>> If the map is centered around you (with GPS) you can find out what is
>> around you and where to go.
>>
>> You would not need special hardware, just a smart phone with gps and
>> touchscreen and one that knows its orientation.
>> By adapting one of the open source  programs that use OSM maps (like
>> Navit) you would not need to completely write a navigation and map
>> viewing program. You would just need to develop a plugin/module for such
>> a program to satisfy our needs.
>>
>> I have also posted the idea in the Navit forum  on sourceforge.net
>> http://sourceforge.net/**projects/navit/forums/forum/**512959<http://sourceforge.net/projects/navit/forums/forum/512959>
>>
>> Does anyone have ideas about  how to organize and program (write the
>> code) this?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Robert
>>
>>
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