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Showing posts from February, 2010

Looking beyond the screen : Text-to-speech and eyes-free interaction

Question: How do you build a Touch screen application, on a device with no keyboard, for someone who has limited sight or just cannot look at the screen (they are driving) ? I was fortunate enough to attend Google IO last year. (each year it just gets better and better - if you missed it - register now). Amongst some of the great sessions I attended was one that deals with two of my most favourite subjects - user interaction and voice technology. Presented by TV Raman and Charles L. Chen - they discuss the Eyes-Free Project : a project that aims to enable fluent eyes-free use of mobile devices running Android. Target uses range from eyes-busy environments like in-car use to users who can't or don't want to look at the visual display. When you watch the video you will see some of the UI innovations for taking advantage of the touch screen without needing to actually look at the screen.   You can download the applications to your Android phone. It's great to s...

Move on, move on...

Change is the only constant. I left Oracle in the Autumn and joined a small start up here in the Bay Area.  I'm moving some of my posts from the Oracle blogs site - as I don't know what the expiration policy is on those items - but I find those items useful reminders of what we in software should always be mindful of - whether we design, create, test, sell or implement software.