We have undertaken a number of additional technology transfer activities beyond those indicated under separate projects above. These are efforts aimed at furthering the dissemination of information and devices previously developed at Smith-Kettlewell under the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center program. (Those aspects of such activities not categorized as research, development, dissemination, demonstration or evaluation are supported by private funds only.) The following sections outline some of the activities undertaken in support of this additional technology transfer effort.
1. Introduction
Talking Signs is a remote signage technology developed at Smith-Kettlewell and works much like the infrared remote control of our television sets. However, in this case the speech information stored in the "sign" is transmitted by an infrared beam to a hand-held receiver which "speaks" the message to the user.
With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Talking Signs orientation system for the blind, developed at Smith-Kettlewell, is receiving major renewed interest from around the country. The project entered a new phase with the independent formation of Talking Signs Inc, with C. Ward Bond as President, to market Talking Signs commercially. Smith-Kettlewell's activities are restricted to the research and development, demonstration, and information dissemination functions needed to ensure successful technology transfer.
One focus has been on bringing these developments to the attention of public and private entities interested in promoting accessibility to public accommodations by people who are sight impaired. This has been accomplished through presentations at conferences, design and execution of research studies, and consultations with individuals and agencies. These include presentations and/or exhibits at the RESNA annual convention, the President's Committee on Disabilities, and blind consumer conventions. We have also participated in meetings of the National Council of State Agencies for the Blind in San Diego.
We also organized special symposia, hosted at Smith-Kettlewell in 1994 and 1995, to explore an expanded "Accessible City" demonstration project in San Francisco. Present at these meetings were many consumers as well as representatives from many city agencies such as Muni, BART, Parking and Traffic Department, Library, Yerba Buena Center, and others, along with representatives of the European Community "OPEN" project which seeks to develop similar technology for use in public transit systems in Europe.
2. Demonstration Prototypes
The San Francisco Lighthouse (now the Resnick Lighthouse) provided a special grant allowing 10 demonstration transmitter-receiver pairs to be fabricated in the RERC laboratories. The transmitters were assembled from prefabricated boards from Talking Signs, Inc. The receivers were of our design, originally published for individual builders and experimenters. These "sets," one transmitter and one receiver, were distributed to agency heads, city planners and transportation personnel.
3. Development of Field-Recordable Talking Signs Transmitters
We have developed a new approach to Talking Signs programming allowing easy on-site recording of desired sign messages. The speech-recorder integrated circuits from Information Storage Devices (ISD) we utilize in various of our device designs have dropped in price by a factor of 10 (from $70 to $7 in single quantities) in the two years that we have utilized them. They are now competitive with the RERC's digitized speech storage in EEPROM. Talking Signs, Inc. suggested that, based on their experience in the field, there would be a major advantage in developing a design feeding the output of our RERC-developed field-recordable ISD speech circuit into their Talking Signs transmitter, whose radiated power is adjustable.
The first application for the new design was to make battery-operated units for use as wearable personal "name tags" for demonstration at national conventions of consumer organizations (The American Council of the Blind and the National Federation of the Blind) in 1993. Second, a building inspector with the San Francisco Department of Public Works requested a set of transmitters which can be reconfigured for field demonstrations, and in between times can be set up in his office building as a semipermanent demonstration. We have also constructed several programmable transmitters for use in situations where one fixed message and one situation-dependent message are to be transmitted over a long distance. One of these is installed at the location of a blind refrigeration repairman, and the other is used for demonstrations in large conference halls.
These field-recordable units have proven to be flexible and inexpensive. Talking Signs, Inc. will manufacture these to fulfill upcoming contracts at the New York City and San Francisco public libraries, the Smithsonian Institute, and Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco. Use of this field-recordable approach is anticipated to be standard practice until such time as "exit" or "rest room" signs are needed in such quantity as to give ROM-based units a serious competitive edge.
4. Investigation of Advanced Technologies
Smith-Kettlewell also consulted with Pacific Technical Company under a Department of Education Small Business Innovation Grant to enhance the ease of installation of the Talking Signs transmitters and overall usefulness of the system by creating a photovoltaic-powered tran- sponder system. This would allow the user to access multiple layers of information (a tree-structured approach) from the transmitter. These technological developments would be designed to be compatible with the present Talking Signs technology.
5. Research and Demonstration Studies
As Talking Signs negotiates the technology transfer process, the need arises for various research studies to test the use of the system in different real-world situations. This year, we have begun an Easter Seals Research Foundation-sponsored study in collaboration with San Francisco State University to test the system on the university campus setting. Smith-Kettlewell's RERC has also begun a study of enhanced access to a complex public transit station using Talking Signs. This study is being funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Project ACTION and is in collaboration with our Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni) systems.
An independent comparative study of remote signage systems was carried out by Dr. B.L. Bentzen of Boston College with funding contributed by the American Council of the Blind. The resulting report, "Audible Signage as a Wayfinding Aid: Comparison of Verbal Landmarks with Talking Signs ," was extremely favorable to Talking Signs as the most effective remote signage system available for the blind. Copies of the report are available from the ACB, Talking Signs, Inc., or Smith-Kettlewell.
6. Local Demonstration Projects: Public Facilities and Transit Systems
We have recently obtained supplementary funding from the National Easter Seal Research Foundation for a two-year program to evaluate Talking Signs in both pedestrian and public transit situations. The first-year study will evaluate the efficacy of Talking Signs as an adjunct to wayfinding across the campus of San Francisco State University. The second year of the study will evaluate and demonstrate the usefulness of Talking Signs in enhancing access to public transit (surface vehicles). The U.S. Department of Transportation is funding (through Project ACTION) a program to demonstrate and evaluate Talking Signs in a complex public transit station. We are optimistic that this new project will have a substantial impact on people in our city who are visually impaired because BART and Muni determined, from meetings held with their accessibility committees and other ad hoc organizations representing persons with visual impairments, that they consider Talking Signs the technology of choice for enhancing transit orientation and mobility.
Among other upcoming local projects under the "Accessible City" demonstration plan are San Francisco's new, downtown Yerba Buena Gardens (70 transmitters), the new San Francisco Main Library (250 transmitters), the Ferry Landing in San Francisco, planned renovations to the City Hall, and the new public toilets to be installed throughout the city. In addition to the Talking Signs in pedestrian crosswalks (18 transmitters) which has been a feature of one area in downtown San Francisco for several years, these new Talking Signs projects will help provide the necessary "critical mass" of installation which will make the habitual carrying of receivers by blind residents worthwhile.
7. Commitments and Possibilities for Talking Signs Installations
Definite or tentative commitments have been obtained by Talking Signs, Inc. from a large number of organizations locally and nationally to install Talking Signs. Contracts are in place to install Talking Signs in the New York Lighthouse for the Blind and the new San Francisco Public Library (currently under construction), and commitments to do so have been obtained from the Center for the Visually Impaired in Atlanta and the Ferry Landing in San Francisco. The San Francisco Department of Parking and Traffic hopes to expand its existing Talking Signs installation on Market Street. Encouraging exploratory meetings have also been held by Talking Signs, Inc. with the General Services Administration, The Smithsonian Institution, the Department of Labor, World Trade Center (NY), City of Toronto, Kennestone Hospital (Atlanta), Fulton County (GA) Office of Disability Access, Hilton Hotels in New Orleans and Washington, the Marriot Hotel in San Francisco, the San Francisco Airport Authority, Portland (OR) Airport and New York's three airports.
Other indications of interest in Talking Signs installations have been received from Lincoln Center, New York City; the Utah Transit Authority; Bank of America, San Francisco; ASI Sign Systems, Inc., Dallas; APCO Signs, Inc., Atlanta; King Products, Toronto; Embarcadero Center, San Francisco; Moscone Center, San Francisco; University of New Orleans; and Baton Rouge General Hospital.
A number of additional innovative devices were fabricated and provided to blind users via our privately funded Rehabilitation Engineering Service. For example, through the California State Department of Rehabilitation, two Smith-Kettlewell Auditory Breakout Boxes were provided. One was to a client now working as a technical-support service person. The other user was a blind rehabilitation counselor who is technically inclined, and offers technical help to his clients.
As another typical example, a Smith-Kettlewell Temperature-Controlled "Fingertip" Soldering Iron was provided to a blind technician who builds and services equipment used in distribution of cable TV. Once working for a large manufacturer of such equipment, he is now a private consultant/contractor. He reports that this soldering iron is of great help in performing delicate operations that, at his former plant, could best be handled by other technicians and/or assembly workers.
Another case involved a young student with a spectacle-mounted telescope who was studying calculus. She was using both the telescope in the central visual field and the regular spectacle lens in her peripheral field. The light from the periphery was too brilliant and intrusive while viewing through the telescope. We devised an appropriately shaped shield, fabricated from reflective filtering material placed over the lens and arm to reduce glare from the side and reduce the overall light level in the peripheral field. This adaptation enabled her to negotiate streets, sidewalks, and bus stops with greatly improved comfort and convenience.
A wide variety of other consultations, devices and services are provided through this mechanism each year; those needing this type of special vocational assistance can contact the RERC office for further information.
Under private funding from The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, we operate a training program for blind technicians. This successful program was instigated to fill the gap in practical electronics lab work experienced by many blind persons wishing to pursue electronics as a hobby or vocation. The program has resulted in curricula being developed in soldering, circuit design and construction.
As well as training additional students in the program, we have focused on the writing of training manuals resulting from our earlier experience.
One such manual, "Paper to Project," is already completed and provides a complete unit of practical electronic course work for a blind technician. A second manual is being assembled focusing solely on soldering for blind persons. A third manual is aimed at the younger school-age group based on our experience in conducting training courses under the "Kid Start" program of the San Francisco School District. In this program, William Gerrey of our staff presented a series of courses to visually impaired students on practical electronic technology. Finally, a fourth training manual is under preparation for blind musicians wishing to utilize electronic music synthesizer equipment with computer software and controllers using the MIDI interface.
Future plans include appropriately targeted dissemination of the training manuals, in addition to an experimental program of training and technology for both blind students and teachers of blind students.