RE: [UACCESS-L] discussion?Fw: Smart Personal Object Technology Article

[Robert Carnegie <Robert.Carnegie@seemis.com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Poehlman [mailto:poehlman1@comcast.net]
Sent: 27 January 2003 14:22

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pratik Patel" <pratik@BLINDCITY.COM>
To: <VICUG-L@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 27, 2003 12:17 AM
Subject: FW: Smart Personal Object Technology Article

- Interesting story.  What kind of plans does Microsoft propose to make
this technology accessible?

- Well, it's this much bigger than your ordinary wristwatch...

I'm less impressed by this the more I think about it.  It's basically a
pager but with graphics.  Unless it's just a pager.  On top of which it
seems that it is, in fact, not a pager.

The specification is for a small, probably wearable device that picks up
radio signals carrying data, and as standard presents the information
visually.  It runs programs written in Microsoft's new dot NET bytecode - as
in their "C-sharp" C# - on the Windows CE dot NET operating system.  So in
theory, a manufacturer can buy a licence to use the Microsoft design
components, and then build an accessible version of a SPOT.  The
manufacturer might have to write special software to let their device
present the same information as Braille, or maybe that can be built into the
operating system; it can be that information providers are encouraged to
provide data in a format that can be translated for different accessibility
needs.

In practice - who knows?

Hearing folks who want weather reports and sports scores could, of course,
listen to a regular radio.  Unlike SPOT, you don't normally have to pay a
subscription for that.  Not everything that Microsoft does has caught on.
Windows CE was blah until it became Pocket PC, and you don't hear so much
about Web TV any more, and UltimateTV isn't the famous product name, TiVo is
- well, where I am; maybe not where you are.

I wanted a wrist phone instead, anyway.  Or maybe a Bluetooth phone with a
separate headset so I don't need to take the phone out of my pocket to use
it.  By arm's-length-range radio transmissions between parts, no wires.  If
you have that then you could wear controls and a display or other output
device on your wrist, too - and if various Bluetooth devices can be made
compatible, you could mix and match.  Hey, how about an electronic strap
that actually writes braille around your inner wrist...

With a phone, if you want information then you can call someone up and
ask...isn't there an accessible WAP phone?  Or a mobile text phone?
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