Braille Live

Interesting New Approach For Guidance For The Blind
By Carolyn Livengood San Mateo County Times
Posted: 02/14/2009

Ed Gallagher, a former building contractor and visual artist who lost his sight 10 years ago due to retinitis pigmentosa, has developed the Genoa Connection system to provide remote assistance for the sight-impaired.

The system uses a small camera the size of a stamp, mounted on a user’s headband, and a compact computer carried in a fanny pack. A wireless signal is sent over the Internet to a guide sitting at a computer, who can “see” what is in front of the blind person and help them to read labels, shop, and find lost objects.

This system is an adjunct to the cane or guide dog. It could also provide job opportunities for home businesses or assembly work, as 70 percent of the blind are unemployed.

Gallagher is the commodore of the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors, which uses “co-ability” as a way for people with physical disabilities to participate in sailing. By pairing someone with one disability to a person with a “complementary” disability, one “able” sailor is made out of two people with disabilities.

People in wheelchairs or those who are homebound would make a great fit as guides for the blind. The homebound can “walk” around with the blind person’s legs to provide companionship and engage with their communities.

Gallagher shared his vision of using wireless Internet technology to assist the blind at a recent Rotary Club of Millbrae meeting, held at El Rancho Inn in Millbrae. Accompanied by Belmont Rotarian Jean Cary, Gallagher was there to request a donation for his system, which is being developed by his company, Genoa Services. His goal is to raise $18,000 to do beta testing with 10 Bay Area volunteers later this spring.

To date, he has received $5,000 from Belmont Rotary and $2,000 from Woodside Rotary.

To learn more or to donate to Genoa Services, a nonprofit organization, visit
www.genoaconnections.org

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There is a video link on his website. I also found him on the today show with a 7 minute video at

He originally had a regular computer webcam attached to a bicycle helmet and now has a small webcam the size of a stamp attached to a headband, and he uses a wireless headset for speech. He uses skype to talk and listen to the guide who can be anywhere in the world. It shows him sailing, skiing, shopping and riding a bicycle.

Bob
from the website

http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_11706516