[Music]
this is a map of Paris it might not look
like a map because it’s not a map you’re
supposed to see
it’s a map that you feel with your hands
and it’s the centuries-old technology we
have acquainting someone who is blind or
visually impaired to a new environment
and if you think about the technologies
that you interact with on a day-to-day
basis you’re probably looking at a
screen whether that’s on your laptop
your smartphone or your tablet you’re
checking emails notifications messages
and alerts and a lot of this information
is inaccessible to someone who’s blind
or visually impaired although we have
access to a new era of voice controlled
interfaces like a Lexus Siri and the
Google assistant these artificial
intelligences that respond to our speech
have also added another channel of
interruption and intrusion so if we’re
not looking at our computers we talk at
them but communication involves a lot
more than just words even if you’re not
bilingual you all understand a second
language you understand the meaning of a
handshake or a warm hug you understand
to pull your hand away from a hot stove
and you understand this faster than you
can read the words printed on a page or
hear them spoken out loud for any of the
285 million people who are blind or
visually impaired a task as ordinary is
checking the current time involves
asking another person or pulling out
your phone turning up the volume and
having to yell out that information this
is a cumbersome experience and it’s an
accessibility problem but I question the
necessity of occupying anyone’s eyes or
ears
when we can intuitively understand
things that we grasp with our hands when
we design computer interfaces we should
listen to people who are blind not just
because they consume information through
their sense of touch but because solving
that design problem can enable a future
filled with tangible interfaces that we
can feel we will interact with software
with the same efficiency as the knife
and cutting board in our kitchens and we
can interact with each other online with
the same expressiveness as a handshake
or a hug and just as we create
animations by rolling through pictures
at 24 frames per second we can animate
your sense of touch by moving sensations
across your body in different patterns
shapes and intensities a crude example
of this today would be the vibration you
get from your cell phone or maybe a tap
you feel from your Apple watch telling
you that you’re receiving a phone call
or a text message this is called haptic
feedback technology that’s communicating
information through touch but imagine if
we treat your entire body as a
programmable computer display we can
take a vibration or linear force and
modify it at different points much like
the pixels and a computer screen so that
Braille map implemented with today’s
technology could allow you to feel a
left turn when you’re getting close to
an intersection as a sensation that
moves to the left across your wrist or
maybe if you’re receiving a message from
a friend it feels like a gentle tap on
your shoulder in a future filled with
haptic feedback an anesthesiologist
could feel the heartbeat of a patient
during a surgery the firefighter could
feel the heat of a room long before they
ever enter it and the sensors on a
robotic arm
will become a natural extension of our
own hands a pair of eyeglasses began as
an assistive device a way of helping
someone with low vision but today you
could describe them as a fashion
statement or there a place where we
embed cameras so you can take pictures
and videos they can even be a place
where we project virtual objects for
augmented reality and virtual reality
I’ve spent the last eight years working
on systems of silent and invisible
communication because I believe that the
same technologies that could help
someone who’s blind to check the time
without needing a pair of headphones
it’s the same technology that can power
the future of human-computer interaction
and when I think about the intended
meaning of the idiom the blind leading
the blind it suggests a failure to grasp
a larger meaning the blind can not only
lead the blind but can lead those of us
who can see two experiences that we’ve
never seen before thank you
[Applause]
you
this is a map of Paris it might not look
like a map because it’s not a map you’re
supposed to see
it’s a map that you feel with your hands
and it’s the centuries-old technology we
have acquainting someone who is blind or
visually impaired to a new environment
and if you think about the technologies
that you interact with on a day-to-day
basis you’re probably looking at a
screen whether that’s on your laptop
your smartphone or your tablet you’re
checking emails notifications messages
and alerts and a lot of this information
is inaccessible to someone who’s blind
or visually impaired although we have
access to a new era of voice controlled
interfaces like a Lexus Siri and the
Google assistant these artificial
intelligences that respond to our speech
have also added another channel of
interruption and intrusion so if we’re
not looking at our computers we talk at
them but communication involves a lot
more than just words even if you’re not
bilingual you all understand a second
language you understand the meaning of a
handshake or a warm hug you understand
to pull your hand away from a hot stove
and you understand this faster than you
can read the words printed on a page or
hear them spoken out loud for any of the
285 million people who are blind or
visually impaired a task as ordinary is
checking the current time involves
asking another person or pulling out
your phone turning up the volume and
having to yell out that information this
is a cumbersome experience and it’s an
accessibility problem but I question the
necessity of occupying anyone’s eyes or
ears
when we can intuitively understand
things that we grasp with our hands when
we design computer interfaces we should
listen to people who are blind not just
because they consume information through
their sense of touch but because solving
that design problem can enable a future
filled with tangible interfaces that we
can feel we will interact with software
with the same efficiency as the knife
and cutting board in our kitchens and we
can interact with each other online with
the same expressiveness as a handshake
or a hug and just as we create
animations by rolling through pictures
at 24 frames per second we can animate
your sense of touch by moving sensations
across your body in different patterns
shapes and intensities a crude example
of this today would be the vibration you
get from your cell phone or maybe a tap
you feel from your Apple watch telling
you that you’re receiving a phone call
or a text message this is called haptic
feedback technology that’s communicating
information through touch but imagine if
we treat your entire body as a
programmable computer display we can
take a vibration or linear force and
modify it at different points much like
the pixels and a computer screen so that
Braille map implemented with today’s
technology could allow you to feel a
left turn when you’re getting close to
an intersection as a sensation that
moves to the left across your wrist or
maybe if you’re receiving a message from
a friend it feels like a gentle tap on
your shoulder in a future filled with
haptic feedback an anesthesiologist
could feel the heartbeat of a patient
during a surgery the firefighter could
feel the heat of a room long before they
ever enter it and the sensors on a
robotic arm
will become a natural extension of our
own hands a pair of eyeglasses began as
an assistive device a way of helping
someone with low vision but today you
could describe them as a fashion
statement or there a place where we
embed cameras so you can take pictures
and videos they can even be a place
where we project virtual objects for
augmented reality and virtual reality
I’ve spent the last eight years working
on systems of silent and invisible
communication because I believe that the
same technologies that could help
someone who’s blind to check the time
without needing a pair of headphones
it’s the same technology that can power
the future of human-computer interaction
and when I think about the intended
meaning of the idiom the blind leading
the blind it suggests a failure to grasp
a larger meaning the blind can not only
lead the blind but can lead those of us
who can see two experiences that we’ve
never seen before thank you
[Applause]
you
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