Abstract
Videophones for people with visual impairments may sound like a contradiction of terms. In the “eye-phone” pilot project, our idea was to use the videophone as a communication channel to a sighted eye. An important question therefore was: What is the need for the human eye today and in the future? Visually impaired people have different expectations and needs, but when do they really need access to a sighted eye? Can existing information technology and dedicated devices solve most of the daily needs for blind and partially sighted persons, or do videophones offer new and/or better solutions to some of these needs? The “eye-phone” concept is selected to demonstrate a complete system: videophones and a sighted operator. The operators are usually located in a central, but the sighted person may instead be a personal reading assistant.
Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Tollefsen, M., Lunde, M. (2002). Videophones: Useful Assistive Devices for Visually Impaired Persons?. In: Miesenberger, K., Klaus, J., Zagler, W. (eds) Computers Helping People with Special Needs. ICCHP 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2398. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45491-8_125
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45491-8_125
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43904-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45491-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive