Books are an integral a part of our lives! Doesn’t matter if we’re voracious or occasional readers – we all the time admire the leisure and data books impart. Nonetheless, in case of blind individuals or sighted individuals shedding their partial or full imaginative and prescient, bodily books can seldom be an choice. That’s the place audiobooks come into the image, however they arrive with their very own challenges.
This submit has been written by Marcin Simonides who has created a quite simple, minimalist interface for enjoying audiobooks for blind and/or aged individuals.
When eyesight deteriorates, both as a result of sickness or superior age, many individuals flip to audiobooks as an alternative choice to studying. With as we speak’s know-how there’s an abundance of companies and gadgets one can use.
For a lot of seniors, nonetheless, mastering the know-how may be an extra impediment. Most audio gamers are designed both to be small, which requires that buttons are tiny and shut collectively, or huge with contact screens which is prone to unintentional contact. Both method it’s straightforward to inadvertently press the unsuitable button, particularly if fingers are not as versatile and exact as they was once. Add to this options like shuffle or repeat that typically get enabled by mistake and a easy process of taking part in your favorite ebook seems like coming into a minefield.
I’ve not felt this myself (but). However I’ve noticed my grandmother battle with various audio gamers.
Over the previous few years we now have examined many gadgets. One of the best one was a second-hand CD participant with MP3 assist. Sadly, it didn’t retailer the final performed place and playback began from the start after it has been turned off. And it nonetheless had too many buttons.
A super audiobook participant for my grandmother would have as little options as vital, specifically play and pause, and it might be straightforward to function with imprecise gestures. How laborious can or not it’s? 🙂 I’ve determined to attempt.
I’m not good at constructing stuff however I’m a software program developer so I’ve determined to take an off-the-shelf system, an Android pill, and obtain my objective with a customized app.
I got here up with one thing like this:
The app performs audio recordsdata but in addition does three issues which might be geared in direction of visually imparied and aged:
– it reads the ebook titles when the display is enabled and when shopping,
– it has giant START and STOP buttons in distinction colours,
– stops playback when positioned with the display downward on a degree floor.
And, final however not least, the app may be put in in such a method that the consumer can’t go away it. This hides all of the complexity of the underlying system and different functions – the system serves one function and one function solely.
In the interim it’s nonetheless an experiment though my grandmother is already utilizing it.
The appliance is on the market for obtain on my web site (it would even be obtainable in Google Play inside a couple of weeks) so you possibly can check it your self and provides me your suggestions.
Clearly I’m not the primary one to acknowledge the issue. Throughout my analysis I’ve discovered two different challenge with related objectives however completely different options. Each are customized made gadgets primarily based on the Raspberry PI platform.