Tablet computers used as Braille keyboards

Researchers at New Mexico University have developed a system that uses tablet computers, like the Apple iPad, as Braille keyboards.

Touchscreen tablets can present a problem for blind and visually impaired people when the normal on-screen keyboards are not tactile and can’t be seen. 

Tablets like the iPaad use speech software that feed back vocally what is under the users finger, meaning that you have to slide your finger around the screen until you find the right key.  Rather than the users fingers having to find the keys the research group has developed a system where the device works out where the users fingers are.  The combination of fingers determines the letter typed, in the same way a Braille typewriter would.

Though not yet commercially available the group hope to release the system which could be portable and help speed up typing, note taking and numerous other applications.

Link:
Read the BBC News story here.

Elderly who take a daily Aspirin could be twice as likely to develop age related sight loss

A European study has found that pensioners who take an Aspirin  everyday increase the risk of developing late stage age related Macular Degeneration (MD).  People who took the painkiller were shown to be twice as likely to suffer from MD as those who didn’t.  MD is the leading form of vision loss for the over 60’s

Many over 65’s with, or at risk of, heart disease take Asprin as an anti-coagulant to thin the blood but research by Dr Paulus de Jong at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Academic Medical Centre suggests that it could be unwise to recommend taking Aspirin for people showing signs of the eye condition.

The study doesn’t show why the drug exacerbates the eye condition, which examined the lifestyles of nearly 4,700 patients. It showed that roughly 2 out of every 100 people who didn’t take Aspirin developed wet form MD, the more severe form of the eye condition, whilst the figures jumped to about 4 per 100 with the patients who took the drug everyday.

It’s not thought that the drug causes MD, as it does not seem to effect early stage MD.  It seems only wet, not the more common dry form MD, is affected.

However, Dr Jong told the Reuters news agency “For people with cardiovascular disease who take aspirin to prevent the condition from worsening, the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks to visual health… A healthy eye with full visual capacities is of no use in a dead body.”

Link:
Reuters: “Daily asprin tied to risk of vision loss”