Seattle’s Sound Transit is trying out a new gizmo; Talking Signs. It’s a system of infrared transmitters and receivers that announce directions and locations for the sight-impaired who can’t read signs.
Talking Signs transmitters provide labels and directions such as “Reception Desk”, “Conference Rooms Ahead”, “Public Telephone”, or “6th & Main”. The messages are spoken by a Talking Signs receiver which is held in your hand. About the size of a cell phone you point them at the small transmitters mounted at key points in and around a transit center. The receiver plays the announcement.
Elevators, stairs, passageways, crosswalks, bridges and the like are popular places to put talking signs..
At a test last week in Seattle, Rebecca Bell, a University District artist who has partial sight, also tried the devices. “I thought they were fantastic,” Bell said of the Talking Signs. “It makes you feel a lot more assured about what’s around you. It gives you such a feeling of independence. You don’t have to ask anybody.”
For the $135,000 pilot program, Sound Transit has mounted 35 transmitters at locations such as the International District station, the Sounder platform at the King Street Station and on the Weller Street bridge on Fourth Avenue South, which a person would take to get between the two stations.
Each transmitter costs $2,700 and each of the 10 battery-powered receivers Sound Transit has bought so far costs $260, Miller said.
Each Talking sign transmitter can give out up to six messages, so the system could be used to give directions in different languages or give different types of information. Locations in San Francisco include transit facilities, the art museum, and lots of city buildings. They’re also used extensively in Norway, Sweden and Japan.
Toward the end of the year, Sound Transit expects to decide whether to buy a full system of transmitters for all its transit centers and Seattle’s light rail stations. That would cost about $600,000.
I first heard about talking signs when I was listening to a piece of music on the radio. It was that tune, “Better Than Anything”.
Better than elephants dancing or clowns on parade,
Better than peanuts and popcorn, or fresh lemonade
Better than rides on the Midway, better than seals blowing horns
Better than men shot from cannons, better than fresh ears of corn
Better than balancing on wire, or having tigers leap through fire
Better than anything except being in love…
Better than sailing at midnight, better than diving for pearls
Better than skiing at Aspen, better than feeding the squirrels
Better than finding a horseshoe, better than loosing your head
Better than anything thought of, better than anything said
Better than shouting right out loud, or being spotted in a crowd
Better than anything except being in love…
I was so taken by the tune, I looked it up on the Internet. I discovered that the composer of the tune, Bill Loughborough, lives in Goldendale, Washington, just up the river from me and is an activitst for the blind. He helped Talking Signs come to be.
How about that!
Here’s more on Bill Loughborough and Natural Languange Input.
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