Hi all, Well, shoot, I thought I had included the text I wanted. That's weird. Hang on. Will try again. Ann P. Wired News, 25 September 2002 Wired News, 25 September 2002 NEW TOOL ALLOWS BLIND TO READ MAPS Students in a software engineering class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--with help from the professor--have developed a tool that blind and visually impaired people can use to read maps. The Blind Audio Tactile Mapping System (BATS) uses a trackball to move a cursor around on a map. As the cursor passes over different parts of the map, the system plays audio information so the user can "read" the map. For example, names of places on the map are pronounced by a voice synthesizer. When the cursor goes over water, the user hears the sound of crashing waves; over land, the user hears horses galloping. The professor teaching the class in which the tool was developed said it could become an open-source application, and it can be downloaded now from the project's site (http://www.cs.unc.edu/Research/assist/bats/). Wired News, 25 September 2002 http://www.wired.com/news/school/0,1383,54916,00.html -- Ann K. Parsons email: akp at eznet.net ICQ Number: 33006854 WEB SITE: http://home.eznet.net/~akp "All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT
