South Korean multinational conglomerate, Samsung, introduced two-way communication tools – Good Vibes and Relúmĭno, to enable the deafblind and people with impaired vision to communicate effectively.
Developed in India, the Good Vibes app enables the deafblind to have two-way communication with their caregivers and loved ones using their smartphones. Relúmĭno, on the other hand, is a visual aid application for people with low vision. It also enables users to see images clearer by magnifying and minimising images, highlighting the image outline, reversing the colour and adjusting the contrast, colour or brightness of the image.
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Peter Rhee, corporate vice president, Samsung India, said, “We are happy we were able to develop technologies such as Good Vibes and Relumino that will help improve the quality of life of the deafblind and people with low vision, allowing them to become more aware of the world around them and better integrated with society,” Gadgets 360 (an NDTV venture) reported.
Good Vibes uses morse code to convert vibrations into text or voice and vice-versa. The text or voice message is received as vibrations in morse code that the deafblind can interpret.
The Good Vibes app has two different user interfaces (UI). One interface has an invisible UI for the deafblind, which uses taps, vibrations and gestures. With this interface, a deafblind person can use a combination of dots and dashes to send messages by tapping on their smartphone’s screen. These then get translated into text for the recipient to read or hear. The recipient can then type or speak into the the second UI, which will translate the content into morse – which can be interpreted by the deafblind as vibrations on their smartphones.
Good Vibes app can be downloaded from Samsung Galaxy Store. Soon it will be available on Google play store for all android smartphone users.
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As part of its citizenship initiatives, Samsung has partnered with Sense India, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of the deafblind in the country and introduced Good Vibes. Samsung has so far conducted training workshops for Sense India educators and deafblind people along with their caregivers in cities like Delhi and Bengaluru. It will provide Samsung Galaxy A20 smartphones to the organisation, which will further distribute them to the deafblind and their caregivers.
To introduce Relúmĭno, Samsung has partnered with the National Association for the Blind (NAB), aiming to improve the learning abilities of students with low vision. Samsung will provide Samsung Gear VR and Galaxy Note9 smartphones to NAB Delhi along with training on how to use them.
“At Sense India, we have been working with deafblind for their betterment and development through comprehensive training. Good Vibes will help them connect with a larger number of people around them, something they were unable to do so far,” said Parag Namdeo, Head, Advocacy and Networks, Sense India.
Featured image credit: Youtube Screengrab