A few months ago, Roger Wilson-Hinds sent his first text message. What is an almost hourly activity for the rest of us was something he had never done before Mr Wilson-Hinds was born blind. Texting wasn’t something he felt comfortable doing. But that has all changed thanks to a new suite of smartphone apps he has developed specifically for blind people.  Mr Wilson-Hinds, 72, and his wife Margaret, 62, who is also blind, have been working for more than a decade to make technology more accessible to those who cannot see.  The couple, both retired teachers from Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, are the founders of Screenreader – a not-for-profit organisation that has already come up with a talking computer software package for blind people.  But for their latest project, they wanted to devise with something that helps the sight-impaired when they are on the move. The result is Georgie, a bank of apps for smartphones which makes it easier for a blind person to communicate and navigate. From today, customers can either buy Georgie ‘out of the box’ pre-packaged with an existing smartphone that runs on Google’s Android operating system, or download the apps to the smartphone they already have. ‘It’s the first smartphone that’s been designed for blind people by blind people,’ Mr Wilson-Hinds told Metro. ‘Other smartphones work for blind people in some ways but that doesn’t make it as easy to use as it could be.’ Existing Android phones and Apple iPhones have functionality that aids blind users, but they tend to fall short for the sight-impaired when it comes to usability and navigating around specific obstacles on their daily routes. Georgie’s apps have a variety of functions. They can let the phone speak to the user to tell them where they are or where they are going; they can tag hazards on previous routes and they allow the user to text or tweet using spoken instructions. Georgie also makes it easier to take photos and listen to audio books.

CLICK HERE TO ENLARGE GRAPHIC

‘We wanted a smartphone with big bright buttons, we wanted everything talking,’ said Mr Wilson-Hinds. ‘We wanted everything integrated together, so if you travel you get a talking compass, you get information about where you are and what’s around, when the next bus is due, when to get off – we wanted all that together on one screen.  ‘It’s nice to have your own bit of control and independence. Everybody else sits and reads their magazine or the paper and we can have our phone and listen to books and our favourite podcasts. We wanted a rugged, easy to use phone designed for us.’  Mr Wilson-Hinds is partially sighted, having undergone surgery, but his wife lost her sight completely when she was five. Georgie is named after Margaret’s first guide dog, ‘a naughty little Labrador but a lovely dog’.  The couple were inspired to come up with the smartphone idea because they were sick of getting lost in their local park and wanted something to help them ‘build up a mental map’.  It will also cut down on the amount of kit blind people must bring with them when they leave their homes – this includes reading aids, GPS navigations devices, computers and braille displays.  Georgie is available exclusively through Screenreader’s partners, Sight and Sound Technology, which provides hardware and software to the visually impaired. It costs from £299 to buy a phone with Georgie pre-installed – select Samsung and Motorola phones will be carrying it – or the apps can be downloaded to any Android phone from £24.99. The money raised will be reinvested in the Communication for Blind and Disabled People charity which subsidises Screenreader. It took 18 months to develop Georgie and more than 40 blind people were involved in the testing process. Computer scientist Alan Kemp, who was the chief technology officer on the project, said: ‘The biggest challenge as a fully sighted person is to understand the kind of issues that blind and visually impaired people face on a daily basis.
 

‘Sometimes you can make the mistake of just putting your hands over your eyes and thinking that’s what it’s like to be blind but it’s not. Roger has been my mentor and my inspiration and has described to me the tools that he needs to travel, to communicate, to do all the stuff that he’s previously found very difficult to do.
 

‘If you want to tweet you speak it, it does the voice recognition, you can hear it back and if you are satisfied you publish it.’

Mr Kemp said Georgie is a vast improvement on what is already out there for blind people.  ‘It’s still a very niche market. The problem is both Apple and Google have provided what they believe accessibility should be, but to be perfectly honest it’s not terribly adequate.’ He said Georgie will change lives. ‘It’s the everyday practical usage of it which is the biggest reward. Watching Roger send his first text was incredible. He’d never sent a text before until I delivered this software to him. Now he’s sending 30 or 40 a day to his daughter.’Mr Wilson-Hinds is hoping that up to 2,000 ‘Georgies’ will be sold within a year and he still has further plans to bring more technology to more blind people.  ‘We’ve put a lot of time and energy and belief into this but the proof of the pudding is in the eating,’ he said. ‘It’s a fabulous way to not retire.’

Go to www.screenreader.net and www.sightandsound.co.uk for more information


GEORGIE FACTS:

- Georgie is the first smartphone designed for blind people by blind people.
- Georgie can be bought pre-loaded on a range of phones or as part of an app package. The phones have been chosen because of their robustness – they can be dropped from a height of 2m and can be used in the rain  - It is available pre-loaded on the following smartphones: Samsung Y, Samsung Xcover, Motorola Defy+ and Samsung Galaxy Ace. It costs from £299 to £447 depending on the phone - Users can also buy Georgie as an app package for their existing Android smartphones from £24.99 to £149 - Georgie lets blind smartphone users have access to a voice-assisted touchscreen, send text messages by talking and tag walking routes and hazards along the way so they know where they are going  - Additional Georgie apps are broken down into three packages each costing £24.99:

* Travel
Georgie finds places of interest, lets users know when to get off the bus and gives weather forecasts  * Lifestyle
An audio player lets users listen to audio books, talking newspapers and podcasts, while a voice assistant will answer almost any question * Communicate Georgie has a camera assistant, audio tagging for images, audio blogging and lets users tweet messages by speaking

STATISTICS:

- There are 2m people in Britain who are living with sight loss – about 1 in 30  - There are 360,000 people in Britain who are registered blind or partially sighted  - 1 in 5 people aged 75 and over are living with sight loss - By 2020, it is predicted the number of people with sight loss in Britain will rise to more than 2.25m. By 2050, it will be almost 4m - Sight loss costs the British economy at least £6.5bn a year – costs include operations, prescriptions, unpaid carer costs and reduced employment rates - Almost 50% of blind and partially sighted people say they feel cut off from others and the things around them

 

How to eat cakes, ice-cream and drink lattes and still lose weight

You've heard of that phrase, watch the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves?  Well the same can also be said for calories so next time you are thinking about tucking into a biscuit, cake or curry take a second to see if there's something similar but more figure friendly instead?  Here are just a few examples.

Swap: An Iced Cream Slice (335 Kcals and 16g fat)
For: An Iced Finger (152 Kcal and 3.4g fat)
Save: 183 Kcals and 12.6g fat

All the sugar from the icing, the whipped cream and the high fat puff pastry in a cream slice wages all out war on the waistline. Iced fingers however are made from soft bread, not pastry, they don't contain cream and although still topped with icing for the sugar hit you crave they generally come in a smaller serving size all of which makes them far more figure friendly.

Swap: A Cornetto (195 kcal 9.7g fat)
For: A Whipped Ice-cream in a Cone (85 Kcal and 3.5g fat)
Save: 110 Kcal and 6.2g fat per ice-cream

Cornetto cones are packed to the tip with ice-cream and other ingredients such as chocolate and nuts that all add to the calories and fat content. A traditional 'Mr Whippy' consists of a light, low calorie wafer style cone topped with half the amount of ice-cream whipped up with double the amount of air making it far more diet friendly. Just try and pass on the flake!