"Photos" for the Blind

sportysnaps

sportysnaps

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martin
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I'm the official photographer for a local 10k running race in the Summer of 2009, (for the 4th time).

I read in a local newspaper this week that a young girl is working with a local fitness trainer (who is very good), in order to get fit enough to compete in the event.

she is totally blind, and has never ran before

I would like to create a "photo" from one of my photos of one of the other years of the race to give to her and to inspire her.

Does anyone know how this can be done and how it can be created so that she can "see it"

I did a search on Braille photos but could not find any info.

I would like to do a finish line photo for her as well after the event

can anyone help?
 
Do you mean like a 3d model of a photo, so she can see it with her fingertips? That's the only way I could think it would be possible. Braille represents letters/words so I doubt it could be used for this....

Good luck with your search, I hope you find something for her:thumbs:
 
not sure if this will help .

but could you take a photo of her then on ps " or whatever" turn it into a cartoon stlye shot... bear with me :D

once this is done you should have a nice outline of her characteristics which you could then blow up.. and use a punch or such to make holes .

this should then give her a photo to feel

i have had this idea for a while as a good mate's mom is blind but never got round to trying it

think i will over xmas now

hope this helps

md:shrug:
 
I wonder if someone that has never had sight would relate to an image of a scene even if they could make it out by touch?
 
Well, thanks for the citation as I'm the author of the batfromhell.co.uk site.

Can I suggest you drop braille as your search term and put in tactile? The Braille system is a wonderful thing for text, mathematics and music notation, but isn't really the tool for graphics.

Blind people can indeed make use of tactile graphics, but at this stage they're not very prevalent because it takes some pretty high-tech solutions to make a good job of them. There is, for example, the Talking Tactile Tablet, and there are ways of building up a 3d image on a laser printer and then "cooking" the results so that they set as a tactile or raised diagram, the darker the patch of colour, the thicker the ink at that point, or maybe it can be done in reverse. This is all a great fire hazard, so please be safe.

Someone born blind has spent their lives sussing out objects by touch, and this uses the same part of the brain as sighted people use for pictorial representation, if I have it right. People who become blind later on have all the concepts already, but need to change the way they get the information into their brains, e.g., switching to using touch more.

A local blind organisation may have some of the technology to turn photos into tactile pictures. Another possible line of enquiry is the education sector.

I'd recommend trying the Accessible Image mailing list...

http://www.freelists.org/list/accessibleimage

Some list members actually do this stuff for a living.

To join, please address an e-mail to

accessibleimage-request@freelists.org

Just type subscribe in the Subjecct line and nothing else, then send it.

Most importantly, I hope the young competitor does get inspired, so best of luck to all involved.

It's a great shame we haven't yet got a commercial model of the Samsung TouchSight camera, which turns images into tactile pictures on the fly. Sadly at present this is only a prototype, but that kind of technology has some exciting possibilities.

Vince Thacker
 
What a fantastic idea - and simply amazing that the whole field seems like it's still in a relatively infant stage.
 
A random idea, maybe not a good one.
Could you:

-Make several prints and mount each one on a thin layer of card.
-Cut out details from the image from ONE of the other images. Such as her crossing the finish line, cut around her and the finish line so you end up with just that part in your hand.
-Mount this image on to one of the WHOLE pictures.
-Do this to build up certain levels or layers so that the picture now takes on a 3d effect.

Probably not a good idea as it may have sharp edges and would need you to do alot of precise cutting. However, it was just an idea :lol:
 
I think what is needed (business head on) is the technology for digital tactile images - with a portable electronic tactile viewer - think "game boy" with pins that stick out when you put a memory card in the "player" - maybe a 3d camera to create the info the system needs.....


Creating printed pictures by laminating, is too time consuming and expensive to be viable – I kind of assumed that there was already a easy way of doing this when I posted this.(and I just needed a supplier) It seems that I was wrong….
 
You could create a pop up scene. Use the photo (or several of the same scene if needed) and the pop up card effect to cut around different important aspects of the scene. If you want a bit more explanation I'll go into it a bit more, but I'm a bit tired right now and the explanation I just tried to type sounded a bit confuddled :lol:
 
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