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Cloudworld

About Cloudworld

Cloudworld Ltd

The mission of Cloudworld Ltd is to provide practical and affordable computer-based systems, which are usable and useful to everyone (regardless of age or disability) for increased quality of life and participation in the information society.

Cloudworld Ltd was founded by John Nissen in 1996 to carry out a project to develop a personal information management system which would be simple to use and which would have speech and tactile outputs making it accessible to people unable to read from a computer screen. The project was called CUPID, standing for "computer use by print disabled"

SMART Award

The project proposal won a SMART award from the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and this helped to fund initial development over a period of 16 months. The SMART award is for "invention and innovation", and the proposal was to develop a system with a number of innovative features including a novel tactile output device.

Universal design

Cloudworld has done extensive research on technology for disabled people and has adopted a unique universal design approach. The system has three modes of output which operate in a serial fashion: visual, audio and tactile.

The visual output permits words to appear with very large characters, in a way that they can be read by people with a range of visual impairments.

The audio output is from a speech synthesiser having particular clarity, and can be fed directly into a hearing aid for users who are hard of hearing.

There is a novel tactile output device, designed to be usable by elderly people. The combination of visual, audio and tactile outputs makes the system accessible to almost anybody with a sensory, or sensory processing, disability. There is a special keypad for input; this can be used with the speech output by people with speech impediment or other communication disability.

The operation of the system is exceptionally simple, such that it can be used by elderly people who may have never used a computer, and by people with intellectual impairment who would find a conventional user interface, like Microsoft Windows(TM), far too difficult.

The result is that the system can be used by people with almost any disability or combination of disabilities, be they mental, physical or sensory.

If you are deafblind with both severe loss of vision and profound deafness, you may not be able to use either speech or large character display, in which case a tactile output becomes vital. Cloudworld's tactile output device is designed so you can easily feel the pins, and which ones are vibrating. Our objective is that you can, with a little practice, learn to read at a comfortable rate, perhaps us much as half the speed of a sighted person.

Those of you are familiar with Braille systems may be interested to know that we rejected the idea of a single Braille cell device with six pins, as we have found you can achieve a much higher reading speed by spreading the signal over twice the number of pins and avoiding simultaneous vibrations on different fingers. The fingers are also much less prone to vibration fatigue or numbness, that you may get with a single cell device like the Vibracom.

Tactile Devices

If you are deafblind with both severe loss of vision and profound deafness, you may not be able to use either speech or large character display, in which case a tactile output becomes vital.

Cloudworld's tactile output device is designed so you can easily feel the pins, and which ones are vibrating. Our objective is that you can, with a little practice, learn to read at a comfortable rate, perhaps us much as half the speed of a sighted person.

John Nissen, who founded Cloudworld in 1996, has been developing ideas for single-handed tactile input and output devices, with a succession of patented inventions. Development of the first device was supported with a SMART award from the Department of Trade and Industry (DoTI). The project was called CUPID - Computer Use for Print-Disabled people.

The tactile output device is complementary to audio and visual presentation systems, and can be used by people with hearing and/or sight impairments, including blind, deaf and deafblind people. The tactile output device is designed to be easier and faster to read than Braille for blind people, while being more affordable than a dynamic refreshible Braille display. But it can also be used to reinforce speech for people who are deaf or hard of hearing (HoH) while they are lip reading.

The tactile input device is a special keypad that is designed for use with the wearable PDA, e.g. for text messaging. The arrangement for input corresponds to the arrangement for output of the tactile output device, allowing a symmetric communication system.

Products

Cloudworld has developed a software package which will run on a wide range of computers - anything from a palmtop to a powerful web server.

We are now developing a "wearable" computer on which to run this software. A wearable computer is a computer that you can fasten on your belt or wear on your wrist, such that you do not need to hold it in one hand to operate it with the other hand, as you have to with palmtops. It is designed to be easy to use while you are walking around. The fact that it can be operated by one hand makes it convenient for somebody holding a stick, a dog harness, or a shopping basket in the other hand.

A wearable computer can help in organising your life, in communicating with other people, and in other daily tasks or functions, without interfering with other things you are doing. Wearable computers can be useful for a great many things, and in a variety of situations, for example:

at school, in the workplace, and at home;
to help with travelling from place to place;
to help with language and communication;
to make notes, or record speech;
to store literature and music which can then be read out or played to you at your leisure;
as a "universal remote" device for interacting with television set, video recorder and other appliances about the home;
as an access device for private interaction with public facilities, such as cash dispensers and information kiosks;
to give greater independence to disabled people.

But a wearable computer can also function as a desktop, and be used to provide net access, word processing and information management.

Wearable PDA

Cloudworld is developing an accessible PDA in the EU funded SILC project.

This development could be the basis of the wearable 'Personal Accessor Device' (PAD) of the future.

Cloudworld has been developing a personal organiser (PDA) that can be worn on the wrist like a watch. The PDA will display text in relatively large characters on its small LCD screen, and will also be able to speak the text to you. The PDA will have a wireless link, allowing it to be used as a cordless phone. There will be an alarm button, and option for bio-sensors, allowing the PDA to be used as a safety system for elderly people wishing to live an independent life at home. The wireless link will allow a service centre to be called in the event of a fall, heart attack, etc.

Development of an accessible PDA is part of the SILC project.

Read "Bridging the gap" by John Nissen to understand the rationale behind the Personal Accessor concept. A proposal will be submitted under the Framework 6 Programme. The proposal will be based on the Expression of Interest (EoI) called PACE - Personal Accessor for Co-operation in Europe, see Cordis web site.

Take a look at the PowerPoint presentation given by John at the PACE information day in Brussels.

Facilities

A number of facilities are integrated in our system, whether it runs on a desktop PC or a wearable. The set of input and output interfaces, and ease of operation, make the system accessible by almost anyone, regardless of age or disability. All the facilities are accessible through this same set of interfaces.

The facilities are centred around an information management system. They include the functions of an organiser and word processor, and they allow you to access the internet. Information provided by services (e.g. from the internet) will be stored in an object- hypertext database designed for ease of navigation and browsing. "Information" is meant in the widest sense, and could include:

product information, e.g. to help in shopping;
time-table information to help in travel;
information normally disseminated by other means, e.g. news, books and material from the internet and world-wide web.

A version of system will be provided to run on a wearable, which used for a variety of purposes in a variety of situations, e.g. to store a shopping list, to read a book on the train, or to remind you to take some medicine. When fitted with an infra-red transceiver, the system can link into the environment, for control in the smart home, for interacting with a cash dispenser or information kiosk, and so on.

Graphical User Interfaces

As Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) have become increasingly complex, computer use has become increasingly difficult for visually impaired people. Our approach is to hide the underlying operating system and windowing system from the user. In this respect the Cupid approach differs from so-called "screen readers" used by blind people to interpret what is presented on the screen by an application. Our approach is to access the data of the application and then present that data through the Cupid interface with our own interface paradigm. Thus all information is presented in the same way, for navigation and browsing by the user.

Platforms

Currently our software will run on any supported Java platform including Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Solaris, Linux, RiscOS and EPOS.

Wearable interface options

The input/output options include:

Standard QUERTY keyboard input
Single-handed chordal input
Simple visual display allowing very large characters
Audio display of text using speech synthesis
Novel tactile display, suitable for the young and the elderly

The aim is to have as much equivalence between different modalities of input and between different modalities of output as possible. Output can be used as feedback to input, e.g. with each word synthesised after the user has typed it. The outputs in different modalities can be synchronised, e.g. with the display of words on the screen as they are spoken by the synthesiser.

WordAloud® - teaching English and literacy worldwide