New device lets the blind read camera settings

A Melbourne photographer who is legally blind has been helped by RMIT University to develop a new device enabling him to read camera settings with the use of WiFi and a phone application.

Andrew Follows has retinitis pigmentosa, an eye condition which has rendered one eye completely blind, with ever-diminishing tunnel vision in the other.

Two years ago, Follows started working with RMIT’s Dr Glenn Matthews, a lecturer in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering with significant knowledge in electronic devices.

It was here a more specific idea was born – to create a device which plugs into a camera and communicates via WiFi with an iPhone application.

This application would then give voice prompts whenever a setting was changed on the camera. Prototypes are now being tested.

Matthews said the device could be sold wholesale for less than $100. Perhaps you can take inspiration from this application and launch something along the same lines.