Wednesday, June 09, 2010

WII Cane? Wednesday WOW factor!

 Find in yourself something to love, then all the hate will go away. --Joni

Wow. It’s amazing the technology out there. Living in the sighted world all my life as a person who can drink in the beauty of the earth with my eyes, I realize now it is a blessing, not just another thing God gave me.

I caught wind today of a WII Cane. What is a WII Cane? Well, as you know, most of the blind use canes, (unless they have a guide dog), but there has been in the making a cane for the blind with an attached camera that is supposedly going to help guide the blind.

It is still in the beta testing stages, but I read about it and it sounds quite fascinating. I wonder if you can only use it with the WII system? Or are the people at WII making it to help the blind?

They seem to be testing it on children? I would love for my blind friends to check this out. Let me know if it’s bogus, awesome technology, or useful technology. You can comment on it, and they don’t have that crazy captcha stuff for you to barrel through.

Maybe you, the blind, can blog about this if you find it useful?

And to top off this post, I’ve caught wind of audio movies? WOW! (Yes this is wow Wednesday) Movies, with audio description in MP3 format? How cool is that? And it is from Three Blind Mice, so screen readers can find it extremely useful. (Thanks Ro and Jenn)

I know my writing friends are not impressed with any of this, they’re thinking, “We want writing tips.”

Writing tips? What am I you’re everyday visit to a place for tips? :) I love you all and you know it.

Why not WOW someone with your writing? Write something they least expect from you. Step out of the box and grab your reader with new and awesome things in this world. I was going to make this Woeful Wednesday and talk about my woes, but instead I turned the negative into a positive and made it WOW Wednesday!

Do something today to make yourself say, WOW! Stop beating yourself up for the have-nots and be grateful for the HAVE’S! Be appreciative of all that is, and not down because of all the, is not’s, in your life. A lot of the time, depression sets in with negative thoughts piling up on negative thoughts. There is only one fight to banish negative and that is with the strength and power of positive. (Not an easy task, I know!)

Example:
Negative -- I want to stay in bed all day under the covers and mope.

Positive -- I made my bed today! WOW!

Then, to top it all off, write about it! We only get one shot at life, make the most of every day!

7 comments:

Steven said...

Very interesting, I'll have to check that out.

Ro said...

Darnit, I had gotten an email about the Wii cane and I deleted it. Gah.

Great post :)

joni said...

Sure ya will Stormcrow, sure ya will. :P

Thanks Ro.

This tool looked really cool. (hey that rhymed)lol But seriously, maybe it is a walk into the future?

Ro said...

If I remember right, it's a teaching tool to help children learn the concept. It's not an actual cane that you take out into the world. But there are a lot of really awesome tools being designed to make the cane more than just a cane. Thing is, look at how much a screen reader is. Now look at how much a cane is. I think I'll keep the same old non technilogical cane. ;)

joni said...

I KNEW I could count on you!!!

Thank you!
I thought it said about teaching kids. I guess this would be children who are born blind? A tool to help them navigate?
I still think it is awesome to think of where technology has come with helping all of the able-bodied people who just need a little assistance. ;)

Thanks again Ro!

Ro said...

Yeah probably kids born blind, or kids with a degenerative eye condition. I can see how the Wii would really help with that, since the remote vibrates, so you could "feel" surfaces. I think it be great for those of us who went blind later too. Might have to talk to Saavi about it. It would be a totally non scary way of experiencing the cane.

Oh and I wanted to say that I like that you write about blind stuff here. It's important for people to know, so folks that read here looking for writing, are inadvertantly getting educated on blindness.

joni said...

I think all people deserve to be educated.

You know, we live in an ignorant society, and if I can make even one person aware of others who need assistance, then jnoi is going to do it! lol

I remember Stormcrow and his first days with the cane, he was as nervous using it as I was being whacked with it (which still happens all too often.)

He is such a techie kinda guy, he would probably LOVE the WII. But noooooo he's too busy reviewing and listening to movies now. lol (kidding) :)