Assistive Technology Idea: Color Reader

[sgraber]

So my youngest son, Joel, came up with an interesting idea for color blind kids:  a simple color reader for crayons and markers.  What he wants is for his color blind friend to be able to put the crayon or marker on or in something and it tell him what color it is - either from a display or a speaker.  Right now his friend has to ask for help identifying what color a crayon is that he's picked out.

What I'm thinking is some sort of shape that has a hole in it and the child sticks the crayon or marker into it.  The insertion trips a microswitch or photosensor, takes a reading using an RGB sensor, and then plays a sound file or shows the color name on an LCD.

What do you guys think?

[BeeAmaker]

Just have the thing say "grey" every time you stick a crayon in it. LOL - Just kidding!

That's actually a good Idea, I like it.

[jimustanguitar]

Have you seen the EnChroma glasses from Corning?

[sgraber]

Pretty cool!

[BeeAmaker]

Wow that's cool! I had a science teacher that was colorblind. He would always complement the girls on their lovely grey sweater.

[sgraber]

gizmodo.com/can-these-glasses-help-the-colorblind-we-put-en-chroma-1739433668

[bvandiepenbos]

Shane, I think your son's idea is great. Should be pretty easy to make a prototype. You already have the test strip reader thing, just modify that a bit.

[ZionPhil]

Shane, did you check to see if there is already an app that does the same thing using your phones camera?

[sgraber]

Nov 5, 2015 13:15:57 GMT -5 ZionPhil said:

Shane, did you check to see if there is already an app that does the same thing using your phones camera?

Nope. This little device would be for elementary kids, so I don't think they'll have a smartphone in the classroom.

[BeeAmaker]

Nov 5, 2015 14:40:01 GMT -5 sgraber said:

Nov 5, 2015 13:15:57 GMT -5 ZionPhil said:

Shane, did you check to see if there is already an app that does the same thing using your phones camera?

Nope. This little device would be for elementary kids, so I don't think they'll have a smartphone in the classroom.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. National Average for first cell phone, is 6 years old.

[sgraber]

I was targeting usage in a classroom. I don't know of many schools that will allow a student to even have their cellphone turned 'ON' during a class period.

[BeeAmaker]

I wouldn't be so sure about that either,

Most schools allow students to have cell phones for safety -- a reaction to the Littleton, Colorado, high school shooting incident of 1999.

Source

[BeeAmaker]

But still I think it's a good Idea.