Prototype System Makes Buildings Talk

Thirteen so-called "talking signs" have been installed in the area between the bus loop and Cheadle Hall in a prototype system for increasing campus access to the disabled.

Actually transparent boxes with recorded messages identifying their locations and, in some cases, providing a limited building directory, the devices help primarily the visually impaired to know where they are standing and what lies ahead. The messages are triggered by a directional infrared beam from a hand-held control, much like a TV remote control, that interrupts waves generated by Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) inside the box.

Some fine tuning remains to be done, admitted Jim Marston, a doctoral candidate in geography who has devoted six years to researching the uses of what he and geographer Reg Golledge call Remote Infrared Audible Technology. "But such a system serves more than the blind," he said.

People with severe dyslexia or damage to certain parts of the brain who respond better to audible rather than visual information can benefit.

The boxes each contain 18 LEDs that can be individually positioned for a maximum field of response, though the trigger beam must be close to line-of-sight. Each message is 16 seconds in duration with the present technology, though Marston said the next generation would allow recitation of a complete building directory.

Referring to research he and Golledge have done, Marston said that some 30 percent of blind people are reluctant to leave their homes for fear of unknown and unexpected obstacles. "We found that lack of information is one of the biggest obstacles to getting blind people on public transportation," said Marston.

He and Golledge, a geography professor, are afflicted with different but progressive forms of eye disease. Marston, a former business manager for a civil engineering firm, has macular degeneration, which leaves him side but not frontal vision. Golledge, for causes still unknown, gradually lost the power of sight from one eye and is slowly losing it from the other.

The UCSB prototype was funded by Communication Services, which is interested in establishing travel corridors on campus for the visually impaired, explained Paul Valenzuela, the service's operations manager. In addition to expanding horizons for the disabled, the talking sign technology is "virtually maintenance-free," he noted. Lack of new funding is the main obstacle to expanding and upgrading the campus's system of talking boxes.