Samsung Good Vibes App Lets Deafblind People Text Using Morse Code
Developed in association with Sense International India, Samsung Good Vibes is an app for deafblind people that lets them communicate with others using Morse Code!
The app has two interfaces – “Deafblind mode” and “Caregiver mode”. In Deafblind mode, the entire screen turns black and becomes an interface for the user to tap on with their fingers using Morse Code. Morse Code consists of dots and dashes, and letters from the English alphabet in various combinations of said dots and dashes can be formed with the app by just tapping anywhere on the screen. Short tap is a dot, long press is a dash, 2 finger tap is space, 2 finger long pass deletes letter, and flipping the phone sends the message. The Caregiver mode is regular mode for sighted people.
Watch the video below to see how it works. Warning: Get some tissues ready – this video will make you bawl your eyes out!
The app is available for free on the Galaxy Store for Samsung phones.
Source: Samsung
How does a deafblind person learn an alphabet and Morse code and then words and how to spell them? I recall that the highly intelligent and motivated Helen Keller did so via the intensive labor of a woman hired by her parents and who fortunately become obsessed with her task. I believe Helen learned to form words in her own vocal apparatus by repeatedly feeling her tutor’s throat as she spoke and then associating the words with objects. Do deafblind persons today need to go through this same process before learning Morse code and taking up a cell phone?
Deafblind person here, typing right now on a iPhone, using braille display. This app makes no sense and seems to be just a feel good thing for the company to get some warm fuzzies. Why, after teaching a DB child the concept of language, written language (spelling, etc) would you teach them Morris code instead of braille? With braille, I can type on letter to several letters with one “keystroke” or cord of keystrokes. With morse code, it would take a lot longer to both tap out a word and read it. Also, how is a deafblind person supposed to navigate to that app and open it without a braille display? With a braille display or braille notetaker, a DB person ca do almost everything on a computer, including text to others and read what others have to text to them. This makes no sense. Braille is vital to the DB, using morse code with this is at most a parlor trick that will depend on others to help them in the first place. Teaching morse instead of Braille is a waste of time.
Thank you for sharing the insight. I am a software engineer and I felt the same way. After watching this I felt somehow this is not as useful as one might think. However I could not figure out exactly how this was far from practical. It is hard for me to grasp the exact issue since I don’t know how it feels to be deaf blind. I hope future products like this would invest more time to actually listen to the needs of users and deliver actual benefits.
Hello Lisa
What you said is right and you have more knowledge of the same but there is one case and I would like to know your take on it. Isn’t the braille display quite big and has substantial cost to it.
Regarding navigating to an app and in general I am working on giving a morse/braille based interface for Linux.
Regards