INTERNET ACCESS FOR BLINDS

Internet access for Blind People

Queen’s University student Ióseph O'Loingsigh develops Internet access for blind people and wins Microsoft Award for Student Excellence

For many people, tapping away at a keyboard to look up information on the internet is a simple, daily task that makes everything more convenient. Yet for those with sight difficulties, it can be no more than another activity to be excluded from.
Ióseph O'Loingsigh was in his final year of studying IT at Queen’s University in Belfast, where researchers were looking into uses for voice-recognition technology. His lecturer, Dr Peter Kilpatrick, asked him to investigate new applications with a local software firm as part of his dissertation
Software: The Latest News reader
“The process for accessing the internet and the information it displays are highly visual,” says Ióseph. “Although there is sound, most information is written.”
“Accessing a website and making a phone call are essentially the same in terms of technology,” he explains. “If I simply reversed the process of voice-recognition, I could make software read written websites aloud. I found I could just convert text into speech via any phone, while users simply asked for what they wanted.”
Working with local software firm Kainos Software, Ióseph created his internet phone service. He successfully trialled his invention on the BBC website and asked partially sighted members of his family to try it out.
National Recognition
Ióseph’s lecturer recognised the potential of the discovery, not only for people who have difficulty reading text, but also for busy people on the move. He recommended Ióseph enter his internet phone service in the Microsoft Awards for Student Excellence.
“Winning this award was unexpected and has given me the impetus to launch my software career and I’m planning to develop and launch his internet phone service,” says Ióseph. “I want to put technology and my inventions to good use in the community while creating a successful business that will help the UK economy.”

Windows Aero

What is Windows Aero?

Windows Aero is the premium visual experience of Windows Vista. It features a translucent glass design with subtle window animations and new window colors.
Windows Aero features glass-like windows for an open lookAero’s distinctive visual style combines the appearance of lightweight, translucent windows with powerful graphic advances. With Aero, you can enjoy visually appealing effects and appearance and also benefit from better access to your programs.

Glass effects
Translucent glass windows create depth on the desktopOne of Aero’s more visually obvious features is glass window borders, which let you focus on the contents of your open windows. Window behavior has also been redesigned, with subtle animations accompanying the minimizing, maximizing, and repositioning of windows to appear more smooth and effortless.
Tint your windows using the provided colors, or mix your own custom colorYou can even fine-tune the color and appearance of windows, the Start menu, and the taskbar by tinting your translucent windows. Select one of the provided colors, or create your own custom color using the color mixer.

Switching between programs
Windows Flip 3DPart of the Windows Aero experience is Windows Flip 3D, which is a way to arrange your open windows in a three-dimensional stack that you can quickly flip through without having to click the taskbar.
Pointing to a window's taskbar button displays a preview of the Windows Aero. It also includes taskbar previews for your open windows. When you point to a taskbar button, you'll see a thumbnail-sized preview of the window, whether the content of the window is a document, a photo, or even a running video.

Switching windows with ALT+TAB
Even the method of pressing ALT+TAB for switching windows has been giving an update. Instead of simple icons, you can see live previews of the windows for each open program.How do I get Windows Aero?

The following editions of Windows Vista include Aero:
• Windows Vista Business
• Windows Vista Enterprise
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Ultimate

WINDOWS VISTA

Windows Vista Advantages

Windows Vista is safer and more reliable and there are dozens of wonderful new features. But what most people notice first about Windows Vista is, the way it looks.Windows Vista has an Improved Graphical User Interface. There is an entire new GUI for Windows Vista. The appearance of window, desktop, start button, start menu, taskbar, everything got a new look. Now, the window in Windows Vista looks similar to that of in Mac OSX. Windows Vista typically starts up in less than a minute. It has an Instant Sleep feature. You can go for weeks without ever turning your computer completely off. When you turn it back on, you don't need to plan on a long wait.
Ten Great Things You Can Do With Windows Vista

1. Find that file in a few quick clicks

You don't need to remember folder names to be organized anymore. Save time by instantly tracking down any document, photo, e-mail message, song, video, file, or program on your PC using Instant Search.
Just open the Start menu and begin typing in the Instant Search box—Windows Vista searches file names, application names, the full text of all files, and metadata, and then displays the results right away.

2. See everything you have opened at a glance

Have you lost track of what files and programs you've opened? Flip through all your open files and windows with a simple click of your mouse using Windows Flip 3DA. You're just one click away from everything you're working on.

Plus, in Windows Aero,A when you rest your mouse pointer on the taskbar, you can see thumbnail images of the windows you have opened without having to expand them—so you can find what you're looking for at a glance. Windows Aero gives your PC a whole new look and feel.

3. Keep photos organized—and ready to share

Is your collection of digital photos getting out of hand? You don't have to search through folders to track down the ones you want. Now you can tag your photos with a date, keyword, rating, or any label you choose so you can find them quickly and easily in Windows Photo Gallery. It has got ability to show previews of movie files, a feature, which was not there with Windows XP. You can also use Photo Gallery to fix and edit photos, and then share them with family and friends through slideshows, e-mail, or prints—so everything you need for photos is in one place.

4. Create a custom movie without a fine arts degree

Making a great home movie just got easier. Use Windows Movie Maker to blend videos and photos into a rich movie, complete with your own soundtrack, titles, and credits.When your masterpiece is ready to share with family and friends, you can easily create a professional-looking DVD in Windows DVD Maker.U

5. Keep track of your music—and play it anywhere

The larger your collection of digital music grows, the harder it can be to organize and keep track of it. But now you can easily scroll, flip, browse through, and play your entire music library in Windows Media Player 11.

You can even create new playlists of your favorite tracks with a single click.You can keep your music moving with you by easily synchronizing your portable music device. Or you can share the contents of your entire library with other computers on your home network or with digital media devices such as Xbox 360.

6. Surf multiple waves of the web at once

Do you like to jump from website to website? Satisfy your appetite for multitasking without having to open several browser windows. You can open multiple web pages in one window and easily click between them with the tabbed browsing feature in Windows Internet Explorer 7— and also, you can see thumbnail images of all your open web pages at a glance with Quick Tabs.

7. Record and watch TV on your time

Watch TV on your own schedule—not the TV networks' schedule. If your PC has a TV tuner, you can record, watch, and pause live television on your desktop or mobile PC using Windows Media Center.MWith multiple TV tuners, you can even record one channel while watching another. When and where you watch your shows is now up to you.

8. Bring your TV and PC together—and take home entertainment to a new level

For entertainment, you can connect your PC to one or more televisions in your home using a Windows Media CenterM Extender like Xbox 360, and enjoy all your digital entertainment on the big screen—from photo slideshows, home videos, and digital music to live and recorded TV shows and movies.

9. Keep the things you need most at your fingertips

No need to open a web browser to check traffic and weather, open a calculator to add up a few numbers and open an application to see your calendar. Now you can put mini-applications called gadgets right on your desktop, where you can see and use them whenever the mood strikes. Just use the Windows Sidebar pane to store and organize your favorite gadgets.

10. Help your kids stay safer
Worried about your kids' computer use or about what they may encounter online? Now you can give your kids a safer experience and set PC usage boundaries for them by using the centralized Parental Controls in Windows Vista. You can even deny access to certain programs - especially games and also the websites that you don’t wish your child should get exposed. Plus, Windows Vista provides a higher degree of security to the system, as well as, the operating system environment.You can better protect your PC and your personal information, as well as your family, with built-in security tools like Windows Defender and anti-spam and phishing filters.

(The Windows Defender is a program which blocks suspicious programs which tries to do some illegal activity in the computer system. Advanced firewall provides security to both incoming and outgoing data.)