World’s first Braille smartwatch is a gamechanger for the blind

Many of the things we take for granted can be challenging and difficult for blind people – smartphones especially have much less utility for them, as do smartwatches. Enter the stage Dot – the world’s first Braille smartwatch could close that gap, allowing people without sight to use and interact with smart devices.

The Braille alphabet is a tactile writing system used by the blind and the visually impaired. It is traditionally written with embossed paper, but now, it could move to the electronic area. The device uses a refreshable Braille display composed of an array of active dots that are capable of projecting four Braille characters at a time and can be customized.

“Ninety percent of blind people become blind after birth, and there’s nothing for them right now – they lose their access to information so suddenly,” said Eric Ju Yoon Kim, Dot’s co-founder and CEO, in an interview with Colin Moreshead from Tech in Asia. “Dot can be their lifeline, so they can learn Braille and access everyday information through their fingers, which is the goal of Braille literacy.”

continue http://www.zmescience.com/research/inventions/smartwatch-braille-watch-04082015/

Amazon Is Cracking Down on Sharing Prime Accounts

Amazon is now limiting the number of people in a single household who are able to share a Prime account to two, down from four.

As Quartz points out, part of the new restrictions may be Amazon’s push toward improving the profitability of the premium service. It wants more subscribers, and Prime subscribers typically spend more at Amazon than non-Prime users. Amazon may also be looking to avoid the fate of the likes of Netflix and HBO, which may be losing as many as $500 million this year to the scourge of password sharing.

Four children can use one Prime account, though they’re primarily limited to the Instant Video streaming service and sharing Kindle e-books.

But now it seems that Amazon is trying to prevent those benefits from being shared willy nilly. Which means it’s time to make one of your roommates an honest man or woman.
source http://motherboard.vice.com/read/amazon-is-cracking-down-on-sharing-prime-accounts

Army to recruiters: Treat armed citizens as security threat

They want them to report the people protecting them to law enforcement? They are begging for them to get shot up again.

The Army has warned its recruiters to treat the gun-toting civilians gathering at centers across the country in the wake of the Chattanooga, Tenn., shooting as a security threat.

Soldiers should avoid anyone standing outside the recruiting centers attempting to offer protection and report them to local law enforcement and the command if they feel threatened, according to a U.S. Army Recruiting Command policy letter issued Monday.

Armed citizens — some associated with activist groups and militias — were standing vigil outside recruiting centers in Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Idaho and elsewhere this week, saying they want to provide protection to servicemembers barred from carrying firearms on duty. Four Marines and a sailor were killed by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old Kuwait-born resident of Tennessee, during an attack Thursday on a strip mall recruiting center and a Navy facility that is being investigated as an act of terrorism.

Abdulazeez fired into the front of the recruiting station but there were no casualties. The five servicemembers were killed during an attack on the Navy Operational Support Center. A Navy officer and a Marine reportedly fired at the gunman, although it is unclear why they were armed. It is against Defense Department policy for anyone other than military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property.

continue http://washingtonweeklynews.com/army-to-recruiters-treat-armed-citizens-as-security-threat/

Twitter Judges Tweeted Jokes Copyrightable

Tweeted a great joke lately? Was it A) a brilliantly original observation all of your own? Or B) a funny tweet you saw on Twitter and pilfered, sans credit?

If the answer is B) your joke theft might result in your tweet being blocked on copyright grounds — if the original composer of the joke reports your theft as copyright infringement to Twitter.

The Verge covered a recent incidence of this happening, after Twitter user @Plagiarismisbad noticed instances of tweet takedowns relating to a joke originally tweeted by freelance writer Olga Lexell (@runolgarun):

continue http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/26/twitter-judges-tweeted-jokes-copyrightable/

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