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Your weekly dose of information that keeps you up to date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs.
Show Notes:
Music Concerts Enhanced for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Patrons (Joshua Lingenfelter – Clowes Hall) www.ClowesHall.org | www.TheButtKicker.com
ATCoalition – Free Webinars http://bit.ly/1hMeK0y
Guide to the ADA Standards – United States Access Board http://1.usa.gov/1eRLKP7
Guide to the ABA Standards – United States Access Board http://1.usa.gov/1eRLVdc
Moving robots through the use of the mind – AJW by The Asahi Shimbun http://bit.ly/1eRJebE
App: MyIEPMeeting — www.BridgingApps.org
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—–transcript follows—–
JOSHUA LINGENFELTER: This is Joshua Lingenfelter, Director of Marketing at Clowes Hall, and this is your assistive technology update.
WADE WINGLER: Hi, this is Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana with your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology, designed to assist people with disabilities and special needs. Welcome to episode number 151 of assistive technology update. Scheduled to be released on April 18 of 2014.
Today we spent some time at my alma mater, Butler University, learning about some technology designed to help folks who are deaf or hard of hearing better enjoy their concert going experience. We have some information about some free webinars. New ADA and ABA standards and guides for you, where you can learn more about those. And something coming up related to soccer, robots, and mind control. We hope that you’ll check us out online at www.eastersealstech.com. Give us a call or some feedback on our listener line at 317-721-7124, or shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAproject.
You might have noticed that we pension a lot about the upcoming RESNA conference and ended up a sister. We have been selected as the media sponsor for that event. assistivetechnologyradio.com, which is our 24 hour a day/ 7 day a week live streaming service for this content. We’ll be there. We will have our microphones. We will be recorded interviews. And if you would like to be on an episode of assistive technology update, make sure you find us wandering around the conference talking to folks about assistive technology. Visit www.resna.org/conference for more.
Our friends over at the AT coalition have a new newsletter, and they are talking a lot about free AT webinars from groups like UTAC, Ablenet, Georgia Tech, and MITS. On April 22, there will be a webinar about what administrators need to know about assistive technology. Also on the 22nd, exploring apps for classroom in transition. On the 23rd, using low-tech to support literacy learning. Then on the 29th, how to control a speech generating device through the power wheelchair drive method. I’m a first-come assistive technology implementation, the basics. Lastly, on May 8, access to the core standards for students with significant intellectual disabilities. Going to pop a link in the show notes over to the AT coalition news April edition, and you’ll find this and more about those free webinars.
>> Space at least 30 inches wide and 48 inches long is required to accommodate an occupied wheelchair. To allow room for movement and sway, accessible routes must provide a continuous clear weight of at least —
WADE WINGLER: And what you’re listening to is one of the new tutorials from the United States access board. They have released a new set of guidelines on the ADA and the ABA. So the ADA is the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the ABA is the Architectural Barriers Act. They have a whole, new web-based set of materials that includes all kinds of animations, guidelines, and explanations about how to implement and understand the ADA as well as the ABA. I’m going to pop a link in the show notes over to both of those guides so you have access to them. When you have questions about how to deal with the ADA or the ABA, that’s a great reference for you. Check our show notes.
I’m reading a headline that says, “moving robots through the use of the mind.” I’m reading a story here that talks about the fact that at the 2014 World Cup soccer match in Brazil, there will be a real star that’s the human brain. That’s coming up in June of this year. It says in the article that a young band will be wearing a yellow national uniform of Brazil and will appear and it will cheer before a crowd of 70,000 spectators. He’s going to have metal braces on his legs, and he’ll actually have a wearable robot that performs movements like walking, standing, just simply by visualizing them. The goal is that he, the young man who is a paraplegic, will be able to stand, walk, and then kick the ball into the field’s center circle, kicking off the game.
This is the result of a research project that’s been led by Dr. Miguel Nicholas who is a Brazilian national and professor at Duke University. He’s a leading authority in brain machine interfaces. They are currently screening candidates who might be the person to actually do this feat at the soccer match, and he says that it’s going to be like putting a man on the moon. Apparently, there has been a lot of research in this area. There’s been a lot of work with primates, monkeys, sitting into a chair with courts running into its head. When the monkey reaches towards an object, then a robotic arm mimics that movement. They’ve been doing that kind of research for a while on it.
Apparently there’s also some growing military applications and concerns. The idea that a soldier or somebody behind a gun might use a brain interface to be able to more quickly react to an enemy attack. There’s some political stuff related to that. A lot of that it’s covered in this article. I’ll pop a link in the show notes and you can read more, tell me about the military implications, but the exciting part of the robotics that might be used to help a young man kick the ball into the center circle to kick off the World Cup in Brazil in June. Check our show notes.
Each week, one of our partners tells us what’s happening in the ever-changing world of apps, so here’s an App Worth Mentioning.
JULIE SMITH: This is Julie Smith with BridgingApps, and this is an App Worth Mentioning. Today’s app is MyIEPMeeting. This app is $1.99 in the iTunes store. MyIEPMeeting is an organizational tool that helps parents and guardians effectively participate in their child’s individualized education plan, or IEP process. Features include checklists for organizing, information, a behavior tracker, task list, contact manager to store team members contact information, and the ability to store files such as PDFs, photos and videos.
Users are asked to create a username and password using an email address so that the information entered is secure. There is also the ability to add multiple profiles of children. So it is helpful for use with more than one child. In our trial of this app, instead of having multiple children, we’ve added additional profiles and titled them different grades as the child moves up and grade levels. This has been helpful to access information from previous IEP’s from previous years.
Within the app, there is a well-organized user guide that offers an overview on all features of the apps. This reviewer took about 30 minutes to read all of the sections of the apps and input information for an upcoming IEP meeting. In addition to the user guide, there is a helpful short video accessible from the developer website that can be accessed through a link.
We found this app to be an invaluable tool for organizing information and empowering parents to be active participants in meetings to advocate for their child’s success in school. Parents of children with down syndrome, autism, global developmental delay, and speech delays, have benefited from this app. We would recommend this app to anyone looking for help in preparing for IEP meetings.
To learn more about this app or others like it, visit BridgingApps.org.
WADE WINGLER: For the first time ever, the annual RESNA conference will be in Indianapolis, Indiana, right here in our backyard. This would be June 11 two the 15th of 2014 in downtown Indianapolis. We’ve estimate the folks at RESNA to call in and let us know what they are excited about. Here’s one of those calls.
>> Hi, this is Jamie Arasz Prioli, resident Board of Directors secretary. I’d like to encourage you to join us for the RESNA conference this summer. I’m excited about the conference session, Setting the Standard: evaluating and improving your assistive technology reuse program. I hope you’ll join me there. Visit www.resna.org/conference to learn more and register.
WADE WINGLER: today’s interview takes a little bit of an interesting form. I start off with some sort of play-by-play in a concert hall, then I break and have an interview with Josh Lingenfelter, the Director of Marketing for Clowes Memorial Hall on Butler University’s campus in Indianapolis. A little unusual format, but bear with me. It’s kind of fun stuff.
[Music]So at the moment, I’m at Butler University at Clowes Hall, and I’m sitting in a state, and — I don’t know how else to say this — my butt is vibrating. I’m here today to look at some new technology that’s being installed to help folks who are deaf or hard of hearing have a more immersive experience when it comes to theater or music or those kinds of things. We’re going to talk to somebody here in a second about the technology behind this, but it’s a pretty cool and interesting way to experience music.
Clowes Hall is famous for its acoustics. It has some crazy panels and hang at the top of the room to direct sound back down on the audience. But this is a fully immersive, much more rich experience. So as the music is kind of high-pitched without a lot of base, I’m not feeling anything, but as the base tones, to jump kicks in, I’m starting to feel more.
And now here’s my interview with Josh.
So I used to spend a lot of time at Clowes Hall. I actually went to college at Butler University and still get here for performances vocationally. But this the first time in a long time I got to hang out in Clowes Hall when there wasn’t a performance going on. I said in the intro that we would talk to somebody who knows about this very fascinating technology, and I’m joined by Justice Lingenfelter Hootie Director of Marketing here at Clowes. Josh, how are you?
JOSH LINGENFELTER: I am doing well, thank you.
WADE WINGLER: Good, hey, thank you so much for taking some time out of your afternoon and away from your press event to talk about what’s going on here at Clowes. The something cool happening, and it’s about accessibility, and it’s about folks who are deaf or hard of hearing. Tell me what’s going on.
JOSH LINGENFELTER: Well, what we are doing is we’re actually taking a technology — it’s a pre-existing technology — from a company that’s called a Butt Kicker.
WADE WINGLER: It’s called a what?
JOSH LINGENFELTER: It’s called a Butt Kicker. So what we’re doing is we’ve installed these into eight feet inside of the hall. We are converting the audio from a concert and turning it into vibration. The idea is essentially to provide an opportunity for those who are deaf or hard of hearing to experience music and a physical sensation as opposed to an oral one.
The idea actually came about because we had a performer who was on a popular TV show at that time, but he was a musician. He was just on a popular TV show. Somebody came up to the box office, and they passed us a note to request a refund. Of course, that cued to us that the person was deaf. His wife was there, and they began communicating, both through some of which and through a little bit of auditory.
As they were communicating back and forth, what we found out was that the wife was a little unhappy that husband had bought tickets because they were deaf, and it was a concert. They had made the comments, “We are deaf. Why would we go to a concert?” So they wanted to get a refund for it.
It’s sort of sparked an idea for me from a couple of different things. One was having been a drummer, I was familiar with this Butt Kicker product. But also thinking about Beethoven slicing the legs off of his piano and feeling the vibrations of the piano as he once death later in life. I thought, were not serving this audience if they are coming to us and saying why would he go to a concert. If we are not providing them with some way to actually enjoy it. It sparked an idea to think about whether or not we could convert the audio into a vibration and have the sensation of the music be physical as opposed to an oral one. Whether or not it would be something that deaf or hard of hearing community would be interested in.
So what we are doing this weekend after a number of years of trying to figure out how to do this, is putting them on to eight seats and we’re going to have five performances of blue Man group. We’ve got people from the community who are going to come in and test them out and see whether or not they work.
WADE WINGLER: That’s pretty remarkable stuff. I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised, because Clowes is a world-class venue. The acoustics and this place are known throughout the world. A lot of firsts have happened here over the years. But is this a technology that is being used in other places question mark is this something that’s pretty common, or is it just new to me?
JOSH LINGENFELTER: Well, the technology is being used a lot. Most people have probably experienced it before. If you gone on a ride at Disney, he probably had a Butt Kicker that was installed in your seat. So they are used a lot for that sort of environment. There also used in a lot of movie theaters in order to enhance the low frequencies without making overly loud. Musicians have been using them for a long time because they are used in order to create a large amount of vibration on stage without increasing the stage volume.
So now the bigger function they are being used for is a lot of home theaters were folks in their home don’t want to add big, loud, giant speaker system because maybe they are in an apartment or it’s too loud for the neighbors or their wife doesn’t want them to have it up that loud. So they use it in that format.
So the product has been around since about 1999. This is kind of the first installation where it was really designed for the deaf and hard of hearing community in this format. Now the company has actually done a couple of unique things for the deaf community. They actually did one for an alarm clock and installed one into a bed so that they would get the vibrations of the bed when the alarm clock went off. So they’ve had some experience in doing that, but this is a very unique think. But often are theaters really thinking about installing this type of thing when you think of a performing arts venue. Movie theaters? Sure. But a performing arts venue question mark is not a typical location you would find something like this.
WADE WINGLER: That’s pretty cool. I don’t want to get into all of the schematics, but tell me a little bit about the technology behind the scenes. I’m going to have to assume that these are hooked into the sound board in some way. There’s some sort of processing happy to make sure the sound turned into vibration at the right time and those kinds of things. What’s going on technically?
JOSH LINGENFELTER: Well, the technology is actually not overly advanced. It’s using the sound system as it normally would be used. We are feeding the signal from the sound to it, and then that’s splitting from what goes to the regular sound system that we all can hear and then feeding the other portions back into the seat. So what we are doing right now is kind of testing how much of that sound we want to push through. He can put the full range of equalization into it. We find a point where the vibrations are more intense to reconnect to feel them a little bit better and it doesn’t become cloudy with all of the sounds. It gives you the sort of better sense of what the music is actually doing. It really uses very simple processing and very simple tools and techniques. It’ nothing like brand-new or proprietary. In fact, with the exception of the actual device itself, everything else that we are using to power it is normal things you use and a sound system: amplifiers, equalization, and wiring. So it’s a very simple setup.
WADE WINGLER: And it reminds me of situations where I’ve been with folks who are deaf, and they turn on some big booming bass music. They point the speakers at the gym floor and it vibrates to whole floor. So it sounds kind of like a newer spent on that same concept.
JOSH LINGENFELTER: It’s pretty much the same idea but putting it into a much smaller unit. In fact, we are installing two units onto each seat. They are not very large, they are maybe about an inch across and about two inches or so tall. Two units, then those are all wired together. That wiring then goes into our amplifiers which is then hit by the equalization and the input signal prior to that. So it’s a very similar technology or similar idea, but even that idea of having the subwoofer put onto the gym floor is what Beethoven did with his piano. Put it on the floor and let the floor vibrate. We’re doing a similar thing with letting the seat vibrate.
WADE WINGLER: absolutely. So is this being used in conjunction with other accessibility techniques are tools for folks who are deaf or hard of hearing?
JOSH LINGENFELTER: Well, the goal ultimately is to try to combine all the techniques that we have to have a full experience. Because we’re doing this for Blue Man Group, and even though there is dialogue in it, that dialogue is also on the screen, so it’s sort of an open captioning idea.
There is potential for us to look at concerts in the future of having this paired within ASL interpreter so that the lyrics are being interpreted as well as the banter in between songs and so on, then the music being performed and felt through the seats. Clowes also has a assistive listening systems in addition to that. So for folks who are hard of hearing who want to put on the headphones and feel the vibrations, they would be able to do that too.
There’s sort of limitless possibilities as it relates to it. We talk a little bit about what the future holds. I kind of always think about this from the standpoint of thinking back to the scene in Mr. Holland’s opus, which I’m sure that some people will remember of putting the flashlight on stage and having the speakers turned up loud. That type of thing.
With smartphones today, with our ability to what we can do with those types of devices, I see the next steps of you create something that’s even more visual and having the music be converted into visual, which already happens and you can do that in iTunes and turn it on and be able to really expand the experience to where you’re getting something from the stage, something that you might be able to put in front of you, have an open captioning on bats, have an interpreter.
The possibilities are sort of endless. They aren’t unattainable. It’s really just putting those pieces together and having something that can be a unique and individual experience. I think it’s also another part of this of being able to sit down on a seat in front of the interpreter and have your own experience within that. I think it’s a really cool thing. So next year, we’ll see where it goes from here. I think we’re in a really cool time with this technology being used in this format.
WADE WINGLER: I think so, and I think you’re right. I think we’ll see evolution happen. You’ll learn more from this process. And the most important thing is trying it out and doing it and see what happens and go from there. Is it expensive?
JOSH LINGENFELTER: It’s not really. There’s obviously expect to it. You have as far as from an insulation standpoint, you do have are people who are installing it, you have your wiring, your amplifiers, those kinds of things. The actual units themselves, people can get these for their homes. So there’s somebody who wants to actually experience this and try it, you can put this in a home theater for less than $300. These are not overly expensive units. In fact, what we are using today is not a specifically designed for this experience. It is an off-the-shelf unit. I think that’s really kind of what makes it so cool. Because you’re taking something that’s already in existence and applying it, then there’s potential for how it could be changed later on. But if somebody wanted the same experience, they could get it today and not have to wait for it. It’s not like a new technology coming to you soon. It’s already available and you can already use it.
WADE WINGLER: I think that sort of speaks to the concept of universal design. Is not necessarily a disability specific thing. It’s something like automatic doors and captions and curb cuts and the parking lots. It may have some disability purpose, but it really helps everybody have a more accessible experience. It’s going to help a lot of folks.
JOSH LINGENFELTER: I think so. I think if you were sitting in the seat and still had all your full range of hearing, I think you’d still get something out of it. We’re all kind of sitting in there and testing it out and going, it completely changes the experience. It adds something else to it. It adds something physical.
I think you’re right. I think you look at open captioning or closed captioning on television, you can hear but you still turn that on. There are times when I turn that on. Curb cuts, great example. There’s a lot of things that may have had that one particular purpose when it started, but it becomes a wide usage. I think this is a case where it was designed for wide usage but now we organize that there could be a potential opportunity for this who could help those with a disability. I think that’s a fantastic opportunity. If we’re the ones who can kind of bring some attention to it, that’s great. The goal at the end of this is we’re going to try it, see how it works, and get some feedback, and then maybe there’s some more we can do with it in the future.
WADE WINGLER: I would love to, maybe in a few weeks when you’ve had a chance to have some performances and talk to folks, catch up with you very quickly and see what they found out and what the reaction wasn’t that kind of thing. I think that would be very helpful. I have to add when I had a chance to sit in the seat with the system running, the first word that came to mind for me was immerses. I know that’s part of the goal was a theatergoing or concert experience, but I think I felt more immersed in the environment that I had in any other situation.
JOSH LINGENFELTER: It kind of sticks with you. It was one of the things that we noticed. The musical shut off or you’ll stand up and you can kind of still feel the sensation. We were sitting — and I hope it doesn’t sound rude or anything — but I was trying to get a sense of what would this be like if I come here. What I noticed was I did the most simple thing that I could which was just close my ears. It was amazing to me how whenever I closed my ears, the sensation suddenly became greater. There was no change whatsoever in the seats. We weren’t turning it up or the like that, but suddenly shifting that sense and having that be physical, it went from being doing it in your legs to you are feeling it into your chest and it’s your shoulders. Not just one constant vibration, but a change in the vibrations because of what the music was doing. It’s a unique experience and it’s an immersive experience month but ultimately does really changed the way you sit and enjoy a performance.
WADE WINGLER: I think so. This is pretty cool stuff. If folks are in the audience and they want to learn more about what you’re doing here at Clowes or to get an idea of where to start looking at this, what kind of contact information which you offer up for folks to reach out to a learn more about what’s happening?
JOSH LINGENFELTER: I would recommend you just go to our websites cloweshall.org. My contact information is on there if anybody wants to reach out to me directly. I would also encourage people to look up the Butt Kicker system. They had a website, buttkicker.com. Look those guys up, because their product is readily available. So if they want to get some more information, especially about the product itself, then I think they are the best resource for that.
WADE WINGLER: Excellent, and for folks who aren’t in Indiana, Clowes is C-L-O-W-E-S, so it’s cloweshall.org. I’ll pop a link in the show was to both of those upset so folks can get to that. Joshua Lingenfelter is the Director of Marketing here at Clowes Memorial Hall. Thank you so much for showing us your technology and telling us about it.
JOSH LINGENFELTER: Thank you.
WADE WINGLER: And then after my visit to Clowes Hall with Josh, one of my good friends, Andy Leffler, who works here in the city of Indianapolis and is deaf, he and I worked on a number of projects together over the years, he and his family went to the event, and he was one of the guinea pigs who tried the system. I asked Andy to write up a quick few words for me that I could share with my listener. Here’s what Andy had to say.
I quote, “Tonight my family and I were fortunate enough to be part of Blue Man Group: feel the music, pilot project at Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler University. I have to say this. For the first time, I really enjoyed the musical show without the need of sitting right next to big speakers. I have been to many Broadway and musical shows, but it never felt the same by watching at the sign language interpreter the whole time.
They installed devices that are called Butt Kickers under the seats come and I thought that they were joking about the device’s name until I got home to Google it for more information. They had eight seats installed with the butt kickers only, but not one but two but kickers on each seat. They delivered vibrations pretty much during the entire musical show especially when they use the drums. I felt every beat going across my body like when I was a kid have my radio blaring inside my car.
Once in a while, I couldn’t feel a thing, even though they had the music going. I asked my hearing wife was happening, she said the music was quiet and low. That was the only drawback that I’ve experienced during the show. I have shared this with the staff at Clowes where they can adjust and increase the vibration when the music is quiet and low so we can enjoy every part of the show.
I can see myself going to more musical shows that they have those but kickers available. Right now they have eight seats installed with but kickers all the way in the back which didn’t bother me at first, but when we got there, we learned that the show’s audience was only 50 percent full, and everybody had moved to the front. We did feel a little isolated or disconnected during the show sometimes. Clowes hopes to have more but kickers in different locations so real not always sit on the way in the back if the pilot project is a success.
I didn’t mention earlier that I don’t be seen the Blue Man Group in Vegas a few years ago, so this was my second time to see them perform. But this time I really enjoyed the show by far. Many thanks to those butt kickers. I really appreciate what Clowes Memorial Hall of public university is doing to make it accessible and pleasant for deaf and hard of hearing patrons.”
WADE WINGLER: So thank you so much to Josh at Clowes Memorial Hall at Butler for showing the butt kicker system and how that might be useful. Thanks to my friend Andy for telling us what it’s like from the perspective of somebody who is a theatergoing who is deaf.
WADE WINGLER: Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? Call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Looking for show notes from today’s show? Head on over to EasterSealstech.com. Shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject, or check us out on Facebook. That was your Assistance Technology Update. I’m Wade Wingler with the INDATA Project at Easter Seals Crossroads in Indiana.
