Thursday
Feb142008
Maps for the Blind
Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 12:43PM Great story on KQED QUEST the other day: tactile street maps for the blind. This is about TMAP, a project that essentially aims to make a street map GIS for the blind, including web-based delivery of images that can be printed on an embossing printer, and phone-based request for mailed maps. You can learn a lot about the technical details in this Google Tech Talk given by Dr. Josh Miele (a Cal alum).
Reader Comments (2)
Thanks for the positive review of the Quest story. I think I sounded like a bit of a nut, but they re-released it this morning (2/16) as a piece on Weekend Edition, and I'm told I sounded slightly more grounded. Glad to hear you guys think TMAP is of interest.
I think listening to yourself talk always makes you sound a bit nutty. I don't suppose you have any images of the tactile maps online, do you? I found the cartographic constraints you discussed pretty interesting, and I'd like to see how they worked out in practice (although maybe I wouldn't really understand them until I tried the map out).