Sendero Group Travel Blog

Follow Sendero travelers on their adventures using accessible GPS.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

 

CSUN Day 1

The CSUN conference has a new configuration this year with exhibitor hours on Wednesday from Noon to 7 and none on Saturday. I think it worked pretty well.

Our iPhone session Wednesday was completely packed with people sitting on the floor and stacked up in the hallway. In the evening, we had a good 30 or more people in our suite just playing with various devices and socializing.

One of the more interesting items was a virtual touch technique for typing on the iPhone. You just put your fingers on the screen and the artificial intelligence of the software figured out the positioning of your touches based on your finger's relative position. When you finished typing a word, you just did a wipe and it would announce the word it thought you typed. It felt like it was reading your mind. Absolutely brilliant.

It is not a product yet, just a guy with a cool idea and first implementation trying it out on a bunch of blind users.

We'll see what we find today and we will have our first Seeing Eye GPS iPhone session to see what users of other GPS apps are thinking.

Mike

 

let the CSUN conference begin by Mike May

The best part of any conference is the networking. That has already begun.
For me, off to present at 8 AM this morning on an accessibility panel and then at 9:20 with Peter Cantisani to talk about all the cool iPhone apps and hardware we play with.
The exhibits are open today from noon to 7 PM.
Hope some of you on this list are attending. Come by Sendero booth 521 or ring our suite 968 around 9:30 or 10 PM to socialize.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

 

more about GPS in Australia

Once again, I really took advantage of the GPS to explore independently yesterday. Having user points was really helpful in finding the exact ticket window to for the Manly ferry and even finding the steps to Manly beach once we got there. I remembered there was a really cool restaurant on the beach but not the name. I was able to search the nearby user points and was reminded once I came across the restaurant name.

The same happened when looking for this really good wine shop in order to bring a bottle to dinner with local friends having us over to dinner. Then of course there was finding their house and making sure the taxi driver took the best route.

It was pretty darn nice to be able to come off that ferry and find all of these things 100% independently in an unfamiliar busy city.

I will say the Navteq commercial points of interest aren't wonderful, something that would be true on both the Sendero GPS, Trekker and Kapten since we all use the same data other than our user POIs.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

 

Now in Sydney by Mike May

FYI, I am now in Sydney to explore some more.

It has been one of the coldest wettest Summers in this part of the world but it is in the 80s now.

 

International Mobility Conference 2012

Mike May attended IMC14, the fourteenth International Mobility Conference, held in Palmerston North, New Zealand. The theme for IMC14 was "Mobility through the Ages: Up Over and Down Under". As such, they featured the newest in trends, practices and information related to the acquisition of independent travel for children, adults and older adults.
Mike on stage presenting

Mike and Cheng on stage presenting
Mike gave a presentation about Accessible GPS Options and later lead an Accessible GPS Treasure hunt group to tour the streets surrounding the conference.
Mike, Cheng, and Gena at the IMC14 Conference

GPS Treasure Hunt group out exploring the area

Mike's GPS Treasure Hunt was also featured in Massey University's News, Blind treasure hunt, bionic eyes at international mobility conference
and in the Manawatu Standard News, GPS takes lead as blind navigate around the city


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

 

Mike May Interview on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon Program

Listen to Mike's Interview about Mike's inspiring view where there's always a way to overcome challenges in life.

The interview discusses Mike's life, starting with him losing his sight as a child in an accident that almost killed him, continuing on with his childhood all the way through college, then on to his skiing experience and winning the speed skiing record, continuing with his travels, his start up businesses and his sight restoring surgery in his 40s, and finishing with what Mike is currently working on.

Monday, February 13, 2012

 

exploring Auckland by Mike May

I am currently in Auckland New Zealand in route to the International Mobility Conference on the south of this island. I don't think I'll ever get over the enjoyment and independence of exploring with the GPS. I have been in New Zealand several times before dating back to 1995. It is fun to see intersection points I marked back in the day when we didn't even have street maps not to mention favorite restaurant or pedestrian foot paths.

I think we will go look for the Sky Screamer which Charles and I tried several years ago before heading to the airport. No telling what else we will come across in the process.

Mike

Archives

August 1997   January 1998   August 1999   December 1999   January 2000   September 2004   October 2004   November 2004   December 2004   March 2005   May 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   November 2005   May 2006   June 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   December 2006   February 2007   March 2007   April 2007   May 2007   July 2007   August 2007   September 2007   October 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   February 2008   March 2008   May 2008   June 2008   July 2008   August 2008   October 2008   January 2009   June 2009   July 2009   August 2009   September 2009   October 2009   November 2009   December 2009   January 2010   March 2010   April 2010   July 2010   October 2010   December 2010   February 2011   May 2011   July 2011   September 2011   October 2011   November 2011   January 2012   February 2012   March 2012   April 2012   May 2012   July 2012   August 2012   October 2012   November 2012   December 2012   January 2013   March 2013   June 2013   July 2013   August 2013   September 2013   October 2013   November 2013   December 2013   January 2014   March 2014   April 2014   August 2014   September 2014   October 2014   November 2014   December 2014   February 2015   July 2015   August 2015   September 2015   November 2015   December 2015   January 2016   January 2017   September 2018   November 2018  

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?