Samsung has a new app.
No, it’s not entertainment. It’s not a new game.
It’s an app that will help people who are both deaf and blind to communicate with friends and family.
And it’s a “two-way street.”
Developed in India, the new communication app uses Morse code, converting the vibrations from the “taps” as well as gestures into text or voice messages. The deafblind user communicates via a mixture of dots and dashes. Messages from the other user (voice or text) are received by the deafblind person as vibrations in Morse Code that he/she can understand.
Interface of the Samsung Good Vibes app
Good vibrations!
“I speak, therefore others know that I am.”
Jamaican-born deafblind activist, George Stern
The World Deafblind Federation says the number of deafblind persons represents between 0.2 and 2 percent of the global population. The deafblind are often invisible and do not always benefit from disability programmes. There is a general lack of awareness of the unique challenges they face. There are around 54,000 deaf persons in Jamaica.
But what is Morse Code?
It’s a signaling system developed as an electrical telegraph system from as far back at the nineteenth century by three Americans – Samuel F.B. Morse, Joseph Henry and Alfred Vail. It became widely used for aviation communications and in wartime in the twentieth century.
This amazing communications system is still used today in many different ways – for example, by ham radio operators, in aviation and in the military. Now it is linked to smartphone technology. What would Mr. Morse think?
The Good Vibes app is available from the Samsung Galaxy store and will be available on Google Play Store soon for all other Android smartphone users.
Interesting fact: Did you know that a leading advocate for the deafblind and member of the disability rights organization DeafBlind Citizens in Action (DCA) in the United States is Jamaican-born George Stern? His motto is: “I speak, therefore others know that I am.”
The deafblind community in Jamaica needs our support!
BUZZ fam, check out the ad for the Good Vibes – we’re definitely feeling the positive energy from this innovative app from Samsung.
