“Total Access” Product Promotion: Irked spotlights the Trekker Breeze
Written by admin2 on August 28th, 2009Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Irked Videos
The Trekker Breeze, designed and manufactured by the company HumanWare, is a handheld talking GPS for people who are blind/visually impaired that “can be controlled by one hand” and is ”as simple as your TV remote.” It costs $895USD, and here’s what it can do: It verbally announces names of streets, intersections and landmarks (including stores, public services, etc) as you walk. No need to stop passersby to know where you are… simply press a button and Breeze tells you your location on the spot. When you are in a vehicle, Breeze announces all intersections, allowing you to exit when you want. If you get lost, you can easily retrace your steps—simply push a button. You can record the routes when you learn them with sighted people so that you can use them later without assistance, and also save landmarks for later use (i.e. favourite restaurant, friend’s house, bank, park bench, etc).
Two awesome videos…after the jump!
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Only 6% of guide dog owners venture to new destinations due to anxiety levels…
A Trekker Breeze has an 8-hour battery. It weighs less than half a pound.
MANY country maps are currently available—and more are coming.
Don’t read us wrong, we think guide dogs are truly AWESOME.
But even Stevie Wonder is “very very excited” about this.
You can get more out of your neighborhood.
A new world awaits you!
Get Breezy,
& Go!
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Watch a fascinating promotional video about the Trekker Breeze courtesy HumanWareTechnologie’s YouTube channel:
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Quoting a June 2009 HumanWare press release:
To help celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal this year, the Festival, HumanWare and the Institut Nazareth et Louis-Braille (INLB), have joined forces to make the programming and outdoor sites more accessible than ever. The new talking GPS Trekker Breeze will be made available to visually impaired festival goers so they can more easily find their way around the site. It’s a world first! Participants with vision loss can come to the HumanWare-INLB booth to borrow a Trekker Breeze at no cost for a number of hours. They can then choose their next stop on the site from a list of prerecorded points of interest. Be it one of the many outdoor stages, a group of merchant booths, washroom facilities, or access to a métro station or bus stop, Breeze users need only follow the voice instructions to easily find their way to their destination . . . This year marks the 200th anniversary since the birth of Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille writing system for the visually impaired. What better way to mark the anniversary than by attending the free concert by Stevie Wonder?
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Watch a great CBC-TV Montreal news segment that aired June 30th:
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Only 119 days left ’til Christmas,
And 105 until Chanukah.
So go buy a Trekker Breeze…
for every visually impaired person you know!
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Get your Trekker Breeze here!
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