Morning Tidings

Tag: Visually

  • Google Maps Bring Back ‘Street View’ Experience for Indian Users To Help People Explore Places More Visually & Accurately

    New Delhi, July 27: With an aim to enhance user experience, Google Maps on Wednesday brought back ‘Street View’ experience to the country that will help people navigate and explore places more visually and accurately.

    The Indian government had suspended the ‘Street View’ service more than a decade ago for allegedly failing to secure required security clearances.

    Google said Street View APIs will also be available to local developers enabling them to deliver richer mapping experiences in their services. It also mentioned that the company has launched this new feature in partnership with Genesys International, an advanced mapping solutions company, and Tech Mahindra.

    “We believe the launch of Street View in India will be instrumental in delivering a more helpful user experience, from virtually visiting locations to getting a better sense of local businesses and establishments,” Miriam Karthika Daniel, VP – Google Maps Experiences, said in a statement. Google Maps Street View Feature Launched in India, Here’s How To Use It.

    “This launch has been made possible only through collaborations with our local partners Tech Mahindra and Genesys International,” Daniel added.

    The company said that Street View will be available on Google Maps with fresh imagery licensed from local partners covering over 150,000 kilometers across ten cities in India, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Nashik, Vadodara, Ahmednagar, and Amritsar.

    Google, Genesys International, and Tech Mahindra plan to expand this feature to more than 50 cities by the end of 2022.

    Supporting the efforts of local traffic authorities to promote safe driving, Google Maps will now show speed limits data shared by the traffic authorities, starting with Bengaluru.

    The tech giant also announced its partnership with Bengaluru traffic police as part of its efforts toward delivering models that better optimise traffic light timings. This is helping the local traffic authority manage road congestion at key intersections, and will eventually scale across the city.

    Google said it will further expand this to Kolkata and Hyderabad in partnership with local traffic authorities.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on Jul 27, 2022 06:01 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).

  • IIT Kanpur Develops Touch-Sensitive Smartwatch for Visually Impaired

    Kanpur, May 28: A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur on Saturday announced that it has developed a novel touch-sensitive smart watch for visually impaired persons that are equipped with modern techniques.

    The watch comprises sensors like PPG (Photoplethysmography) to read health parameters such as the heart rate and SpO2.  IIT Bombay Recruitment 2022: Vacancies for 31 Engineer, Junior Engineer, and Assistant Posts Announced; Check Details Here

    An accelerometer is used to measure the step count to keep track of daily activity. All these parameters can be individually read using the haptic menu.

    “One of our objectives at IIT Kanpur has been to make innovations inclusive for all. This haptic smart watch is a significant invention in this regard, which I believe will be of great help for the blind and the visually impaired,” Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur, said in a statement.

    “The touch-sensitive and vibration-based features would prove to be revolutionary in giving the sense of time to the blind and the visually impaired. I congratulate the team led by Prof. Siddhartha Panda, and Vishwaraj Srivastava, for this invention,” he added.

    The invention is said to be a cost-effective smart wearable device with a touch-sensitive tactile interface that displays information using vibrations.

    The dial face consisting of tactile touch-sensitive hour markers and vibration-based output is used to read time, create an interface to select different apps, haptically recognize different apps, and to sense the numbers.

    The report said that around 49 million blind and 285 million visually impaired persons in the world face difficulty in easily interacting with devices due to the absence of tactile interface and India is home to about 20 per cent of the total blind people in the world.

    (The above story first appeared on Morning Tidings on May 28, 2022 03:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website morningtidings.com).