Audio Players for the Vision Impared? 27
Panz asks: "Over Easter my 86 year-old grandmother asked my parents to help her buy a CD player. Normally, there would just be a technology barrier to overcome. Unfortunately, my grandmother has macular degeneration which prevents her from using traditional consumer electronics. What, if any, low-vision friendly CD/MP3/audio players are available? Is there such a thing on the market?" What CD/MP3 players have interfaces suitable for people who have less-than-stellar eyesight? Features that would be nice to have would be backlit displays, and larger than normal text displays.
Re:Not to be a jackass... (Score:1)
I still don't think you're serious, though. It's harder to put the records away, clean dust off them etc..
Why do you need to see? (Score:2)
I really should let Mr. Obvious whore karma here, (Score:2, Troll)
Get her a PC, and run Winamp at its built-in double sized setting on a low resolution monitor.
And then do her a real favor, and rip all her CDs so she doesn't have to bother with changing the CDs.
Re:I really should let Mr. Obvious whore karma her (Score:1)
Archos / Rockbox (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Archos / Rockbox (Score:2, Informative)
The system works well in speaking out menu options, and can spell/speak a folder name if you record one. The rockbox system also has user defined fonts and you can create custom what's playing screens to use an ultralarge font ( there are tons of fonts ranging in sizes from 10 lines fit on the screen, to 1 line of text takes up the screen ) to make it easier for her to see what is playing/browse the files.
However the button
How about Fisher Price? (Score:3, Interesting)
DVD player (Score:4, Insightful)
portable/cd walkmans (Score:2, Informative)
my panasonic cd walkman has 7 buttons: ff, rw, play, vol. up/down, stop and an eq button.
you don't even need to look at the display - all it does is display track number, eq settings and batteries.
i often find i use the controls just by touch.
stand alone cd player units or small shelf systems etc have more options, remote controls, etc. so would be more confusing and harder to use with poor sight.
Remotes (Score:4, Insightful)
Remotes are Amazing...they are designed so you don't have to look at them you can feel the buttons. and know where to press.
except the pesky EJECT button....which is missing from most remotes.
other than that simple sugestion I am usless to you.
Re:Remotes (Score:2)
Consider a talking-book player (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Consider a talking-book player (Score:1)
A good remote might be a better choice (Score:2, Informative)
Wi-Fi MP3? (Score:1, Troll)
OTOH she will need someone to set it up to play things she likes, and the remote may not be very usable. (Could be replaced.)
I don't understand the problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
You plug the CD Player into the back of the amp. You punch the amp's power button, the CD player powers on. You put the CD in, bump the drawer closed, and it plays. Punch a button, and it ejects. I rather doubt your gramma is going to be skipping songs and such, so the other buttons are irrelevent.
Paint the front of the tray red, paint the eject button bright yellow.
If you can't find a CD player that works as I describe, I've got an old Toshiba player that I'd probably be willing to donate to her, if you pay shipping.
Check out your local Frys (Score:3, Insightful)
There was this line of brightly colored DVD players designed for kids near the Kareoke section. It had only a few, large, high-contrast buttons.
Would be great for the hard of sight as was onlt $60 or so.
While you're getting a music player - (Score:2)
With those in mind, you may want a player that can also save your place in audio files, hopefully automatically, ideally for every directory. Do any MP3 CD players do that?
Hmm? (Score:2, Troll)
There is another part of me that also says uhh GOOGLE.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=
Cost effective solution... (Score:2, Insightful)
1. Find a CD player with the least amount of buttons on the front. It should also have the biggest buttons possible.
2. Colour code each of the buttons (and if possible, texture code them too).
Now you'll have to teach her how to use it in terms of things like: Press the red button t
HAL Home Automation (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically you have all your CD's ripped into HAL's own playback program, but its all controlled by voice. You can either have it listening in rooms, or it can be controlled using the phone. It does other stuff as well like turn on the lights / TV / whatever you like etc. so may be useful overall.
I seem to recall an opensource type home automation system based on Linux so that may be worth investigating also.
Best of both worlds? (Score:2, Interesting)
The output from the computer is also fed into a small FM transmitter, so he can use an FM walkman or portable radio if he wants to listen while moving around. Unfortunately, there's no way of controllingthe audio thts way (ie skipping the ad-breaks)
Total cost == most of this stuff w
Pretty much anything... (Score:2)
The Archos Jukebox Recorder WITH RockBox (Score:3, Interesting)
Considering that the rockbox firmware (which completely replaces the original (crappy) firmware) is free, multi-lingual, and has optionally enlarged fonts, I'd say go get one!
The Jukebox itself has a battery life of around 10 hours, and comes in 10-20GB versions, last I checked. Archos has recently been phasing these ones out of production, so you can find them cheap here and there, and off ebay.
Requisite reading:
Rockbox! [rockbox.haxx.se]
Archos [archos.com]
It also works with the Neo MP3 player which I don't have a handy link for.
Never look at my MD player (Score:1)
one that doesn't cause it (Score:2)