On the basis of predetermined pressure points an the palm of one’s hands, deafblind people become able to chat with other people, send or receive SMS, or ‘hear’ audiobooks by hand. The signal-transformation of different in- and outputs opens up possibilities for new ways of interaction: Lorm-to-Text, Text-to-Lorm, Lorm-to-Speech, Speech-to-Lorm.
The aim of this design research project is to a) find inclusive ways to support deafblind people in their everyday-communication, and b) explore new and alternative ways to generally facilitate communication.
The Mobile Lorm Glove is part of the project “DESIGNABILITIES – Disability-inspired Interaction”, which in a larger research scheme focuses on perspectives for Interaction Design in terms of an enhancement of Information-Communication-Technologies and Human-Computer-Interaction, by transferring properties from ‚disability‘ contexts (e.g. deaf/blind communication) into general contexts of communication (e.g. localisation in loud or crowded environments via gesture-based or tactile info transfer).
via: design research lab
I am Thomas Rupp – inventor of the Lormer:
Please read the following patent papers:
EP0809223 – “Device for transmission of signs and characters from a
data-processing system to a deaf-blind person”
You find the European patent here:
https://register.epo.org/espacenet/application?number=EP96108196
or here: http://www.patent-de.com/20030410/EP0809223.html
and
DE: 195 17 649.9 “Vorrichtung zum Übermitteln von Zeichen und Buchstaben
von einer Datenverarbeitungsanlage an eine taubblinde Person”
You find the German patent here:
http://register.dpma.de/DPMAregister/pat/register?AKZ=195176499&CURSOR=0
Please read the description and the patent claims, especially the patent
claims 15-30
Now compare that information with the “Mobile Lorm Glove“ .
Surprised? Where is the difference between my invention and the “Mobile Lorm Glove“?
I can see only a Bluetooth connection instead of a cable and a smart-phone instead of a laptop, nothing more. But I can clearly see that a major University is very inspired by my work and that
the University makes no reference to my work.
I developed a simple wired “Lorm Glove“ prototype with small vibrating motors
more then 10 years ago. But that did not work well and was not accepted by the
deaf blind. I think, that the reason for this is that lormen means
naturally MOVING a finger on a hand and not only vibrating at single points on a hand. To realize the feeling of a fluent move you need many more vibrating motors or something that
is really moving.
That’s why I created a different device. I created the Lormer.
You can watch a video of the device here: http://youtu.be/vXJpwbaCH14
It fits on any hand size.
It’s very intuitive and simple to use.
It can make nearly a human fluent move for every letter.
It’s usable for Malossi , Lormen and can even draw block-letters in the Hand of a deaf-blind person.
It’s very fast, robust and flexible.
It can read nearly any text from any source.
It has a screen magnification for those who can still see a bit.
It has a build in dictionary.
It can store multiple user profiles, when it’s used in a school.
It can be connected to other Lormer or other devices.
It has a training mode for learning how to use a keyboard.
It has also a speech recognition and a speech output and
be controlled only with speech commands.
But until now it’s not mobile.
I would like to work on a similar mobile device for the deaf-blind people in future,
but I’m just a little inventor and coder in a small garage with crazy ideas
and no money. I will probably never win a prize price for my work…
Anyhow – the goal is helping deaf-blind people, so let’s work in peace together
for the deafblind humans who desperately need such a device.
With a small peace of hardware and a well coded software,
we can open deafblind people a door to the world,
we can make those poor people happy!
But never forget who originally invented a “Lorm Glove“ for deaf-blind people
and publish the name of the real inventor – OK?
please look at the website http://www.lormer.de. It is obvious that the Lorm glove is based on the ideas of the inventor of the Lormer ; Thomas Rupp. It is surprising that there is no acknowledgment or attribution of this