Re: repurposing old Android cell phones using Mobian?
Although I haven't seen many responses on the list, I've received some private emails, so there seems to be _some_ interest. In any case, here are some Work In Progress notes...
-r
# accessibility
Obviously, the definition of accessibility varies from user to user. For the moment, however, I'm going to concentrate on the cases of blind or visually impaired users who are able to hear and speak. That said, anyone who is interested in other use cases is encouraged to join in!
# braille input
Most modern cell phones have touch input capability. However, a given phone may not be able to distinguish six (let alone eight) simultaneous touches. (I'm trying to get an answer on this for the PinePhone.) In any event, support for braille input will vary from phone to phone.
I've been looking for open source offerings in this space, but haven't found much so far. Help?
Also, if it becomes necessary to create braille input software, it would be very useful to have a wishlist for features, user interface decisions, etc. Please contact me offlist; I'll summarize...
# keyboard input
Many cell phones support Bluetooth and/or USB input devices. However, carrying around a full size keyboard is not an attractive option. The most portable keyboard I've found so far is a folding keyboard/touchpad combo that supports both Bluetooth and USB. It's about 6" x 3.8" x 0.5" when folded up and 12" x 3.8" x 0.25" when unfolded:
Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard, Jelly Comb Dual Mode Bluetooth & USB Wired Rechargable Portable Mini BT Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad Mouse for Android, Windows, PC, Tablet-Black
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07S9XZDGY
# screen readers, speech generation, etc.
Debian has good support in these areas, but selection and configuration are still open issues.
# speech recognition
Speech recognition for cell phones is often handled by cloud resources. However, it would be nice to have a strictly local solution. Mozilla's DeepSpeech software has been shown to run on a Raspberry Pi 4, so it seems plausible that it could run on a device such as the PinePhone. Might anyone be up for the porting and/or packaging tasks?
Reply to: