Samsung India launches film for its Good Vibes app that helps the ‘deafblind’ communicate

Samsung India has launched a film ‘Caring For The Impossible’ around its Good Vibes app which seeks to be a communication tool for the deafblind – those afflicted by both visual and hearing disabilities.

Created by Cheil, the film tells the story of a young deafblind girl who uses the Good Vibes app to reach out to her family. 

In a note on Good Vibes, Samsung said: “Developed in India, the app enables the deafblind to have a two-way communication with their caregivers and loved ones using their smartphones. The Good Vibes app uses Morse code to convert vibrations into text or voice and vice-versa. The app has two different user interfaces (UI). 

“One interface has an invisible UI for the deafblind, which uses vibrations, taps and gestures, while the other has a visible UI, a standard chat interface, for the caregiver. With the deafblind interface, a deafblind person uses a combination of dots and dashes to send their messages. 

“The standard interface allows users to type or use voice to send messages to the deafblind. The text or voice is received as vibrations in Morse code that the deafblind can interpret.”

“Over the last few months of training with the deafblind and their caregivers, the basic functionality of the app was tested and fine-tuned through their feedback. The notifications, text sizing, duration and interval of vibrations were improved upon after these workshops.”

The app is currently available for download from Samsung’s Galaxy store but is expected to be made available to all Android users via Google Play. 

Through a partnership with NGO Sense India, Samsung intends taking Good Vibes all over the country and has started conducting workshops with educators, deafblind individuals and their caregivers in Delhi and Bengaluru.

It has also provided Samsung Galaxy A20 smartphones with Good Vibes pre-installed to Sense India which will distribute the handsets to the deafblind and their caregivers.

Cheil India chief creative officer Emmaneul Upputuru said: “The film is just storytelling but the meat is in product development: doing the homework and creating the app. At the launch function, we had a room where the deafblind were exchanging messages with the journalists.”

Apart from GoodVibes, Samsung also launched Relumino, a visual aid application that enables those with low vision to see images with greater clarity.

source: http://www.mumbrella.asia