Eyes-Fee Multitouch

One of the complaints about multitouch is that its not a technology accessible to the vision impaired, not to mention the danger of trying to use a multitouch phone while driving - not something that I would recommend.

The Eyes-Free Project at Google Code has a solution that was developed by a blind engineer at Google for touch screen Android phones (I guess now that the touchscreen Andorid cat is out the bag than can start innovating around that feature).

Anyway, the Eyes-Free project developed an Android touch screen shell that allows you to dial phone numbers, look up contacts, get the date and time, and so on without having to look at your touch phone. It basically uses vibration and general swiping direction to drill down to specific numbers, letters or menu options. It's kind of hard to explain so I recommend watching the videos.

There's also a "eyes-free" iPhone applicaiton, A Special Phone, which can dial up to six phone numbers by shaking the phone. One shake dials your first contact, two shakes your second and so on. It's a pretty cool idea not only for the blind, or while driving, but also for very little kids to dial 911 or Momy in case of an emergency.

So does "eyes-free" controlers for touch screens make sense? "Eyes-free touch-screens" sounds like an oxymorone but actually it makes sense. Touch screen phones are infinetly reconfigurable.
The buttons and controlers can be anywhere you like and you can decide the meaning of gestures per application. In the case of the Eyes-Free Google project you can define your own swipes and drill down menu for custom applications. That's not something you could do with anything but a softwscreen. So while it sounds weird, flat glass touch screens can actually be an excellent solution for eyes-free applications.