Home » Monthly archive

June, 2009

Sydney Morning Herald Article (2008)

Submitted by Rhys Cooper on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 13:21

A personal connection

Brad HowarthAugust 18, 2008

Queensland-based entrepeneur Rhys Cooper got involved in his latest project after realising what it is like to be alone; really alone. So alone you can't phone anyone for help. Not because you have no-one to call but because you can't use a mobile phone.
That was the experience of a 34-year-old man with Down's Syndrome, who having missed his bus connection was left stranded without any form of communication. He was eventually located after police and bus operators were alerted, just two kilometres from his home, having waited more than seven hours....
(For the full article please click on the link below...)
 
http://www.smh.com.au/news/innovations/a-personal-connection/2008/08/19/...
 

ZDNet Article by Brad Howarth

Submitted by Rhys Cooper on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 12:54

Aussie phone for disabled wins recognition

With Australia's mobile phone penetration now sitting at around 100 per cent, it's easy to forget that there are still groups for whom the technology remains out of reach.

Rhys Cooper became aware of this during the five years he spent working with intellectually disabled adults. Modern mobile phones were simply too complex with too many options to be used easily. So last year he formed a company, Orange Dot, and set about creating a new type of phone that would be usable by a wide group of both intellectually and visually disabled people.

Earlier this year he built his first prototype based on a touchscreen phone from HTC, and then in May was named the winner in the Freelance category of the MEX Mobile User Experience Awards in London.

(For the Full article please click on the link below....)

http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/bootstrappr/soa/Aussie-phone-for-disabled-wins-recognition/0,2001092438,339296765,00.htm?feed=pt_rhys_cooper

 

Doo Phone v0.1

Submitted by Rhys Cooper on Mon, 06/29/2009 - 03:06

As you might have heard Orange Dot's first product is the Doo Phone. This is a mobile phone interface developed for adults with intellectual disabilities, our aim is for it to be the easiest phone in the world for making basic phonecalls.

The way the Doo Phone interface works is by showing picture based speed dial options on touch screen mobile devices. This is presented in a very simple format and when selections are made the phone will say the name of the person or place you are trying to call, as well as this the screen will highlight the selected image to reassure the user of their selection. The Scroll buttons located near the bottom of the screen enable the user to move between pages of contacts and there is also a button that will switch the screen to a large format numeric dial interface. When using the numeric keypad to dial the phone will give audible feedback on the selections.

The first version of this software (Doo Phone V0.1) is currently being tested on HTC Touch HD devices, these devices were chosen because of their suitability for this project. We are working towards releasing a version of this software in the second half of 2009.

If you are interested in finding out more about our product or you have any questions and/or suggestions please feel free to contact us through the contact selection on thie website.

 

International Award Winner

Submitted by Rhys Cooper on Mon, 06/22/2009 - 17:01

Recently, I was shortlisted as a finalist in the MEX Mobile User Experience Awards 2009 which was being held as a part of the MEX 2009 Conference in London. This was great news so I decided to pack my bags and jump on a last minute flight over to London. Due to some delays in Bangkok I only just got into London about 8 hours before the conference started, I found my way to my accommodation and got some well needed sleep after my now 29 hour journey.

 

London was amazing and the MEX Conference was absolutely superb, it was held at a venue called Wallacespace St Pancras. Just as they had advertised there were about 100 user experience specialists from over a dozen countries who had all come together to share and learn from each other about what it is that is going to make a mobile product a great experience for the user.

Enough about the conference, after day one there was an awards ceremony that night and this is what I was really there for. I was nervous, as you would expect, I’d just flown literally to the other side of the world to see if I was going to win an award for my contribution to mobile user experience through the work I have been doing on the Doo Phone. I tried to talk myself out of getting excited, I told myself I wasn’t going to win to try to calm my nerves. They announce the other three categories before getting to the freelance category award. I couldn’t believe it when Marek Pawlowski (Founder of MEX) called out “Rhys Cooper” I was awarded a very heavy glass trophy which holds the title of ‘Winner – Freelance Category, MEX Mobile User Experience Awards 2009’

It truly is an honour to have been awarded an international award for the work I’ve been doing over the past couple of years and I thank MEX 2009 for giving me this experience. I’d really like to take the opportunity to thank some people publicly here, Nick McIntosh, Justin Brow and Shane Williamson who have all been very supportive of my goal to deliver a mobile solution to people with a disability. I’m truly taken back by the amount of effort these men have been willing to put in to support Orange Dot, I feel very passionate about the Doo Phone project and I can’t wait to see it delivered to the people who need it most.