Located on Kamarajar Salai by the picturesque shores of Chennai’s Marina beach stands the “Museum of Possibilities” (MOP)—an initiative by the Commissionerate for the Welfare of the Differently Abled and Vidhya Sagar, a non-profit. This is Tamil Nadu’s first public facility dedicated to displaying tech and product solutions for people with a diversity of disabilities. Alexa and Amazon Devices are now part of the exhibit at MOP, showcasing how the ease of voice-based interactions can help people with disabilities and those with accessibility needs to perform a variety of tasks with the help of technology that’s smart and assistive.
Assisted living with Alexa, Echo smart speakers, and Fire TV Stick
At the museum, Alexa and Echo smart speakers demonstrate how tasks like controlling smart home appliances such as TV, lights, fans, playing music, setting timers and alarms, checking news and weather updates, creating shopping lists, and much more, can be done from anywhere in the room with just simple voice commands. Alexa can also provide better accessibility to staying connected with friends and family or getting entertainment content when paired with Amazon’s Echo range of devices or Fire TV.
“We have received encouraging feedback from customers in India with mobility, vision, as well as speech disabilities on their unique requirements and ways of interacting with Alexa for entertainment as well as to get things done,” says Dilip R.S., Country Manager for Alexa, Amazon India. “It was great to work with the Museum of Possibilities team for integrating the Alexa experience and Echo devices into the Museum. We hope the Museum’s smart and accessible home exhibits will show people with disabilities and their families how voice services and accessible technologies can help people of all needs and abilities live more confidently and independently.”
Walking through the Museum of Possibilities
As visitors stroll through the 2,500-sq-ft Museum, they can learn about the use cases of Alexa and Echo smart speakers in their daily lives compartmentalised into Live, Work and Play.
The ‘Live’ area includes a model-accessible home with universal design elements and assistive devices for each part of the house.
- The bedroom has an Amazon Echo Show and allows visitors to engage with Alexa hands-free where they can control room lighting, set the ambience they prefer in the room through the music of their choice, and entertain themselves like they would in their own bedrooms.
- The kitchen area sports an Echo Dot smart speaker which can be used to set cooking timers, answer queries about meal ingredients and nutritional facts to help monitor one’s diet.
The ‘Work’ area, which contains equipments such as weaving loom, medical apparatus with auditory output, screen reading applications, and text-to-speech devices, also features an Echo Dot smart speaker that can be used to listen to news summaries, keep a track of to-do lists, and set reminders.
The ‘Play’ domain can be experienced across the Museum. It includes board games and cards (with braille or other tactile customisations), musical instruments, and adaptive garden tools. Alexa-enabled smart speakers placed throughout the Museum can be used to enjoy music, games, and jokes with simple voice commands, as the user partakes in recreational activities.
Visit the Museum of Possibilities and learn more
Here’s the address: No.5, Kamaraj Salai, State Commissionerate for the Welfare Differently Abled, Lady Willingdon Campus, Marina Beach Road, opposite Avvaiyar Statue, Triplicane, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600005. The visiting hours are 11 AM to 8 PM every day, except Tuesdays. For more information visit here: https://tnmop.in/
