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Not long ago, phones were just used to communicate, but technological advancements have also forced the mobile phone to double as a digital camera. National Federation of the Blind have partnered with Kurzweil Technologies to develop a new text reading application for Nokia’s N82 Smartphone which includes a powerful 5 megapixel camera.
The product captures the picture of the document, extracts text out of the picture and runs it through a text-to-speech engine which synthesizes the text and speaks it out. The photographed document can be a currency note, hotel menu or any written document.
Blind users can use the tool for their day to day activities, while those with learning disability can enlarge the text and highlight text on the phone’s bright screen. A spokesman for National Blind federation says he holds a next generation computerized aids for the blind and visually impaired.
It’s estimated that 161 million people all around the world suffer from blindness (2.6 % of world population). Out of this 10 million are from US and 18 million from India alone. This product hopes to make their life simpler.
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wrote, on January 31st, 2008
This is interesting. And, how many times have you guys at techbuzz posted here again in the past few days? It has been a lot. Great job for the hard work!
wrote, on February 19th, 2008
At last, they have found a real and proper way to use the camera’s on phones. What a great idea.
Even more amazing is how the impaired adapt to be able to use gadgets like the phone. It makes you feel very humble.