Kurweil, National Federation of the Blind debut Nokia N82 text reading software

Kurzweil Technologies and the National Federation of the Blind have teamed up to develop software that enables Nokia’s new N82 five megapixel camera phone to “read” printed materials that are photographed (see left), the press release says.  The two organizations have created a new venture, K-NFB Reading Technology, that today announced the product that’s part of its text-to-speech Reader Mobile devices that read different types of text ranging from books to currency to address labels.

The release says, “Blind users hear the contents of the document read in clear synthetic speech, while users who can see the screen and those with learning disabilities can enlarge, read, track, and highlight printed materials using the phone’s large and easy-to-read display. 

“The combination of text-to-speech and tracking features makes interpreting text much easier for individuals with learning disabilities.”

Capabilities

According to K-NFB Reading Technology’s Web site, the Reader Mobile line of products:

*  Reads most printed documents, from letters and memos to pages in a book 
*  Reads address labels and package information and instructions
*  Easily recognizes U.S. currency 
*  Displays each sentence visually and highlights each word as it is read
*  Stores thousands of pages using easily obtainable flash memory
*  Transfers text files to and from computers or Braille note takers 
*  Adjusts reading speed to suit user’s preference

Ray Kurzweil has been a pioneer in developing products for the blind for more than 20 years, including optical character recognition and print-to-speech readers (see right).  (He’s involved in a variety of fascinating scientific ventures, such as the integration of the Internet with nanotechnology and the human brain.  I enjoyed the book.)  The Mobile Reader is a great example of benefits of wireless imaging that were never imagined when the first camera phones were introduced in Japan.