SUPER News
One of our favorite real-life superheroes has done it again:
There are 174 million visually impaired people in the world, accounting for approximately 2.6 percent of the population, with around 0.6% being completely blind. We can hardly imagine how overjoyed these people will be to hear of a groundbreaking new device that has been announced by the United States National Federation of the Blind (NFB) - the Kurzweil-NFB Reader. The handheld machine was developed by NFB and renowned inventor Ray Kurzweil, and enables users to take pictures of and read most printed materials. Users hold the device over any print document (such as a letter, bill, restaurant menu, airline ticket, business card, or office memo) and in seconds they hear the contents of the printed document read to them in a clear synthetic voice. Combining a state-of-the-art digital camera with a powerful personal data assistant, the Reader puts the best available character-recognition software together with text-to-speech conversion technology in a single handheld device. "The world of the printed word is about to be opened to the blind in a way it has never been before,” said NFB President Marc Maurer. No other device in the history of technology for the blind and visually impaired has provided quicker access to more information.
One step closer to full-blown electronic vision for the blind.
Hat-tip: El Jef. (Or should that be Jef-El? Hmmmmmm.....)
