Tech Tools Offer Blind Safe Travel
Adaptive Handhelds Help the Sight Impaired Read Anything, Anywhere
Oct 6, 2008
Technology that turns cell phones into cameras and music players now enables the blind to perform most travel-related reading tasks, from checking the thermostat before leaving, consulting, to Fodors guides, and retrieving emails.
Increasing portability of technologies such as optical character recognition (OCR), screen reading, and speech synthesis—which make computers accessible to the blind and power desktop machines like the Kurzweil Reader—are at the heart of these product developments.
Handhelds That Read Just About Anything
KNFB Mobile Phone
The KNFB Mobile Phone developed by Kurzweil and the National Federation of the Blind, has released the Mobile Reader, which packs OCR capability into a one-button activated multifunction cell phone. Users photograph print to be read (e.g. tickets, currency, book pages) and OCR software and high-quality text-to-speech output reads documents contents aloud. The phone also displays text on its built-in screen, highlighting each word as it is spoken, with navigation by character, word, or sentence.
The phone’s flash drive stores thousands of pages and affords easy text-file transfer to and from computers and braille note takers. Other features include voice-activated access to calls, contacts, and calendar, a 5-megapixel camera, and the ability to run accessible GPS programs and music players.
The i.d. mate OMNI
En-Vision America Inc.’s i.d. mate OMNI portable barcode reader gives users audio access to a database of nearly 2 million North American UPC's (including food items, health & beauty, pharmaceuticals, cleaning products, CDs, DVDs, etc.) with expanded contents descriptions (e.g. ingredients, nutritional information, warnings). The OMNI also enables users to record, play, and organize voice memos, and create file folders for lists, contacts, and passwords.
The OMNI identifies cans, jars, boxes, bottles, playing cards, prescription drugs, compact discs, etc., and lets users affix barcode labels to almost anything, such as clothing, keys, files, computer disks, and pictures. A key accessibility feature is an omni-directional scanner that reads barcodes in any direction for quick, reliable readings. The OMNI features a daylong battery charge and an AC adapter and ample bandwidth on each 1-gigabyte flash memory card.
Eye-Pal for Blind and Deaf-Blind
ABISee’s Eye-Pal is a portable device that quickly converts print into speech, electronic text, or refreshable braille, providing the one-click ability to scan, save, and organize reading material in a preferred format. Eye-Pal’s camera and patented motion detector scans bound books at 20 pages per minute. Scanned text can be stored on an iPod, flash drive, or CD.
The Itex SiRecognizer
Itex’s SiRecognizer is a portable OCR system that can recognize and read text on objects regardless of shape or position—even text on TVs, airport monitors, and or LCD displays. The unit photographs text and reads the result in less than 10 seconds and can read and speak in over 130 languages. Call 39.06.505.3318 (Rome, Italy) for more information.
Talking Thermostats
Talking Thermostats sells a talking thermostat that announces day, time, room temperature, and temperature setting. This unit has audio instructions and a lifetime warranty. Other products available include the Freeze Alarm, which calls up to three numbers for high/low temperature alerts or when power fails, and the Water Alarm, which sounds an alarm when it detects water on your basement floor. Call 800.838.8860 for more information.
Users report that devices such as the KNFB Mobile Phone often process more information than what the average non-disabled traveler reads. Such access to visual landscapes offers newfound levels of confidence for stepping out into the world.
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