Mobile Reader software for N82 will help the blind to ’see’

K-NFB, a company affiliated to the US National Association for the Blind, make a product called the “knfb Reader” - this is basically a digital camera attached to a PDA running OCR and text-to-speech software.

The idea is that blind and partially sighted people can point the device at some text (e.g. a sign or a printed page) and let the PDA analyse it and read it out to them. The system works well, but the reader is bulky and costs just under $4000.

If you think “a digital camera attached to a PDA” sounds a bit like a mobile phone, perhaps you should consider applying for a job with K-NFB’s R&D team.

knfb Mobile Reader uses a Nokia N82 to do the ‘camera & PDA’ bits, but otherwise operates just like it’s predecessor.

The reader is still expensive at around $1500 plus the cost of the handset, but is a lot easier and more discrete to carry around and, of course, can be used as a mobile phone to boot.
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