IT and society: New text-reading gadgets for vision-impaired and dyslexic people

Chip giant Intel has launched a device designed to give blind and vision-impaired people access to electronic books.

The device, known as the Reader captures text and then reads it aloud and displays it on its built-in screen. It has been designed to help not just blind but also the dyslexic people. Its developer, Ben Foss, who is dyslexic himself, is convinced that this text reading device is “a tool that can help give people with dyslexia, low-vision and blindness - or other reading-based disabilities - access to the resources they need to be successful in school, work and life”.

To read the printed text the person should place the Intel Reader above the necessary page, it will scan the picture and in no time convert the print in the electronic format, than display it in the larger print or read it aloud.

The Reader is capable of playing back a variety of content including MP3 files, DAISY books (Digital talking books) - a special format used for blind, dyslexic and other disabled people - and text files transferred from a computer.  

The Reader is the size of a paperback book and uses a high-resolution camera, Intel's Atom processor, optical character recognition (OCR) - the mechanical translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-editable text, and the software with “read aloud” function.