Intel Corp. today started selling a new e-reader that can snap pictures of books and newspapers and then read them back to people who have a hard time reading the printed page.
Called the Intel Reader, the $1,499 device assists people who are blind, dyslexic or have weak vision, said Ben Foss, the director of access technology with Intel's Digital Health Group, who came up with the idea for the reader. "It's designed to give them independence and access to reading."
Intel estimates that there are as many as 55 million people in the U.S. who could use its device. Foss said the Reader will give many of them a new freedom to read books, magazines and newspapers that would otherwise be inaccessible. Users hold the Reader a few feet above the paper they want to read; it snaps a photo, and within seconds converts the page to text, which it can then display in a large font or read out loud.
See Also: Yesterday's announcement from Intel comes only a few weeks (mid-October) after Ray Kurzweil in partnership with Baker & Taylor announced an eReader for the blind and others. We have a post about it here with a number of links.
Baker & Taylor announced a partnership with acclaimed scientist, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, CEO of Kurzweil Technologies, to supply digital content for K-NFB Reading Technology, a newly developed e-book reading software created by Kurzweil in collaboration with the National Federation of the Blind. The software will be offered to consumers for free. B&T unveiled the software at the Frankfurt Book Fair with plans to launch the new reader in the U.S. at the end of November. (via PW)
While they are both aimed at the same used group both devices are quite different. The Intel Reader is an actual device that allows users take a pictures of something containing text ( say a restaurant menu) and then reads it to them out loud and/or displays the text in large print.
There is no actual eReader device from KFNB. The eReader software (which will be available for free) will run on several smartphones and operating systems including the iPhone, PCs, Macs, and Windows Mobile with more mobile devices to come. The eader will allow eBooks, articles and other textual material to be read out load on these devices. The software can handle many text formats including PDF and ePub. Elsevier Science and Technology Books is an early partner.
KFNB also offers other software, KReader Mobile and the knfbReader Mobile which, like the Intel Reader, allows users to snap pictures of text and then have it read back to them immediately. However, unlike the Intel product, these devices work on cell or smartphones.
Also in October, the U.S. Copyright office put out a call for public comment on, "possible solutions to enhance the accessibility of copyrighted works for the benefit of the blind or other persons with disabilities." You can read the Federal Register with all of the details (3 pages; PDF).
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