Category: accessible Devices
Baltimore Sun, Maryland
Friday, April 14, 2006
Kurzweil-NFB Reader: Device provides words to live by
By Frank D. Roylance
Hand-held reader that can convert text into synthesized speech may increase independence for the visually impaired
Not long ago, James Gashel was on Capitol Hill, waiting for a meeting to start, when he realized that he needed some numbers from a chart he was carrying.
That was a problem. Gashel is blind, and so was his companion. And the chart was not in Braille. Gashel was reaching for his cell phone to call someone at his office to retrieve the numbers, when his colleague stopped him.
"Why don't you try the reader?" he asked.
Of course.
Gashel, an executive at the National Federation for the Blind in Baltimore, was carrying the world's first hand-held reading machine for the blind - just developed by NFB in collaboration with Kurzweil Technologies Inc. of Wellesley, Mass.
Combining a 5-megapixel digital camera with a personal digital assistant, or PDA, the 13-ounce Kurzweil-NFB Reader converts digital images of text into synthesized speech.
Gashel pulled out his reader, snapped a picture of the chart, "and within a minute I had the numbers I wanted," he said. And he didn't have to bother anyone else to get them.
Now in final field tests before its release for sale by Kurzweil this summer, the device was officially unveiled last week at ceremonies at NFB headquarters in South Baltimore.
Thanks to the new reader, Gashel and 75 other blind product testers across the country are sorting through their own mail, reading restaurant menus, identifying packages in the freezer by the labels and discovering many other tasks they can now do without assistance.
It's liberating, Gashel said. "You start to think about your capabilities differently."
In addition to many of the nation's 1.3 million blind people, he also predicts a demand from older people with failing eyesight, and young people with dyslexia or learning disabilities.
The NFB's collaboration with Kurzweil began more than 30 years ago, when founder Ray Kurzweil, a pioneer of character recognition and text-to-speech devices, came to the federation's offices, then in Washington.
He had developed the first Kurzweil Reading Machine. The size of an office copier, it could scan a document and read it in a synthetic human voice.
"That was very revolutionary," Gashel said. Until then, blind people were pretty much limited to live readers, or the limited number of publications available on tape or records, or transcribed into Braille.
The Kurzweil reader was big and expensive - $50,000 each, Gashel said. It couldn't read photocopied matter and it had problems with pages crowded with pictures.
But it was clearly a breakthrough. So the NFB bought six, and began working with Kurzweil to improve them. "This was the first time an inventor of a product had ever come directly to us," seeking input from the blind in the development of an "access" machine, Gashel said.
Eventually, Kurzweil began to sell improved versions to schools, libraries and rehabilitation agencies. But even though prices fell over the years, the reader remained too costly for individuals.
Just as importantly, "There was always a need for something portable," Gashel said.
By the mid-1990s, the advent of desktop computers and scanners enabled Kurzweil to develop a PC-based reader - the Kurzweil 1000. Character-recognition software was improving, too. And laptops made the hardware required smaller.
But one problem remained: "You would have to have a scanner - it would be quite a bit of paraphernalia to carry about," Gashel said.
Digital photography provided the needed breakthrough; that, and the miniaturization of computer power in the PDA - the hand-held computer that millions use to organize their lives.
The Kurzweil-NFB Reader, which is expected to cost less than $3,000, marries a small, 5-megapixel Canon camera to an ASUS A730 PDA. They are wired together and held by a vinyl case about 6 inches by 3 inches by 2 1/2 inches. It's all operated with just nine buttons, with voice prompts from a small speaker or through earphones.
Holding the device about 16 inches above a sheet of paper lying on a table, Gashel lines up the shot. He is guided by a sort of audio viewfinder: "Right, bottom edges are visible ... two degrees counterclockwise relative to page."
The camera speaks in an oddly Eastern European male voice, but it's one that's familiar and comfortable for people who use electronic readers.
Gashel pushes a button and the shutter clicks. A few seconds later, the device is reading the release aloud, flawlessly.
Tests on a business card and an ATM receipt are rougher. The device misses some lines of type, and mistakes some characters for others. But it does better on a second try, "learning" as it goes along.
Had it been his own ATM slip, Gashel said, "I would have known what I withdrew, and I'd know most of the information, even if it didn't hit it right."
Many times, he said, "you're not going for perfect; you're going for 'What is this?'"
Jim McCarthy, 39, director of governmental affairs at the federation, has also been testing one of the readers. A new office arrangement has left him without a nearby assistant, so something as simple as sorting through papers on his desk becomes an issue.
"I'm probably 25 feet from the closest person," he said. It's not a big deal to walk around the corner and ask someone to identify a piece of paper, "but it seems like a waste of time."
The reader "allows people to sort pertinent documents in a way a lot of us aren't accustomed to. That is pretty liberating," he said.
Lou Ann Blake, 46, a visually impaired research specialist at the federation, has also been a test-driver. "I read the cooking directions on a bag of pasta," she said. "It was plastic and I kinda had to flatten it out. But it did quite well."
Videotape labels, bills, letters, 401(k) statements - it read them all.
"Some of the pronunciations it doesn't get quite right - legal terms, Latin terms," she said. But "it's amazingly easy to use. I have a harder time using the copy machine here sometimes."
But the key advance is the new device's portability, said John Pare, 47, director of sponsored technical programs at the NFB, who started to lose his sight at 35. "No matter where you are, you're constantly being handed printed material," he said. "It's the way the world works. In restaurants, the airport, hotels, at a conference."
The Kurzweil reader enables the blind to grab an image quickly, anywhere - even in the dark - and "read" it themselves instead of relying on friends or strangers to read the documents aloud.
"It's been very gratifying," Kurzweil said. "When we started this project about four years ago, we weren't ... entirely sure to what extent we could compensate for distortion in the images that would occur using a hand-held camera."
Where a scanner provides a flat, uniform image and perfect lighting, the hand-held digital camera would tilt and rotate relative to the page - then the user would move and the lighting would be uneven.
Worse, the pages of an open book are curved, with portions at different distances from the camera.
"So we developed image enhancing software that takes this image and modifies it to get rid of all those distortions," Kurzweil said. "And we had to fit all this software [along with the character recognition program] into this little computer."
But it worked. "We have 75 in the field, and hundreds very soon," he said. "And the feedback from blind users is that it's having tremendous success."
If it does well, the federation could eventually profit. Gashel said the NFB owns 40 percent of the rights to the technology. In the meantime, the software will continue to be improved so that the device can read more varied and complex material.
Kurzweil also predicts a time when a blind person will be able to enter a room, snap a picture, and have the reader identify the types and locations of lamps, tables, people and other items in the room.
Also, devices "will continue to get smaller over time," he said.
Gashel expects the gadget will be crammed into a cell phone some day. But Kurzweil is thinking even smaller.
"In five to seven years, the camera will pin on your lapel and take pictures as you walk around," describing the scene as you go, he said.
NFB chef and teacher Marie A. Cobb, 59, of Catonsville, who is visually impaired, has been using the reader since January. She has her own hopes.
"What I'm looking for is the day when I can take it into a mall and have it tell me the name of the stores, and the locations on those big directories. I would love that," she said.
Now that is fantastic! Thanks for posting.
Yeah, I wouldn't mind having one of those. It'd especially help with all the notes and bulletins they put around at school, and I'd love to finally be able to independently read them! *smiles*
I just hope this doesn't turn out to be one more product that sounds much better than it is in reality.
Yes, I agree. But as there will be updates, it can improve over time assuming it launches and keeps being developed. This looks really neat though. My other concern would be the price. Hopefully it would come down over time.
yeah, that's my concern too, but my, sounds awesome, i'd even be able to read my own print mail without mum looking at it and just throwing it to one side, without even telling me what's in it, i hope we can buy this somewhere in the uk, and i hope the price will come down, why, as blind people, do we have to pay such extensive prices for things we need?
The reason for that is that this is not a mainstream market when you are dealing with accessible technology. Therefor, they can charge whatever the hell they like and people will pay it. It is a drag that's for sure! But also, product development can cost lots of money. That isn't an excuse for the companies, but I am merely making an observation.
Yeah, I would absolutely love to have one of these. It would be great to finally be able to read my own mail, food packages, etc. As said, I also hope that this turns out to be a product that turns out to be a wonderful thing. I hope it turns out to be everything it is promising. It would be a wonderful thing for so many blind people. Of course, there's the price. Price is always an issue. There's so many things out there that I would love to have. So many things that would be of great use for us, but of course, they cost way more than what a lot of people can afford. They say that this product is hopefully going to be $3000. I'm just wondering, does that mean it's going to be $2999.99? LOL
This sounds awsome! I hope, like someone in an earlier post said, that it doesn't turn out to be a flop. I really really want this to work. I'd love to just read bulitan posts, food packages, and things like that. Does anyone know if you can read books with this too. One thing I'd love to do is just spend a lazy sunday at the book store with a coffee and be able to buy a book, and start reading it there. Or other places such as waiting rooms, where you reall don't have to room to carry volumes of braille text, or when books, especially those books I get that are not main stream, don't come in braille of audio. It's funny, but the descriptive lapel pen they're were talking about maybe one day being developed reminds me of that old star trek episode, where the woman is blind, but there's a safisiticated webbing in her dress that gives her information about people and things around her.
I'm pretty sure it's meant to read anything that is in print, so, yes, reading print books would be something that can be done with it.
as long as sales are good and they have good marketing behind this unit, then further software and/or firmware development will take place over time. Hopefully...
where can we obtain this produc?
somtimes i am so tired of reading papers and organizing them by carrying the laptop to where the scanner is.
I'm not sure yet where we can obtain this product. As far as I know, it's not on the market yet. It's supposed to be some time this summer. If you would like more information on it, I'd contact the NFB, since theyr'e the ones who are in collaboration with Kurzweil to make this product.
ummm, have any of you ever seen any adaptive equipment come down in price?
Not likely
Addaptive equipment'll never come down in price. This handheld scanner will probably cost as much as my PC, around £899 (That's UK pound Stirlings.) I'd like one so mum would no longer be able to lecture me when she gets my print bank statements in the post every month.
Do they have online banking over there? Just a thought. I actually use one of the stoneage kurzwiels the reading edge. It's not perfict but it works good enough.
Well, actually, in their defense, braille displays have come doown almost 50% in the last 5 years, if it's true F.S. is offering 80 cell displayed for 8k (used to be 13 to 14k). I saw taht on the Blind Programmers mailing list and it's usually very reliable.
Yeap, sadly there's a lot of money that goes into research and development and they have to recoup that through a very small market (perhaps only 1000 units sold instad of e.g. 80000 if this was something more widely applicable). Hopefully organizations and employers etc will help at lesat some of us purchase some of those things if we can prove they're very useful to our every day lives, in Europe governments often are willing to give grants to individuals if they can prove the technology in question is useful for their career / studying or sometimes even everyday life.
And, yes, online banking is the way to go, no printed statements, not that I have anyone reviewing mine *grin* but it just helps.
cheers
-B
About the Kurzweil reader,
yes the price is quite high, it's about 3.800 euro
I know it will be available in England at August, I read somewhere...
For now,
the list of actual resellers is here
http://www.knfbreader.com
KNFB reader rocks!
Unfortunately I have not tried it yet because it's only English-speaking and it could make quite funny and not understandable to read italian text with english pronunciation :)
I wonder if it can read displays, that is for example the one of the coffee automatic distributor in the office
Take the www.knfbreader.com site as a bookmark to have info about this reader
Hi all,
This reader is great if one just happens to have close to $3,000 to throw around which most don't.
If the price ever comes down drastically, I'll get it. If not, I'll make do the best I can. It's absolutely senseless that we must pay so heavily for things one needs to be independent. I know... I know... We could do without it--we could do without a lot of things. I know, too, that demand brings about supply, and that demand for products of this type is low so therefore price is high. But you can bet I don't agree with this.
The price for this reader should be much lower, and then the demand would become much higher. How many elderly people are going to be able to afford this? Yeah, yeah, maybe the Services for the Blind or Comission or whatever one has might buy it, but not if they have already invested very heavily in you... So it looks like only those who can get grants, or have a nice nest egg in their bank, or have some rich friend willing to buy for them or have the ability to set back a great deal of money every month in order to buy this thing, are going to be the ones getting it... The rest of us are just... Out of luck I guess.
Well, nice post anyhow and nice piece of technology. I heard about it about a week and a half ago, and thought the same things I write just now.
In Him,
Shanda
hey guys, I would really really like to have one of these things. My mom was actually just telling me there was a new kirswile out and she wanted me to get one, how ever if any of you are connected with DORS *devision of rehabilitation services* its possible that they will pay for it for you. I'm going to be looking in to it probabbly in early Fall. Hope that helped some of you
This URL: http://www.hipcast.com/playweb?audioid=Pe31924d8d10d9a3a6849b4b5075f3e59ZV56QlREY2py&buffer=5&fc=CCFF33&pc=CCFF33&kc=FFCC33&bc=FFFFFF&autoplay=1&brand=1&player=ap244 allows you to hear an embassador giving a demonstration of this technology.
I saw one of ht edemonstration models at our state's annual convention and it was great. DR Maurer was there and used ti to read a sign on the back wall of the meeting room we were in and he was standing at the front.