[Reader-users] How far away are we from this?

[John Freiss]

Software is being developed to allow vision impaired people xto read

information on the digital display screens of electronic household

products and at supermarket checkouts, a Spanish company has

announced.

The DISPLAYER will allow vision impaired users to read everyday

information displays including dynamic displays, such as those on

microwaves, digital clocks, boilers and those found at public transport

stations and supermarket checkouts.

The device would ultimately take the form of software or an

application that could be installed on a smartphone or personal digital

assistant (PDA) with a built-in camera. To read something on a

display, users would hold the mobile device near it, capture an image

of it and the system would interpret and read the content aloud using

speech output technology.

"To help them capture the image of the display," said Igone Idígoras

Leibar, Principal Researcher at Robotiker-Tecnalia

(

http://www.robotiker.com/ ),

the Spanish company behind the technology. "It orientates the user

with [speech output], for example, it would say 'on the image there is

no display' or 'move the camera to the right so that the display

appears,'".

User testing with vision impaired people is due to start shortly. "Our

idea is that the end users participate [in the development], not only at

the end of the project but from the initial stages that we are now at,"

Leibar said. Tests have begun to ensure the device is usable in various

lighting conditions, carried out by over 80 people using 500 appliances

in their homes using different types of digital camera.

Last October the DISPLAYER project won the top award of 240,000

Euros in a competition run by Spain's national blindness organisation

ONCE to recognise technology research projects helping vision-

impaired people. ONCE has undertaken to test and evaluate the final

prototype, due to be ready in 2008.