http://www.robotiker.com/ ),
Software is being developed to allow vision impaired people to 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 IdÃgoras 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. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
