Dear Friends The inventor of talks software, the first software that made mobile phone accessible to us is no more and left us in young age. I had the privilege to meet him in person in October 2009 in Geneva where DAISY Consortium and Nuance were together in UNESCO pavilion in the world telecom exhibition. With my thousand salutes to him I am pasting below the announcement from his partner and co-developer of talks:
Dear TALKS community, It is with great sadness that I have to bring you the following news: Torsten Brand, the inventor of TALKS as well as a long-time pioneer in the Assistive Technology field, has died last night in hospital in Göttingen, Germany, as a result of complications from a routine operation, at the age of 47. All of us here at Nuance are deeply shocked, and still unable to completely grasp the significance of this terrible and unexpected event. Many of you have met him personally, some as recently as two weeks ago during CSUN in San Diego, and most will probably remember him as both a clear-thinking visionary as well as an immensely likeable fellow, with tons of ideas and a great "can-do" spirit. It is difficult to imagine life without his friendship, inspiration and perseverance. Even though TALKS will not be the same without his leadership, we will treat it as a lasting part of his legacy, and continue developing it in his spirit. Torsten leaves his wife, Corinna, and his four children. Our thoughts go out to his family in this difficult time. Regards, Marcus Groeber To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in 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