[access-uk] Re: TALKING PICTURES

  • From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tris-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 15:49:32 +0100

"I know to well that fairness doesn't enter into the equation of the pricing 
of commercially produced products, even when a US charity/VI rights group is 
involved, as appears to be the case here."

A charity like NFB should I think at least be applauded for being brave 
enough to have some involvement to push research in the direction of users 
needs.  Likewise Kurzweil incorporated and others will have trouble 
convincing venture capitalists to make the investment required in a product 
that would have a limited market and therefore would take longer to get the 
payback.  Investment from interested groups means a project like this 
actually gets off the ground at all.  Whilst such resources can be made 
available It may however not have the resources to plough in such that 
production units can be produced at anything below a commercially viable 
price, notwithstanding addional costs of servicing users etc.  The other 
aproach would be to not get involved with any research on that basis 
bringing everybody closer to the same notional level, and leave the desires 
of users to coincide (or not as the casse may be) with the free market to 
provide for the needs of a particular small and specialised group.

Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ray's Home
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 2:53 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: TALKING PICTURES


Agreed Tristram, and if its thought that I believe a truly portable, on the 
move, ocr reading device could be had for a couple of hundred quid, then I'd 
like it known that I definitely do not think that price tag will will ever 
be seen for something like the KNFB device.

If it were to come in for less than 2k then I would think that would be a 
price that begins to look more affordable and, dare I say it 'fair' although 
I know to well that fairness doesn't enter into the equation of the pricing 
of commercially produced products, even when a US charity/VI rights group is 
involved, as appears to be the case here.

From Ray
I can be contacted off-list at:
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of 
Tristram Llewellyn
Sent: 01 August 2006 4:20PM

The problem of being able to OCR from a picture taken with a normal camera 
like in the KNFB Reader has occupied some very clever people in Kurzweils 
research arm for quite a number of years in researching and developing this 
technology.  Whilst it is almost inneviable that others may try to get into 
this market you are not very likely to find a £200 competitor to what has 
only just presently been brought to market this year in the form of KNFB 
reader in the very immediate future.

Regards.

Tristram Llewellyn
Sight and Sound Technology
Technical Support
www.sightandsound.co.uk

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Chipmunks
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2006 2:07 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: TALKING PICTURES


I think a little while ago, I read about a phone being marketed in
Korea came with ocr. Of course, I have no idea how it compares to the
Kurzweil Reader.

Doris

At 01:49 PM 8/1/2006 +0100, you wrote:

>Just had a look at the KNFB portable reader and it's very
>impressive.  However, a sighted colleague has raised an interesting
>point.  If we have phones which can talk and which have cameras on
>them, how long will it be and what would it take before they can do
>the same thing at a much smaller cost?  Any thoughts?
>
>http://www.bbc.co.uk/ 


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