[real-eyes] Fw: [acb-l] well shut my mouth!
- From: "Terrie Arnold" <tanderson3@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:22:54 -0600
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barry Levine" <barry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <acb-l@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 10:52 AM
Subject: RE: [acb-l] well shut my mouth!
>
> Carl,
>
> The motivation for NFB's opposition to accessible currency has been known,
> at least guessed at, for quite some time.
>
> Here's part of a post I sent to the O and M list in December of 2006...
>
> "Cynic that I am, it is my firm belief that the basic reason the NFB
> leadership has come out against making currency tactually accessible is
> that
> it would fly in the face of one of the primary reasons for the purchase of
> the Kurzweil/NFB hand-held OCR scanner reader. Why make paper money
> itself
> accessible when you can spend a few thousand dollars on a machine that
> will
> read the currency for you?"
>
>
>
> --Barry
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl Jarvis [mailto:carjar@xxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 10:26 AM
> To: acb
> Subject: [acb-l] well shut my mouth!
>
> Could it be that the following development has some slight baring on NFB's
> stand opposing accessible paper money?
> I'm starting to save my paper dollars...I think that's what they are, for
> the day this little jewel hits the market. Gosh, for just over 2,000
> dollars we should see every blind man, woman and child living the good
> life.
>
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
> BALTIMORE (AP) - Chris Danielsen fidgets with the cell phone, holding it
> over a $20 bill.
> "Detecting orientation, processing U.S. currency image," the phone says
> in a flat monotone before Danielsen snaps a photo. A few seconds later,
> the phone
> says, "Twenty dollars."
> Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, is
> holding the next generation of computerized aids for the blind and
> visually impaired.
> The Nokia cell phone is loaded with software that turns text on
> photographed documents into speech. In addition to telling whether a
> bill is worth $1, $5,
> $10 or $20, it also allows users to read anything that is photographed,
> whether it's a restaurant menu, a phone book or a fax.
> While the technology is not new, the NFB and the software's developer
> say the cell phone is the first to incorporate the text-to-speech
> ability.
> "We've had reading devices before," Danielsen said, noting similar
> software is already available in a larger handheld reader housed in a
> personal digital
> assistant. Companies such as Code Factory SL, Dolphin Computer Access
> Ltd. and Nuance Communications Inc. also provide software that allows
> the blind to
> use cell phones and PDAs.
> Inexpensive hand-held scanners such as WizCom Technologies Ltd.'s
> SuperPen can scan limited amounts of text, read it aloud and even
> translate from other
> languages.
> However, the $2,100 NFB device combines all of those functions in one
> smart phone, said James Gashel, vice president of business development
> for K-NFB Reading
> Technology Inc., which is marketing the phone as a joint venture between
> the federation and software developer Ray Kurzweil.
> "It is the next step, but this is a huge leap," Gashel, who is blind,
> said in a telephone interview. "I'm talking to you on the device I also
> use to read
> things. I can put it in my pocket and at the touch of a button, in 20
> seconds, be reading something I need to read in print."
> Ray Kurzweil, who developed the first device that could convert text
> into audio in the 1970s and the current NFB device, said portability is
> only the first
> step. Future versions of the device will recognize faces, identify rooms
> and translate text from other languages for the blind and the sighted.
> The inventor plans to begin marketing the cell phone in February through
> K-NFB Reading Technology. The software will cost $1,595 and the cell
> phone is expected
> to cost about $500, Kurzweil said.
> Dave Doermann, president of College Park-based Applied Media Analysis
> said his company is working on similar software for smart phones that
> could be used
> by the military for translation and by the visually impaired.
> "We don't anticipate ours being that expensive, but unfortunately we're
> not quite to the release yet," said Doermann, who is also co-director of
> the University
> of Maryland's Laboratory for Language and Media Processing.
> Doermann said the company, which has received funding from the
> Department of Defense and the National Eye Institute, hopes to have its
> software ready in
> the next 12 to 18 months.
> Kurzweil's device uses speech software provided by Nuance, said Chris
> Strammiello, the director of product management at Nuance, who said the
> company has
> also developed a prototype reader that uses the Internet to access more
> powerful server-side computers.
> "As you can harness the power of remote environments and do that so
> quickly with the Web technologies, it gives a lot more capability,
> flexibility and options
> to the way you solve these type of problems," Strammiello said.
> There are about 10 million blind and visually impaired people in the
> U.S., a number that is expected to double in the next 30 years as baby
> boomers age.
> Kurzweil said those with vision problems are not the only ones expected
> to benefit from the technology. Dyslexics, for example, are expected to
> be among
> the users of the current device because of its ability to highlight each
> word as it's read aloud, helping them cope with their disability, which
> affects
> the ability to read. The highlighting function can also help them
> improve their reading skills, he said.
> "What's new here is both blind people and kids can do this with a device
> that fits in their shirt pocket," Kurzweil said.
> Marc Maurer, president of the National Federation of the Blind, said the
> device and its PDA predecessor are a "form of hand-held vision" that
> will make
> the visual environment "much more readily available to the blind."
> ___
> National Federation of the Blind:
> http://www.nfb.org
> K-NFB Reading Technology Inc.:
> http://www.knfbreader.com
> Kurzweil Technologies Inc.:
> http://www.kurzweiltech.com/ktihome.html
> Applied Media Analysis:
> http://appliedmediaanalysis.com
> Hosted by
> G
>
>
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