[vip_students] Book of condolence for the late Torsten Brand

From: "Paul J. Traynor (NCBI)" <paul.traynor@xxxxxxx>
To: <vip_students@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:20:36 +0100
On Behalf Of Stuart Lawler
Sent: 14 April 2010 18:44
Subject: [] Book of condolence for the late Torsten Brand

Dear All,

Torsten Brand, whose pioneering work helped make mobile phones
accessible to the blind and partially sighted, died unexpectedly aged
47 on April 13th 2010 in Göttingen Germany as a result of
complications after minor surgery.

From his early days as a student of Mathematics at Hannover
University, Torsten enjoyed working on the cutting edge of assistive
technology, first under CP/M, and then using MS-DOS, at a time when
refreshable Braille was still new. He developed the BW-PRO Braille
driver for DOS, and later the HBSBUCH converter for creating on-screen
eBooks from Braille-formatted content.

Since 1994 Torsten collaborated in the design of ProTalk and ProTalk32
by Biolink, one of the first screen readers for Windows 3.11 and
Windows NT, and still widely used to provide access by blind operators
to corporate phone systems. Later Torsten specialized in adaptive
scripting of screen readers for custom applications under Windows.

In 2002, Torsten founded Brand and Groeber Communications in
collaboration with Marcus Groeber. They soon had the Nokia
Communicator Series 80 devices talking, and thereafter, developed
Talks further to provide for speech to the Nokia S60 device range.

The product was so successful that it was ultimately acquired by
Nuance Communications, with the original duo of Torsten and Marcus
continuing to act as product manager and developer respectively.

A blind person himself, Torsten used the product he managed on a day
to day bases, and as a result of this, worked hard to make it the best
it could be. Through his efforts, Torsten has improved the lives of
many tens of thousands of blind people throughout the world.

Torsten's enthusiasm for his product went far beyond simply ensuring
that it worked. He believed in ensuring that the product was not only
the best in its class but also highly functional and feature rich
together with being stable and simplistic to operate.

If you can leave this world a better place than you found it, in
whatever endeavour you pursue, your life has been worthwhile. Torsten
led a most worthwhile, and worthy life. He has earned his place in the
history of assistive technology.

It is our hope to celebrate and honour this truly remarkable and
dedicated pioneer of accessible technology through our signing of this
condolence book. We would ask that if you have benefited from
Torsten's work that you help us honour his memory through signing and
leaving a comment.

We shall be having entries printed and placed into a book of
condolence which we shall then have sent to Torsten's family.

This page gives you the opportunity to express your condolences to
Torsten's family, friends and colleagues.

You can sign the book and show your appreciation by visiting
http://www.talknav.com/torsten

Regards,

Stuart.
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[vip_students] Book of condolence for the late Torsten Brand

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