A new app for smartphones lets blind users scan printed words, such as
food labels, menus, bus timetables and university notes, and hear them
played back faster and more accurately than any other technology on the
market.
It feels like we hear about so many cool new inventions to help the blind these days, and then they never actually materialise, but here's one that's actually on the market, and is already being used by people around the world. Named the KNFB Reader, this new $99 app was developed over four years by Belgian-based company, Sensotec NV, in collaboration with the US National Federation of the
Blind.
"I couldn't believe how accurate it was," Jonathan Mosen, an assistive technology consultant from New Zealand, told Christina Farr and Alexei Oresjovic at Reuters. Mosen has been blind since birth, and has now incorporated the app into his daily life, using it to read his son’s school report cards, and the labels on packages he’s received. Another early adopter, Gordon Luke, tweeted that the app let him read his polling card for the Scottish Referendum.
The app works by having the user adjust or tilt their smartphone’s inbuilt camera, so it can read printed materials out loud, whether they're printed on a physical piece of paper, a large sign on a building, or a PowerPoint presentation on a computer screen. Of course, users aren't always going to know for sure if there are printed words on an object in front of them, but that's something the app will be able to tell them once the camera has finished scanning the area.
"The app’s release comes at a time when the technology industry has faced criticism for being too focused on making what some deem frivolous products such as apps for sharing photos and video games, as well as for intruding into people’s personal privacy,” Farr and Oresjovic report.
“There are innumerable times in life that I’ll have a bit of print and there will be nobody around who can help me out, and I’ll just want to know something as simple as 'Is this packet decaf or caffeinated coffee?'” Bryan Bashin, the US-based executive director of the non-profit Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired told Reuters. “The ability to do this easily with something that fits in your pocket at lightning speed will certainly be a game changer.”
While the app is only compatible with iPhones right now, the company plans to have it ready for Android in the coming months, and maybe one day for Google Glass.
It feels like we hear about so many cool new inventions to help the blind these days, and then they never actually materialise, but here's one that's actually on the market, and is already being used by people around the world. Named the KNFB Reader, this new $99 app was developed over four years by Belgian-based company, Sensotec NV, in collaboration with the US National Federation of the
Blind.
"I couldn't believe how accurate it was," Jonathan Mosen, an assistive technology consultant from New Zealand, told Christina Farr and Alexei Oresjovic at Reuters. Mosen has been blind since birth, and has now incorporated the app into his daily life, using it to read his son’s school report cards, and the labels on packages he’s received. Another early adopter, Gordon Luke, tweeted that the app let him read his polling card for the Scottish Referendum.
The app works by having the user adjust or tilt their smartphone’s inbuilt camera, so it can read printed materials out loud, whether they're printed on a physical piece of paper, a large sign on a building, or a PowerPoint presentation on a computer screen. Of course, users aren't always going to know for sure if there are printed words on an object in front of them, but that's something the app will be able to tell them once the camera has finished scanning the area.
"The app’s release comes at a time when the technology industry has faced criticism for being too focused on making what some deem frivolous products such as apps for sharing photos and video games, as well as for intruding into people’s personal privacy,” Farr and Oresjovic report.
“There are innumerable times in life that I’ll have a bit of print and there will be nobody around who can help me out, and I’ll just want to know something as simple as 'Is this packet decaf or caffeinated coffee?'” Bryan Bashin, the US-based executive director of the non-profit Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired told Reuters. “The ability to do this easily with something that fits in your pocket at lightning speed will certainly be a game changer.”
While the app is only compatible with iPhones right now, the company plans to have it ready for Android in the coming months, and maybe one day for Google Glass.
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