We talk of
wearable technology and see a deluge of wantabees who all want to be seen in their
‘Emporer’s New Clothes.’ But it often is frustrating that we continue to leave
many behind in our search for the next best gadget to be seen with. We were
taken aback years ago when we saw the ‘sixth sense’ development of Pranev Mistryand today some of the most exciting technology still remains with the likes of
MIT.
This week, we read
of a MIT’s finger device, which is not an iRing or iWatch mini, but a remarkable
device aimed at helping the visually Impaired read and engage with the written
word. It is still surprising that some ten years since we wrote the ‘Brave New
World’ report and we envisaged the era of the audio digital. However, its mass
adoption remains untapped and communities, such as the visually impaired, are
still being left behind. We obviously saw then that it was a simple transition
from physical audiobook to digital audiobook and although much has happened,
little mass adoption either upstream or downstream has occurred. At the time,
many saw print on demand and the digitalised text as offering the solution to
large print books and specialised monitors, but again much has happened, but
mass adoption hasn’t.
So what have MIT
delivered with their FingerReader?
FingerReader is a
device which today looks clunky and very much a prototype, but through its
camera is capable of character recognition and real time audio delivery. Assisting
the visually impaired with effectively and efficiently, reading paper printed and
ereader text must be a goal to strive for. FingerReader addresses the issues of
misalignment, focus, character accuracy, mobility and efficiency, introduces a new
method of scanning text of single lines, blocks of text or skimming the text
for important sections on the go, whilst giving the reader instant audio and a tactile
feedback.
So what you may
ask and how does this help others?
Well today the initial
focus is no the visually impaired and can enable
the blind to read without the need for Braille, or the visually impaired to
read without large print or blow up monitors. But the technology offers
much more to all and takes us one step further towards the true wearable and tactical
interfaces we lack today. Imagine just pointing you finger at text and hearing
an instantaneous playback and also capturing the text at the same time. We would
suggest that this is far more useful than creating a digital watch.
Imagine, joining
the dots between speech recognition and controls, OCR, Audio and all in the
pocket package of a smartphone.
Currently, FingerReader needs to
be connected to a laptop, but the researchers are now developing an open-source
version that will be able to use Android phones. Now that really opens up wider
opportunities for all.
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