![[The KNFB Reader?]](http://www.teleread.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/knfb-reader-sm.jpg)
Source: rehabtech.com.
A.I. pioneer Ray Kurzweil and the US National Federation of the Blind (NFB) are working on a print-to-speech reader which will let the blind read printed texts. Imaginatively called the Kurzweil NFB Reader, the device consists according to Rehabtech Consulting of a Dell Axim PDA and a 5 megapixel Canon digital camera, contains OCR and speech synthesis software, looks like it was put together by the A-Team, and should cost 3000 US$.
My take? I am surprised a piracy enabling device like this is still legal in the States. But if the Baltimore Sun article linked below is anything to go by, it will be a great emancipator for those who have use for it, and in the end that’s what counts.
Further reading: Baltimore Sun: Device Provides Words to Live By.
Earlier: read Kurzweil’s essays on A.I.
Via David Weinberger.
$3000 for a camera and a PDA? I like the idea, but don’t understand the high price.
The camera and PDA are probably only about $800 or so, the rest is probably the price of the software.
OCR software on a PDA? Yeah, that is where the cost is. I have used the Kurzweil products at my University. Also, they are marketing to a limited segment of the population.
Mr. Collen wrote: “My take? I am surprised a piracy enabling device like this is still legal in the States.” I don’t see this device as being any more able to ‘pirate’ something than say the AVERAGE personal computer which can (and often does) pirate music and many other software titles on a very large scale. It’s not the device that should be illegal, it is how it is used that needs to be monitored.
This camera/PDA is an awesome product, even if it only works half as well as it is purported to. It gives blind and low vision users access to everyday information that isn’t readily accessible to them.
“I don’t see this device as being any more able to ‘pirate’ something than say the AVERAGE personal computer which can (and often does) pirate music and many other software titles on a very large scale.”
I am glad, then, that I did not claim it was the device doing the “pirating”. 🙂
“It’s not the device that should be illegal.”
I completely agree, but unfortunately that’s not how it works in the USA. Since the Grokster case American jurisprudence states that companies that sell devices on the strength of their copyright infringement capabilities are liable for claims of infringement themselves.
In the E.U., copies made for technical reasons (i.e. the copy your computer makes from its harddisk to memory so that you can enjoy the software you bought) is excempt from infringement, but I know of no such law in the US.
Of course, nobody is going to sue Kurzweil over this, and if they did they would be laughed out of court. But of course, a decent, honest judge would have laughed Grokster out of court.
ironically the fields on this site aren’t correctly identifyed by screen readers. 1. I think until more appreciation for intellectual property is realized here in the states no matter how many laws get passed, people will apathetically find ways to break them. I actually have one of the Kurzweil readers on order, it’s back ordered a month already. Being able to read things in public will be great, like restoraunt menus, handouts at meetings. I do remember that scene from “short circuit 2” where Jonny5 absorbed an entire book store, ye it would be cool to do that, and I could argue it’s not any different than checking books out of a library, but if I really value the book I’d still buy it. The reader doesn’t have a batch mode really though, it scans a page and then starts reading it aloud, so until a later version, scanning large ammounts of text quickly won’t be very convenient.