New Information System for Blind and Visually Impaired
From: Freie University Berlin (Germany) - 09/16/2009

An information appliance that will enable the blind and visually impaired to
engage in online communication without a fully equipped computer has been
developed by the artificial intelligence group at Freie University Berlin.
The InformA project is a joint effort of Freie University, Telekom
Laboratories, and the Berlin Association for the Education of the Blind and
Visually Impaired. A small computer connected wirelessly to the Internet,
InformA is operated like a radio in that users can turn to different
information channels. Users press a button to hear the time and weather, and
to access audio files of current newspapers. InformA reads email aloud, and
users can respond by dictating a message. Users can take pictures of letters,
package information, and leaflets with the integrated camera if they want to
know what they say, and send pictures of more detailed printed documents to a
call center for further assistance. Field tests have begun with hopes of
optimizing InformA for future users. "Through the wealth of information
provided by InformA, the device can also be of interest for older people
without previous experience with computers, who until now have not had access
to information offered through the Internet," says project leader and Freie
professor Raul Rojas. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.fu-berlin.de/en/presse/fup/2009/fup_09_241/index.html
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20090918/New-information-system-for-blind-and-visually-impaired-individuals.aspx

Links:
Raul Rojas
http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/inst/ag-ki/rojas_home/pmwiki/pmwiki.php

Reading Glasses for the Blind
http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/inst/ag-ki/rojas_home/documents/ResearchProjects/B1.pdf