877 — New mobile phone for blind users

Oct 8, 2003 | Conteúdos Em Ingles

Mobile software developer Babel Technologies and Spanish company Owasys have announced a new mobile phone for people who are blind or visually impaired. The owasys22c operates on an embedded text-to-speech (TTS) solution called PocketBabil from the speech software company Babel Technologies, which says the tool can read the names of incoming callers and read menus and text messages out loud.

The technology on which PocketBabil is based is available in 18 languages. Babel claims that it can ‘produce any utterance in a given speech or language’ with a relatively small hardware requirements in terms of memory.

PocketBabil is similar to the TALKS solution Nokia used in its Communicator 9290 range. In fact, Fontaine said that Babel is negotiating with Nokia to provide its speech technology to the mobile giant. With the Nokia Communicator 9290 , it is possible to attach a portable Braille display to the phone. The device retailed at €425 when it was first launched in 2002.

No retail price has yet been released for the owasys22c, which is due to be distributed by Once , a Spanish organisation of the blind.

2003-10-08

Source: Yahoo UK & Ireland News

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