new mobile technology: January 2008 Archives

K-NFB Reading Technology, Inc., a company combining the research and development efforts of the National Federation of the Blind and Kurzweil Technologies Inc., unveiled a product line that will revolutionize access to print for anyone who has difficulty seeing or reading print, including the blind and learning disabled. The company’s reading software has been especially designed for and paired with the Nokia N82 mobile phone to create the smallest text-to-speech reading device in history.

This truly pocketsized Reader enables users to take pictures of and read most printed materials at the push of a button. Blind users hear the contents of the document read in clear synthetic speech, while users who can see the screen and those with learning disabilities can enlarge, read, track, and highlight printed materials using the phone’s large and easy-to-read display. The combination of text-to-speech and tracking features makes interpreting text much easier for individuals with learning disabilities.

3M has a new super small mini projector that could be built into cell phones, or other small devices.About the size of a wireless earpiece and less than half an inch thick, the 3M mobile projects VGA resolution images at as large as 40 inches with no speckles or glitches.

It uses an advanced liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) electronic imager in conjunction with proprietary 3M optics technology.

Comment from Wireless and Mobile News: This device could mean more boring PowerPoint presentations, slide shows of other people’s travel and stupid YouTube videos at meetings.