Hello Catherine,
Although I'm very excited about the development of an accessible
mobile phone, I fear it will take a long time before such a phone
gains FCC approval in the states. Idealy, Owasys would license their
technology to Nokia and some of the other vendors for inclusion into
already-existing products.
Steve
Thursday, November 6, 2003, 4:10:28 AM, you wrote:
CA> [ATYG] Mobile phone to cater for blind users
CA> ElectricNews.net
CA> Mobile software developer Babel Technologies and Spanish company Owasys
CA> have announced a new mobile phone for people who are blind or visually
CA> impaired.
CA> The owasys22c operates on an embedded text-to-speech (TTS) solution called
CA> PocketBabil from the speech software company Babel Technologies, which says
CA> the tool can read the names of incoming callers and read text messages out
CA> loud. Menus are also read aloud and can be chosen by using the keypad.
CA> Owasys marketing and sales director Fernando Aguirre said in a statement
CA> that the phone, which is due to launch in January, will give an "easy and
CA> friendly" way for visually impaired people to access information from a
CA> mobile.
CA> PocketBabil is available on a number of devices that have been targeted to
CA> blind and visually impaired users, and according to Vince Fontaine, CEO of
CA> Babel Technologies, such software is finding an increasingly wide market
CA> niche as more people with visual impairment use mobile phones and notebook
CA> computers that can benefit from text-to-speech. Fontaine played down the
CA> fact that the Oways22c handset does not have Braille, saying that mobile
CA> phone users who are blind are already au fait with the layout of a handset.
CA> The technology on which PocketBabil is based is available in 18 languages.
CA> Babel claims that it can "produce any utterance in a given speech or
CA> language" with a relatively small hardware requirements in terms of memory.
CA> PocketBabil is similar to the TALKS solution Nokia uses in its
CA> Communicator 9290 range. In fact, Fontaine said that Babel is negotiating
CA> with Nokia with a view to providing its speech technology to the mobile
CA> giant. With the Nokia Communicator 9290, it is possible to attach a portable
CA> Braille display to the phone; the device retailed at a little over USD500
CA> when it was first launched in 2002.
CA> Fontaine said that later this month, Babel is to launch another
CA> text-to-speech mobile phone with IGEL in the US. PocketBabil is also used in
CA> the ALVA MPO (Mobile Phone Organiser), which has a Braille keyboard and a
CA> speech synthesizer, and which was launched in March this year, retailing for
CA> more than USD4000.
CA> No retail price has yet been released for the owasys22c, which is due to
CA> be distributed by Once, a Spanish organisation of the blind.
CA> Copyright ElectricNews.Net Ltd 1999-2003
CA> --
CA> Ann K. Parsons
CA> email: [log in to unmask]
CA> WEB SITE: http://home.eznet.net/~akp
CA> "All that is gold does not glitter. Not all those who wander are lost."
CA> JRRT
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CA> -------------------------------------------------------------
CA> See EASI Special October Bonus offer at http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
CA> EASI November courses are:
CA> Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and
CA> Business Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
CA> http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
CA> EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi
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--
Best regards,
Steve mailto:[log in to unmask]
-------------------------------------------------------------
See EASI Special October Bonus offer at http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
EASI November courses are:
Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and Business Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi
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-> ............. <-
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