PORTABLE  PRINT  READING  DEVICE  FOR  THE  VISUALLY  IMPAIRED

    For more than two years, C.A.Technology, Inc. and its President, Oleg
Tretiakoff, have been involved in the Project entitled "New and Improved
Print Reading Machine for the Blind" supported by the National Science
Foundation under Grants DMI-9801554 and DMI-0296066.

    The result of these efforts, the Portable Print Reading Device, "P2RD",
now in its final design phase, is expected to be available during the second
quarter of 2003.

    The P2RD comprises two compact and lightweight units:
 - a high resolution digital color camera
 - a pocket size remote control unit

     The P2RD provides all the functions required to capture the image of an
object, recognize the text it contains, and convert this text into synthetic
speech or Braille.
     The P2RD also provides the functions needed to store a document and
navigate inside stored documents:
 - move to specific page of chosen document
 - move to beginning of page, paragraph, line or word
 - search character sequence

     The P2RD provides audible clues to help the user frame precisely the
image of a document.
     The P2RD can read text carried by an object located close by or far
away, as long as the image generated by the zoom lens of its camera provides
an adequate resolution for this particular text.
     The P2RD camera provides all the photographic capabilities found today
in a typical high end digital color camera.

     Several accessories, including a portable Copy Stand and a portable
Book Reader will also be available.
     When used with the Copy Stand, the P2RD provides audible clues to help
the user place the tip of a pen precisely at a specific location on the
document placed under the Copy Stand, allowing the user to add handwritten
notes to the document, for example to fill a form.
     When used with the Book Reader, the P2RD allows the user to read and
store rapidly several pages of any book placed on its reading surface,
without damaging the books in any way, even if they are thick and hard
covered. The user can easily center the P2RD camera on the page of any book
smaller than the 9 by 12 inches reading surface.

     A flat tactile graphic array, will become available later as a part of,
or to be added to the remote control unit. It will allow blind users to read
by touch both text characters and graphic shapes, for example mathematical
symbols. Its price is not known a this time.

     The target price to the end user is, as of today, $1800. Advance orders
can be placed immediately by mailing the order with a $600.00 deposit per
unit ordered, to:
     C.A.Technology, Inc., 9500 S. Ocean Drive, Jensen Beach, FL 34957, USA.
     For more information, please send an email to:  [log in to unmask]