Here’s a piece about another prototype reading device for the visually 
impaired.  What makes this one a bit different is the claim that it can 
handle graphs as well as standard printed material.
Digital Reading System Assists Vision Impaired to Read Graphs
▶Assistive Technology▶Visual Aids
Author: Curtin University
Contact: Megan Meates - [log in to unmask] - Ph. 61-892-664-241
Published: 2014-07-29 - Revised: (2014-07-29)
Abstract: Dr Iain Murray and PhD student Azadeh Nazemi developed a 
digital reading system for people who are blind, allowing them to read 
graphical material.
Quote: "People who are blind are often blocked from certain career paths 
and educational opportunities where graphs or graphics play a strong role."
Detail: People who are blind can now read more than just words, such as 
graphs and graphics, following the development of an affordable digital 
reading system by Curtin University researchers.
Opening up new career paths and educational opportunities for people 
with vision impairment, the system combines a number of pattern 
recognition technologies into a single platform and, for the first time, 
allows mathematics and graphical material to be extracted and described 
without sighted intervention.
Senior Lecturer Dr Iain Murray and PhD student Azadeh Nazemi of Curtin’s 
Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering developed the device 
to handle the extraordinary number of complex issues faced by the vision 
impaired when needing to read graphics, graphs, bills, bank statements 
and more.
To develop the device, the team has made use of a number of 
technologies, mostly based on pattern recognition, machine learning and 
various segmentation methods.
“Many of us take for granted the number of graphics and statistics we 
see in our daily lives, especially at work. We love to have graphics and 
diagrams to convey information, for example, look at how many statistics 
and graphs are used in the sports section of the newspaper,” Dr Murray said.
“People who are blind are often blocked from certain career paths and 
educational opportunities where graphs or graphics play a strong role. 
We hope this device will open up new opportunities for people with 
vision impairment – it’s a matter of providing more independence, and 
not having to rely on sighted assistance to be able to read graphical 
and mathematical material.”
Senior Lecturer Dr Iain Murray and PhD student Azadeh Nazemi developed a 
digital reading system for people who are blind, allowing them to read 
graphical material.
The device works by using pattern recognition technology and other 
methods on any document to identify images, graphs, maths or text. From 
here it is then converted to audio format with navigation markup. 
Basically, the system takes a document, such as a pdf, bill, or scanned 
document, identifies blocks of text or pictures, segments these into 
related blocks and arranges these blocks in the correct reading order. 
Blocks are then identified as images, graphs, maths or text and 
recognised via optical character recognition or the utility for maths, 
Mathspeak. It is then converted to audio format with navigation markup.
The device is 20cm long, 15cm wide and 3cm thick. The controls are very 
much like a cassette player with a couple of additions for navigating 
through headings or chapters. Books can be downloaded or posted out on 
USB storage devices. These books are in a specific format that allows 
audio playback with navigation markup, with audio either in synthetic 
speech or human read. The device will have high contrast keys with 
tactile markings.
Dr Murray said the system runs on very inexpensive platforms, with an 
expected production cost as low as $100 per device, allowing it to be 
affordable to many people around the world and hopefully make a 
difference in third world countries.
He said previously there have been many methods to convert graphical 
material but all are very labour intensive and generally not easily 
transferable to other users.
“Our system is easily operated by people of all ages and abilities and 
it is open source, meaning anyone with the skill can use and modify the 
software to suit their application,” Dr Murray said.
The player has built-in user instructions and a speech engine that 
converts to more than 120 different languages.
Dr Murray said he was now looking for philanthropic finance to set up 
production.

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         David Goldfield,
        Founder and Peer Coordinator

    Philadelphia Computer Users' Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired


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