Reading machine for blind wins inventor prize

                                          Updated 8:41 AM ET April 26,
2001


  by Charles Cooper, ZDNet News

  Raymond Kurzweil's 35-year track record of
  inventions was rewarded with the $500,000
  Lemelson-MIT prize.

  Raymond Kurzweil was going through the 20-odd messages left on his
answering
  machine when his ears pricked up upon hearing the voice of
Massachusetts Institute
  of Technology professor Lester Thurow.

  "My first thought was, 'What the heck does he want?'" said Kurzweil,
who created
  the first reading machine for blind people. In short order, the
peripatetic inventor
  learned he was $500,000 richer, the recipient of the Lemelson-MIT
prize.

  The prize, which will be presented to Kurzweil on Wednesday in
Washington, D.C.,
  recognizes his 35-year track record inventing technologies in areas as
diverse as
  pattern recognition, artificial intelligence and speech reading.

  "It's great to be recognized where there aren't a lot of real rewards
for inventing," said
  Kurzweil. "It's particularly gratifying to be recognized by peers."

  The Lemelson prize is named after Jerome Lemelson, a former toy
industry executive
  and inventor famous for filing patent infringement lawsuits against a
wide variety of
  defendants. Velcro darts, medical equipment, VCRs, cassette tape
decks, fax
  machines, Hot Wheels tracks, semiconductor manufacturing equipment,
industrial
  robotics and wiper blades were but some of the inventions Lemelson
claimed
  infringed his 500 plus patents.

  Few cases went to trial, but lawsuit settlements totaled in the
millions of dollars,
  according to legal experts.

  Beginning in 1976, when Kurzweil created a reading machine to give
voice to any
  written text--a system first used by songwriter Stevie Wonder--the
inventor had
  already founded and sold four companies.

  Kurzweil has authored a couple of books about the future of
technology, charting out
  his views on the blurring distinction between human and machine and an
emerging era
  where scientists will be able to routinely send microscopic
"nanobots"--cell-sized
  robots--into our bloodstreams to repair damage.

  More recently, he has concentrated on work in the field of virtual
reality.

  Some of Kurzweil's predictions have triggered controversy. He and Bill
Joy, chief
  scientist at Sun Microsystems, have been involved in a yearlong debate
about the use
  and abuse of technology and its potential impact on civilization. In a
piece he wrote a
  year ago, Joy outlined what he saw as the danger posed by technologies
such as
  robotics and genetic engineering.

  Still, in an earlier interview, Kurzweil struck an optimistic chord
about the future,
  saying prescriptive vigilance by responsible practitioners is the best
safeguard.

  Kurzweil plans to donate a portion of the prize money to a foundation
he has set up
  for blind students. The rest will go toward his research.

  Reflecting on the importance of the prize, Kurzweil said he hoped to
be remembered
  for making contributions to the field of pattern recognition.

  "There has been a lot of attention to artificial intelligence over the
decades but not that
  much to pattern recognition, which in my opinion, is the real key to
human
  intelligence," he said.

  "What's gratifying is making that leap from dry formulas to making
transformations in
  people's lives," he added. "If I get a letter from a blind student who
credits our
  machine with getting his information, that's a very exciting thing."