| This paper discusses the feasibility, features, constraints and prospects of a portable reading device for the blind which uses a portable image capturing device connected to a portable computer. The captured image is run through an automated system on the computer. The automated system consists of an Optical Character Recognition (OCR module). The generated text is run through a Text-To-Speech (TTS) engine to provide audio for the visually handicapped user.;Based on this concept a prototype of the system was created and attempts were made to analyze and improve the prototype. The prototype consisted of Scansoft's OmniPage ProRTM 12 application [61] as the OCR module and TTS engines from three vendors (Microsoft TTS, IBM and Lernout & Hauspie RealSpeak) as the TTS module. The modules were integrated using OLE automation interfaces and Activex controls with an automated system. The automated system was an application written in Microsoft Visual Basic 6. The portable computer used was a 1.3GHz Intel Celeron based laptop, A web camera connected to the laptop functioned as the image capture device. |
