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Optek Systems has four
products that can speak out loud printed material for the benefit of people
with a vision impairment or a print disability. All four products use
scanners to scan the printed document, and high quality synthesised speech to
read back the text. Each product
has different needs in mind, summarized as follows : |
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For those who prefer the
“talking book” format, or who are totally blind, this simple-to-use system is
controlled by only 5 buttons and two knobs. Ideal for elderly people who cannot use CCTVs. |
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A simple computer program
that requires no computer knowledge.
As well as speaking the printed material, the computer screen also
displays it enlarged, as required |
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The “Rolls-Royce” of
scanning programs for Blind and Vision Impaired people. |
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The most complete scanning
/ reading computer program for people with print difficulties, including
Dyslexia, Learning Difficulty, and some Vision Impairment. |
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POET Compact
Imagine having any book you
chose from the Library read out loud to you, not just those pre-recorded in
“Talking Book” catalogues? Or
any piece of your private correspondence*. The new POET COMPACT is an
easy-to-use speaking device that takes printed materials such as books,
newspapers, mail, magazines, recipes, printed prescriptions and so on and
speaks them out loud with a superbly clear human-like voice. The POET Compact is designed to
bring independent reading back to people whose vision is too
limited to be assisted by CCTV magnifiers, or who prefer the “talking book”
format. |
The New Poet Compact |
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The POET is EASY Simply place the reading material
under the lid of the POET (as if you were taking a photocopy), press a button
and in a few moments the print will be read out loud to you by a clear and
steady natural sounding “human” voice, from internal speakers or through
headphones for privacy.
The speed of speaking and the volume are easily adjusted by a couple
of dials. Anybody, young or old, even
with very limited or no sight,
can use the POET Compact because it is so simple to use and because the 5
front-panel buttons and 2 dials are so distinctively designed. Absolutely NO computer
skills are required to operate this simple reading machine. The POET is Convenient You can choose to save any
documents you scan for reading later on, and these are stored
indefinitely. The POET has an
enormous capacity - it can store more than 500,000 pages! This is the equivalent of about 10
years reading! To save a
document, simply speak a suitable name to the POET and it will store it for
you. Of course, you may also choose to
discard material after it has been read to you. The POET is Intelligent Don’t worry if you put the reading
material in “back to front” by mistake - the POET automatically works out
which way round it should be!
The POET also takes care of complicated layouts like columns and tables
of information. It copes with
even very tiny print and small figures.
The POET makes sense of different font styles, even white on black,
and coloured print - the POET works it all out for you, automatically. The POET is Compact Weighing just 6.7 Kg, and
measuring 49 cm long by 33 cm wide by 9 cm high, the POET is about the size
of a briefcase and will fit neatly on to any desk, table or bench. The POET has a robust case which is
attractively styled. No
batteries are required - just plug POET into a power point, switch on, sit
back and let POET read to you. And, for foreign language
speakers, the POET will also read French and German, as well as
English texts. The Poet is Transportable There is now a high-quality,
padded, silver-gray carrying case available for the Poet so that you can have
the convenience of reading wherever or whenever you travel. There are no problems with finding, and remembering, the scenner lock. The Poet doesn’t have a scanner lock! Unlike the majority of scanners the Poet does not depend upon the scanner being locked because it automatically self calibrates continuously, so that its accuracy, and reliability is always first rate. The Poet Is Now A Tool For Deaf-Blind People. Now people with a Hearing
Impairment can also use the Poet! The RBT (Rabbit or Vario) is a
refreshable Braille Display that is also manufactured by Baum Elektronik, (the
manufacturers of the Poet Compact) and this can now be directly connected to
the Poet. The Braille Display echoes all of the words that are spoken by the
Poet, including its command phrases. The Poet can be controlled either
with it’s own simple buttons, or with the buttons of the RBT display, for the
convenience of the Braille reader. At last a simple scanning
system is available for people with the multiple disabilities of
vision and hearing impairment, that gives independent access to print! |
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Kurzweil 1000 is print scanning software
that runs on a Pentium Multimedia computer. Designed for Blind / Low Vision
users, its main function is to scan printed material with excellent text
recognition (OCR) and intelligent layout detection (column order, tables
etc). Once recognised, this scanned text is then presented on-screen at a
user-defined size, font and colour scheme (for low vision users) and spoken
out loud by a natural sounding synthesised voice (for Blind users). The
speech can be changed between 14 different voices (male, female) and the
expression of the voice can be changed as well. Rate of speaking (WPM) and
volume are easily controlled by the keypad or keyboard, as are all the
functions. |
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Kurzweil 3000 |
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