It sounds like a scene taken out from a SciFi movie, but the real story was reported with unrestrained excitement in America’s Baltimore Sun newspaper some months ago.

Preparing for a business meeting, a blind executive grows anxious of not being able to read a piece of information found on a paper in his hand. Help from the person sitting beside is ruled out as he too can’t see.
The executive was offered a small device which he aims at the page and captures it with the camera. The contents were then read out to him by a mild but clear voice from the device and he locates the information he wants.

The software he used, called K-NFB Reader, is the first ever OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology that can convert a mobile phone into a reading machine that allows the elderly people with diminishing eyesight and youngsters with dyslexia, beside the blind, to read contents on a Restaurant menu, product covers in shopping malls and their PNR number on a train ticket without calling out anyone for help.

Developed by Kurzweil Technologies Inc in collaboration with NFB, K-NFB Reader is a software that can be loaded on any mobile phone with a five-megapixel camera (Nokia N82 is recommended).

When the user aims the camera towards a printed page, he or she is guided by a voice instruction that tells them if they are focusing on the right surface. The digital image of the page is then recognised by the OCR software and the output is given through a speaker or earphone.

“Along with other mobile phone access software such as Mobile Speak or Talks (which has to be separately installed on mobile phones and can read out SMS messages and announces in voice the caller id), the K-NFB reader can make your mobile phone a complete reading machine,” says Mr Ram Agarwal of Index Assistive Devices, the Mumbai-based distributors of KNFB reader. Besides reading small printed texts like memos and addresses on an envelop, the software can also read printed books that can be saved either automatically or manually using flash memory.

It is also possible to transfer texts to and from computers and braille note takers. The reading speed of the voice output can also be adjusted to the convenience of the user.

The software pack comes with a CD that has two software programmes — one for normal users with conditions like dyslexia, and the other for vision-impaired or blind users. The packet provided by K-NFB Technology Inc has to be bought, as they provide polarising filters for the lens and flash.

Though the original cost of K-NFB Reader is $1595, the distributors are negotiating a special price for Indian users. In addition there are discounts for upto five licenses purchased in group.

Portable reader has been the latest development in the evolution of character recognition technology in the last three decades. With the introduction of Kurzweil Reader — a device that combined a flat-bed scanner, the omni font OCR software (which is the first of its kind that can recognise any font) and a Text-To-Speech engine-in the mid 1970's, converting print into voice has provided the blind a realistic option of reading any printed materials without braille transcription or human help.

Ray Kurzweil, who invented the technology, installed machines in America’s National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and refined it further. His invention truly became widespread with the advent of desktop computers and availability of flat-bed scanners. Millions of visually challenged users across the world now use Kurzweil1000, the desktop version of the OCR software.

Hooeey!

Before hooeey was developed, it was impossible for the average Internet user to tame the world wide web. The Internet has millions of Web sites but only a minuscule portion is relevant to each user. Rajeev Purnaiya, an avid Internet surfer, believed that web users the world around would face the same problems and proceeded to ratify his belief that people would find immense value in recording, retrieving and analysing their browser history.
Purnaiya, the principal founder of CyberBazaar (acquired by WebEx), India’s first and largest conferencing company, has launched his second entrepreneurial venture: hooeey, an innovative web application that helps you locate information quickly from your previously browsed web pages.

Hooeey is targeted at Internet users who want to keep a track of their history without duplicating effort. It also provides a safe and universal platform for the entire browsing experience and saves time by keeping a tab on the browsing history from any computer. Hooeey delinks the browser history from the browser. It adds a social networking layer, allowing one to share specific sites with others, both on the hooeey network, and other social bookmarking services. hooeey services can be accessed for free at www.hooeey.com.

“The idea behind hooeey is that Internet users can re-use their browsing history in a productive manner, to reduce time spent in searching for previously visited Web pages, to easily share interesting Web pages with others and to use the provided dashboard to manage their browsing time more efficiently. Hooeey is focused on saving time and effort of the users by leveraging IT tools and a different approach that combines seamless web hop recording with complete transparency and user control.” said Mr Rajeev Purnaiya, Founder and CEO of hooeey.

Hooeey allows users to track all their browsing history from any search engine. It has another advantage on browser’s history files because it works on both platforms, like Internet Explorer and Firefox. Some of the distinctive features of hooeey include its ability to record web hops automatically, comment and tag interesting sites while a user is online or offline, create a contact list and send links to friends, and create self-determinable folders. To keep a track of all the data, hooeey has a built-in analytics service, which will break down browsing habits with various helpful charts and graphs. Thereafter one can hand pick any site for tagging and sharing. 
Commenting on users’ privacy, Mr Purnaiya added, “Our users’ privacy is of paramount importance to us. Our approach is based on complete transparency and the user is always in control. We have added some specific tools and features to make the user feel at ease.”