MIT Researchers Design Ring To Help Visually-Impaired People Read

Prototype reads text aloud to wearers

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MIT Media Lab has released a video demonstrating wearable technology that could help people with visual impairments read more easily.

Wearers of “FingerReader” move their fingers over words on a page, and the device reads the text back to them. “The FingerReader algorithm knows to detect and give feedback when the user veers away from the baseline of the text,” according to its website.

The “FingerReader” seems to build on a previous concept explored by the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group, which focuses on creating more intuitive devices. In 2012, Engadget.com wrote about “EyeRing Project,” a Bluetooth-enabled, finger-mounted camera that users would aim at text and press the shutter-release, sending an image to a smartphone device or tablet that could be read back to them. The goal was to help not only the visually-impaired read signs or labels, but also children learning how to read.

Likewise, the MIT researchers speculate that the audio feedback feature of “FingerReader” may also help people who are learning a language.

(h/t The Daily Mail)

MIT Media Lab has released a video demonstrating wearable technology that could help people with visual impairments read more easily.

Wearers of “FingerReader” move their fingers over words on a page, and the device reads the text back to them. “The FingerReader algorithm knows to detect and give feedback when the user veers away from the baseline of the text,” according to its website.

The “FingerReader” seems to build on a previous concept explored by the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group, which focuses on creating more intuitive devices. In 2012, Engadget.com wrote about “EyeRing Project,” a Bluetooth-enabled, finger-mounted camera that users would aim at text and press the shutter-release, sending an image to a smartphone device or tablet that could be read back to them. The goal was to help not only the visually-impaired read signs or labels, but also children learning how to read.

Likewise, the MIT researchers speculate that the audio feedback feature of “FingerReader” may also help people who are learning a language.

(h/t The Daily Mail)