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<title>Reading machine</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Reading machine</span></span>

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<div id="mw-content-text" class="mw-body-content mw-content-ltr" lang="en" dir="ltr"><div class="mw-content-ltr mw-parser-output" lang="en" dir="ltr"><p>A <b>reading machine</b> is a piece of <a href="Assistive_technology" title="Assistive technology">assistive technology</a> that allows <a href="Blindness" class="mw-redirect" title="Blindness">blind</a> people to access printed materials. It scans text, converts the image into text by means of <a href="Optical_character_recognition" title="Optical character recognition">optical character recognition</a> and uses a <a href="Speech_synthesis" title="Speech synthesis">speech synthesizer</a> to read out what it has found.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Development">Development</h2></div>

<p>The first prototype of reading machine, called <a href="Optophone" title="Optophone">optophone</a>, was developed by Dr. <a href="Edmund_Edward_Fournier_d'Albe" title="Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe">Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe</a> of <a href="Birmingham_University" class="mw-redirect" title="Birmingham University">Birmingham University</a> in 1913. Five vertically-aligned <a href="Photodetectors" class="mw-redirect" title="Photodetectors">photodetectors</a> were used to scan a line of printed text. Each cell generated a different tone (G, C, D, E, G8) when detecting black print, so that each character was associated with a specific time-varying chords of tones. With some practice, blind users were able to interpret this audio output as a meaningful message. However, the reading speed of this device was very slow (approximately one word per minute).<sup id="cite_ref-Shankweiler_Seeking_1-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Shankweiler_Seeking-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-Cooper_Evolution_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Cooper_Evolution-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>From 1944 until up to the 1970s, new prototypes of reading machine were developed at <a href="Haskins_Laboratories" title="Haskins Laboratories">Haskins Laboratories</a> under contract from the <a href="United_States_Department_of_Veterans_Affairs" title="United States Department of Veterans Affairs">Veterans Administration</a>. The research project was conducted by <a href="Caryl_Parker_Haskins" title="Caryl Parker Haskins">Caryl Parker Haskins</a>, <a href="Franklin_S._Cooper" title="Franklin S. Cooper">Franklin S. Cooper</a> and <a href="Alvin_Liberman" title="Alvin Liberman">Alvin Liberman</a>. Their first attempts to improve the optophone all ended in failures,<sup id="cite_ref-Cooper_Evolution_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Cooper_Evolution-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> and users were still unable to read more than 5 words per minutes in average, even after long training sessions.<sup id="cite_ref-Shankweiler_Seeking_1-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Shankweiler_Seeking-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This observation led Liberman to suppose that the limitation was cognitive rather than technical, and to formulate his <a href="Motor_theory_of_speech_perception" title="Motor theory of speech perception">motor theory of speech perception</a>. He realized that the speech signal was not heard like an acoustic "alphabet" or "cipher," but as a "code" of overlapping speech gestures, due to <a href="Coarticulation" title="Coarticulation">coarticulation</a>. Therefore, a reading machine cannot simply convert the printed characters into a series of abstract sounds, rather it must be able to identify the characters and to produce a speech sound as output using a <a href="Speech_synthesis" title="Speech synthesis">speech synthesizer</a>.

</p><p>The first commercial reading machine for the blind was developed by <a href="Ray_Kurzweil" title="Ray Kurzweil">Kurzweil Computer Products</a> (later acquired by <a href="Xerox" title="Xerox">Xerox</a> Corporation) in 1975. <a href="Walter_Cronkite" title="Walter Cronkite">Walter Cronkite</a> used this machine to give his signature sound off, "And that's the way it is, January 13, 1976."<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>In the mid-1960s, <a href="Francis_F._Lee" title="Francis F. Lee">Francis F. Lee</a> joined Dr. <a href="Samuel_Jefferson_Mason" title="Samuel Jefferson Mason">Samuel Jefferson Mason</a>'s Cognitive Information Processing Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at the <a href="Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology" title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a> to work on a reading machine for the blind, the first system that would scan text and produce continuous speech.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Early reading machines were desk-based and large, found in libraries, schools, and hospitals or owned by wealthy individuals. In 2009, a cellphone running Kurzweil-<a href="National_Federation_of_the_Blind" title="National Federation of the Blind">National Federation of the Blind</a> software works as a reading machine.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFShankweilerFowler2015" class="citation journal cs1">Shankweiler, D; Fowler, CA (February 2015). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151217221735/http://www.haskins.yale.edu/history/haskhist_fowler_shankweiler.pdf">"Seeking a reading machine for the blind and discovering the speech code"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. <i>History of Psychology</i>. <b>18</b> (1): <span class="nowrap">78–</span>99. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1037%2Fa0038299">10.1037/a0038299</a>. <a href="PMID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMID (identifier)">PMID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25528275">25528275</a>. <a href="S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:2347141">2347141</a>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-Cooper_Evolution-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Cooper_Evolution_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Cooper_Evolution_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFCooperGaitenbyNye1984" class="citation journal cs1">Cooper, FS; Gaitenby, JH; Nye, PW (May 1984). "Evolution of reading machines for the blind: Haskins Laboratories' research as a case history". <i>Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development</i>. <b>21</b> (1): <span class="nowrap">51–</span>87. <a href="PMID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="PMID (identifier)">PMID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6396402">6396402</a>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.kurzweiltech.com/kcp.html">"Kurzweil Computer Products"</a>. <i>Kurzweil Tech</i>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.rle.mit.edu/about/history/timeline-1960-1%5B%5D">RLE Timeline 1960-1979</a> Retrieved 3 January 2015</span>

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<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100815094216/http://www.knfbreader.com/products-mobile.php">"Mobile Products"</a>. <i>KNFB Reader</i>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.knfbreader.com/products-mobile.php">the original</a> on 2010-08-15<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2010-10-19</span></span>.</cite></span>

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This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2023-03-25" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Reading_machine&oldid=1146454121">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

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