Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1exp 11/4/83; site ihuxj.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!harpo!eagle!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihuxj!gek
From: gek@ihuxj.UUCP (Glenn Kapetansky)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: RE: Micros for the blind
Message-ID: <338@ihuxj.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Dec-83 09:40:47 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxj.338
Posted: Wed Dec 21 09:40:47 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Dec-83 01:44:54 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
Lines: 23


  Following is an off-the-cuff list of micro products for the blind:

     Telesensoring, Inc (California) makes a battery-powered lap
     computer which prints braille in 20 char/line format. May
     be used alone or connected to a host.

     Federal Screw Works (WHY did they pick a name like that?!)
     makes a Talk'n'Speak board which is an ASCII to speech
     converter. It does not recognize punctuation.

     Hewlett Packard sends its terminals to another company which
     removes the printer mechanism and adds a processor to perform
     ASCII to speech conversions. Slurs slightly, but is very fast
     and a better product than Federal Screw Works. About $5K.

     IBM may do something comparable to HP, only for EBCDIC.

     Kurzweil has done some magnificent work in designing machines
     that read printed books out loud. His company is now part of
     Xerox, I believe. Last I heard, though, he was still in the 
     $10K range.

   Hope this is of help.