Nokia Braille Reader – SMS for Visually Impaired

nokia-braille-reader-application-lunchNokia have created a cool little app to assist those who are blind or visually impaired with reading text messages on their mobile phone.

The Nokia Braille Reader application sits in the background and when a text message is received the application automatically loads up. When a part of the screen is tapped the message is then relayed to the user through a series of vibrations. When a dot is raised the phone vibrates sharply and when the dot is not raised a less forceful vibration is felt. Each dot is played one at a time with 6 dots creating each letter.

The application was developed as a joint project between Nokia, Tampere University and the Finnish Federation of the visually impaired. The software doesn’t require any specific hardware to run as it just uses a regular screen and the standard motor found in all mobile phones. Software wise it is based on the S60 5th Edition phones which allows it to be used on the Nokia N97, N97 Mini, 5800 XpressMusic, 5530, 5230 and the X6. More details are shown in the video below…

The download is available for free over here with more details provided at Nokia’s site here. Via: Engadget

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