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Indeed you can set one up to an extent. The products you are referring to are known in general as CCTV's in the assistive technology/low vision community even though they don't necessarily involve a television anymore. The one thing to keep in mind is that the purpose built and sold products such as the ones you linked to are built with specific features such as contrast enhancement, color adjustment, (and more I'm sure I don't know of), that are effective in helping people with various types of visual difficulties. For example, they can switch a book placed in front of their camera from black on white to display on a screen as white on black, or change it to red on black, etc. Perhaps your girlfriend's grandfather's doctors or specialists could say whether those types of things or other features that these types of purpose built devices have would help or would be able to extend his ability to read printed text. Many also come with a table that slides in the x and y directions to make it easy to move a book around. A large smooth table can work similarly, but it's not as convenient. The other thing to realize is that the reason those devices are so expensive in many cases is that they are built for one purpose and thus are able to qualify for health insurance coverage. That's an unfortunate feature of most health insurance, but they don't want to pay for general purpose devices like a computer, even if it could be used with built in screen reader software like on a Mac (VoiceOver), because that computer could also be used for general purposes. So the result is much more expensive single purpose devices. Go figure. But as explained above, in some cases, they come with features that would either be difficult to duplicate in a DIY solution, or would take quite a bit of research to find out what features are best for a given condition. Maybe your girlfriend's grandfather would qualify for insurance coverage anyway. In this case, given that his condition is degenerative, perhaps, a DIY solution is better if it can work, if it would be cheaper.

Another option is to consider screen reader software such as VoiceOver that comes with Macs or JAWS or WindowEyes that can be purchased for windows. JAWS and WindowEyes are more serious, full screen reader solutions. A screen reader is certainly not an easy learning curve. They replace the standard computer navigation with an entirely new keyboard (and mouse work arounds) and audio based one.

Another option is custom Audio book creation. You can build a DIY book scanner diybookscanner.org/ and ocr any book or page, then use text to speech software to create an audio book. With custom voices they can sound pretty good, though it takes a lot of work to clean up the text input to get nice clean output.

People have already linked the KNFB reader software, which is worth looking into. It's pretty slick, I've seen it in action. It's pretty well optimized and runs on a Nokia cell phone.

I was with you everywhere until you recommended the Intel reader. The Intel reader is in every way inferior to KNFB Reader software on appropriate mobile phones. The Intel reader is much larger, has worse battery life, worse software, and is a first generation product whereas the KNFB Reader is the result of much more advanced work. The assistive technology specialists at the universities I know all prefer the KNFB reader solution, though of course none have an affiliation with it, nor do I.

Check this out:

I just checked the facts now, and Ray Kurzweil (AI + future-tech guru/genius/entrepreneur/benefactor/cyborg ) has a whole company specializing in assistive reading technologies.

K–NFB Reading Technology

http://www.knfbreader.com/

The original OCR reader for blind people he developed is presented here:

http://www.knfbreader.com/products-classic.php

This product is no longer in development, because they have moved to using cell-phones (you just gotta love this cell-phone age we're in). BTW, don't waste your time looking at products made by people without the expertise in this field of AI and assistive technology. You need a real solution for a real problem...

For reading and using the computer, advanced software exists (Windows platform - don't let anyone make you waste your time with open source, it's not for grandpa - yet). If he can identify elements in the screen and is able to locate where text is, he can just use something like TextAloud.

As macular degeneration progresses, though, he will want to move into software specifically tailored for the blind. In fact, I would suggest getting acquainted with the following software before total blindness. JAWS is the major-league player in this category.

http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp

I wish all the best for your girlfriend's grandfather. Tell him he's not the only in that situation and that there are solutions out there.

I hope this helps.

May you score many Internet Points points with your future father-in-law, too ;-)

Check this out:

I just checked the facts now, and Ray Kurzweil (AI + future-tech guru/genius/entrepreneur/benefactor/cyborg ) has a whole company specializing in assistive reading technologies.

K–NFB Reading Technology

http://www.knfbreader.com/

The original OCR reader for blind people he developed is presented here:

http://www.knfbreader.com/products-classic.php

This product is no longer in development, because they have moved to using cell-phones (you just gotta love this cell-phone age we're in). BTW, don't waste your time looking at products made by people without the expertise in this field of AI and assistive technology. You need a real solution for a real problem...

For reading and using the computer, advanced software exists (Windows platform - don't let anyone make you waste your time with open source, it's not for grandpa - yet). If he can identify elements in the screen and is able to locate where text is, he can just use something like TextAloud.

As macular degeneration progresses, though, he will want to move into software specifically tailored for the blind. In fact, I would suggest getting acquainted with the following software before total blindness. JAWS is the major-league player in this category.

http://www.freedomscientific.com/products/fs/jaws-product-page.asp

I wish all the best for your girlfriend's grandfather. Tell him he's not the only in that situation and that there are solutions out there.

I hope this helps.

May you score many Internet Points points with your future father-in-law, too ;-)

Very good mobile products for the blind, though not cheap: http://www.knfbreader.com/

There are surprising many options out there for the blind. They range from very basic functionality i.e. the LG 5100 (which is what I have right now) to a Sybian or Windows mobile based phones. I got the LG free with a 2 year service plan. Where as a Symbian phone with the proper software can cost at least a couple hundred bucks for the phone and the software.

Try looking through the AFB Product Database or Access World 208 (though not all the information in there is entirely accurate, i.e. AW08 claims Wayfinder Access only runs on Windows Mobile phone when it actually only runs on Sybian phones.)

Also, the "picture reading software" mentioned earlier is called KNFB Mobile Reader (it costs $1600USD.) And for all the naysayers, *pointless*, This software would allow a blind person to read a menu at a restaurant, read labels at a super market, etc.

If you choose to go the Smart phone route be prepared to spend a lot of money. I'm looking at an N82 as my next phone, Phone is ~$550USD on ebay, ~$300USD for the text to speech software, $549 For Way Finder access, get the idea.

There is a Win Mobile version of JAWS the most common Windows PC screen reader. FYI, Just because it is the most popular does not mean it's the best. There is also TALKS which you can get free from AT&T AW08, has more info on that. There are also rumors that AT&T will soon be offering Mobile Speak (Win mobile & Symbian) by Code Factory, as well. As I understand all of these software packages will allow the user to interact will all of the features of the phone including sending and receiving text messages. Also, for those unfamiliar there is this term Legally Blind, and for these individuals there is also software to do screen magnification from Code Factory.

Finally what sound proof room did you use those voice commands in?

They make the Jitterbug in a couple different versions one for seniors, and another for the blind. though I think they are pretty interchangeable.

So the real question is what features does your friend "want" and how much are they willing to spend. Also, you may look into what government assistance they can receive in getting a new phone.

Ray Kurzweil as tweaked a digital camera to do just what you describe, for the purpose of providing a portable text reader for blind people. They are for sale now, for about $3500 each.