Mobile Phone for the Blind

Anonymous Coward writes "Owasys - a Spanish company - is launching a mobile phone for the blind next week. No visual display as a speech synthesiser reads everything that appears on the screen out loud. Also speaks the name and number of incoming callers."

Comments

talx

[n__0]

my blind friend was given tha tlink the other day and didnt quite like it. obviously the competitions good but the best solution at the moment is a nokia 3650 and a program called talx, thuogh its more expensive at the moment it wont be when the phone drops in price. he only got it recently and it made a big difference over having to give the phone to friends to read his smses.

Special phone for... the blind?

[pla]

Last time I used one, phones used sound as a means of communication. You dial a number on the very position-standardized keypad (so even those with functional eyes can usually dial a phone without looking), and speak into the handset. The person you called then uses their end to do the same, and you can both hear each other.

It would seem that no one else has noticed this seeming absurdity yet...

"Normal" phones do not significantly hinder the blind! Wake up, people! This has no obvious purpose other than yet another way to bilk medicaid on another very expensive specialty device that actually has less functionality than a normal version of the same product (no screen? That probably halved the cost to the manufacturer).

And for those who would mention SMS or caller ID, I have a friend who already has an ordinary cell phone that will read those to him (no idea on the model, but nothing special). So even those two functions don't discriminate against the blind.

TXT'ing?

[FyRE666]

Although this is undoubtably a good idea, the article doesn't mention whether the phone will translate "TXT talk", as used by just about everyone today, into actual speech. IE "HI M8, R U GONNA GO 2 the pub l8r?" etc. Hopefully the phone doesn't just spell out the text in this format...

The Phone of the Future?

[mrgoatCEO]

Bigdog is a hero of the people. I think that cell phones are moving in the wrong direction, they should be made of wood.