>From: "Steve Pattison" <srp@bigpond.net.au>
>Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 22:51:04 +1000
>X-To: "GUI Talk" <gui-talk@nfbnet.org>
>Subject: Fwd: JAPAN'S MATSUSHITA DEVELOPS HAND-HELD TERMINAL FOR BLIND
>To: gui-talk@NFBnet.org (Multiple recipients of NFBnet GUI-TALK Mailing List)
>Reply-To: gui-talk@NFBnet.org (Multiple recipients of NFBnet GUI-TALK
>Mailing List)
>Sender: sysop@NFBnet.org
>X-Delivered-From: mta05bw.bigpond.com
>Priority: Normal
>X-Mailer: PMMail 2000 Professional (2.20.2657) For Windows 98 (4.10.2222)
>
>
>
>From: John Rae thepenguin@rogers.com
>To: nfbcan-l@nfbae.ca
>
>JAPAN'S MATSUSHITA DEVELOPS HAND-HELD TERMINAL FOR BLIND
>
>Asia Pulse
>September 25, 2002
>
>TOKYO - Matsushita Industrial Equipment Co. has developed a system that
>uses
>a hand-held terminal, smart tags and recorded speech to help the
>visually
>impaired
>distinguish among items they use on a daily basis.
>
>Designed to help the visually impaired live a more independent life,
>the
>system uses prerecorded words to identify objects in ways that are not
>possible
>by touch alone, such as the color of clothing, the contents of canned
>beverages, and the music on a CD. On a more practical note, the system
>can
>also be
>used to identify different medicines and their dosage instructions, and
>to
>record the expiration dates of foods.
>
>The smart tags are around the size of a coin and can be attached to
>objects
>by using tape or a rubber band. Data about the contents is recorded to
>the
>chip
>imbedded in the tag and read by using the hand-held terminal. The data
>in
>the smart tags can be updated any number of times.
>
>Matsushita Industrial Equipment developed the system in cooperation
>with
>voice-related equipment maker Kyuhoku Electronics Corp. The smart tags
>were
>developed
>in cooperation with Hume pipe maker Hanex Co.
>
>The company plans to market the system in March, charging about 50,000
>yen
>(US$408) for a set that includes the hand-held reader and 50 tags. The
>reader
>can record information on 200 objects, but with a memory upgrade the
>number
>can be increased to 500.
>
>Matsushita Industrial Equipment estimates there is potential demand for
>more
>than 200,000 units.
>
>Regards Steve,
>mailto:srp@bigpond.net.au.
>MSN Messenger: internetuser383@hotmail.com.
>
>
>
>
>--
>This mailing list is sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind, NFB.
>To view or search an archive of messages for this list, go
>to: http://www.nfbnet.org
>For more information about the NFB, please call (410) 659-9314, point your
>internet browser to http://www.nfb.org or Telnet to nfbnet.org.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 02 2012 - 01:30:04 PST