Hello once again,
I don't know how Arkenstone was able to flood the paper this weekend, but
this is probably the last piece. This was probably a sidebar to the longer
article that I sent.
F.Y.I:
-------------------
In a message dated 95-07-24 07:17:05 EDT, NewsHound@sjmercury.com (NewsHound)
writes:
Subj: EARLIER PROJECT CUT THE COST OF MACHINES THAT READ FOR BLIND
Date: 95-07-24 07:17:05 EDT
From: NewsHound@sjmercury.com (NewsHound)
To: fchambers@aol.com
Earlier project cut the cost of machines that read for blind
Arkenstone's president and co-founder, Jim Fruchterman, traces his interest
in creating computer tools for the blind to the early 1980s when he was
working for a master's degree at California Institute of Technology.
After graduating, Fruchterman helped start Palantir Corp., a reference to the
``stone that sees'' in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel ``The Lord of the Rings.''
Palantir -- its name later changed to Calera Recognition Systems -- pioneered
development in emerging Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.
Calera's Omnifont OCR technology, now owned by Caere Corp. in Los Gatos, is
the foundation of virtually all OCR systems, used in about 80 percent of
scanners and faxes on the market.
Looking for new challenges, Fruchterman and Bill Schwegler left Palantir in
1989 to form Arkenstone as a non-profit corporation. Their first product,
introduced in 1991, was a cheap and popular reading machine for the blind
called ``An Open Book.''
At the time, the only such machines available, which scan a book or magazine
and automatically read it aloud, cost nearly $12,000. Arkenstone cut the
price by more than half while offering less error-prone character
recognition.
``An Open Book'' and the software-only version for computer owners has sold
more than 10,000 copies.
-- Eric Lai
Published 7/24/95 in the San Jose Mercury News.
This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without permission of
the originating newspaper or wire service.
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From: NewsHound@sjmercury.com (NewsHound)
To: fchambers@aol.com
Date: 95-07-24 07:17:05 EDT
Selected by your NewsHound profile entitled "BLIND & DISABLED NEWS/ADS". The
selectivity score was 30 out of 100.
Earlier project cut the cost of machines that read for blind
Arkenstone's president and co-founder, Jim Fruchterman, traces his interest
in creating computer tools for the blind to the early 1980s when he was
working for a master's degree at California Institute of Technology.
After graduating, Fruchterman helped start Palantir Corp., a reference to the
``stone that sees'' in J.R.R. Tolkien's novel ``The Lord of the Rings.''
Palantir -- its name later changed to Calera Recognition Systems -- pioneered
development in emerging Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology.
Calera's Omnifont OCR technology, now owned by Caere Corp. in Los Gatos, is
the foundation of virtually all OCR systems, used in about 80 percent of
scanners and faxes on the market.
Looking for new challenges, Fruchterman and Bill Schwegler left Palantir in
1989 to form Arkenstone as a non-profit corporation. Their first product,
introduced in 1991, was a cheap and popular reading machine for the blind
called ``An Open Book.''
At the time, the only such machines available, which scan a book or magazine
and automatically read it aloud, cost nearly $12,000. Arkenstone cut the
price by more than half while offering less error-prone character
recognition.
``An Open Book'' and the software-only version for computer owners has sold
more than 10,000 copies.
-- Eric Lai
Published 7/24/95 in the San Jose Mercury News.
This material is copyrighted and may not be republished without permission of
the originating newspaper or wire service. NewsHound is a service of the San
Jose Mercury News. For more information call 1-800-818-NEWS.
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