Break through in adaptive reading technology opens new doors for millions with impaired vision
Pulse Data Debuts MyReader™, a Revolutionary Reading Device for People with Age-related Macular Degeneration and Other Degenerative Eye Diseases
Pulse Data today announced the introduction of a new low vision auto-reading device called, myReader™ (www.myreader.com). The first significant breakthrough in adaptive reading technology in over 30 years since the Rand Corporation demonstrated its video magnifier prototype in 1968, myReader is a compact, transportable device that turns the difficult and frustrating task of reading into an easy and enjoyable one for millions of people with impaired vision.
People are considered vision impaired if eyeglasses or contact lenses fail to provide enough visual aid to enable them to read normal sized print. Visual impairment currently affects over 20 million people in the United States and the numbers are expected to surge as the population ages, according to a recent study published in the Archives of Ophthalmology [April 2004]. The study also reports that the leading cause of vision loss for people over 50 is age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Other causes of low vision include diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and cataracts.
“The biggest challenge people with ocular disease face is not simply the loss of their vision but the potential loss of their independence,” says optometrist and low vision specialist Dr. Louis Lipschultz. “People don’t realize how important reading is to being able to perform and enjoy the everyday routines of life, from reading a label to reading their favorite novel. Adaptive reading technology like myReader can make an enormous difference."
A New Reading Experience for Maxine Dilling
Maxine Dilling who suffers from AMD, was one of the first people to experience myReader. “With myReader, there is so little for me to do once I place the reading material on the table and touch a few buttons to select the size of the letters, the speed, and the colours I want. It’s all done for me! I do not have to use my hands and arms to push the table back and forth like I do on my video magnifier. Also, I timed some articles that I had read on the video magnifier, and it took me half the time to read them on myReader.”
myReader was developed to overcome the serious limitations of video magnifier technology and provide people who are visually impaired a comfortable and easy way to read for extended periods of time. “A video magnifier works fine for what we call spot reading, when a person only needs to read a price tag or a medicine bottle,” said James Halliday, President Emeritus of Pulse Data HumanWare. “But with myReader, people can read long documents and even books, faster, with far less fatigue and better comprehension.”
SmartSense™ Technology Automates the Reading Process
Using proprietary SmartSense™ technology developed by Pulse Data, myReader captures an entire 8 1/2-inch x 11 3/4-inch page and displays the text so it can be read in much the same way that fully sighted people read. Within three seconds of placing a document or page on the reading table beneath the ‘sensor,’ the enlarged text appears on the LCD monitor, rearranged like a page from a large print book.
The user then selects one of three reading modes: row, column, or word. In row mode, text appears in a single horizontal line across the screen. In column mode, text displays as a vertically formatted paragraph. In word mode, text appears one word at a time.
When reading in the column mode, for example, the user reads from the top of the screen to the bottom, and then touches a key on the handheld control device to bring up the next page. Depending on the selected magnification size, the original document may be transformed into as many as 30 screens of enlarged text. For hands-free reading, users can select the automatic scrolling feature, which moves text automatically at the selected speed, similar to a TV teleprompter.
myReader offers many other assistive functions, including the ability to magnify and view photographs in full color. In live video mode - a high magnification option - users can independently accomplish challenging tasks like threading a needle, reading a medicine bottle, writing checks, and composing letters to friends and family.
About Pulse Data
Based in Christchurch, New Zealand, Pulse Data International designs and manufactures innovative technology for people who are blind and visually impaired. Formed in 1988, Pulse Data now exports approximately 98% of its products worldwide to more than 30 countries. Sales offices have been established in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand and the company supports a strong distribution network throughout North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.