Kurzweil National Federation of the Blind Reader opens the world of text to the blind. National Federation of the Blind (NFB) unveiled Monday a groundbreaking new device, the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader. The portable Reader, developed by the National Federation of the Blind and renowned inventor Ray Kurzweil, a PDA coupled with a camera that can read text on any object (letter, bills, restaurant menu, airline ticket, business card or an office memo) just by holding the Reader over the item. The printed document will played back in clear synthetic speech. It puts together the best available character-recognition software with the text-to-speech conversion technology in a single handheld device. The reader can store thousands of printed pages with easily obtainable extra memory and the files can be transfer to their desktops and laptops. It has a headphone hack so users don’t have to disturb others in close proximity It will go on sale on 1st July with the price of USD3,495. I think the price is merely too high for the blind people. Buying one of that could have you own a high-end gaming notebook.

[via GearFactor]