# Reading machine > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Reading_machine > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Reading_machine.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_machine > Source revision: 1306135989 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) A '''reading machine''' is a piece of [assistive technology](/source/assistive_technology) that allows [blind](/source/Blindness) people to access printed materials. It scans text, converts the image into text by means of [optical character recognition](/source/optical_character_recognition) and uses a [speech synthesizer](/source/Speech_synthesis) to read out what it has found. == Development == The first prototype of reading machine, called [optophone](/source/optophone), was developed by Dr. [Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe](/source/Edmund_Edward_Fournier_d'Albe) of [Birmingham University](/source/Birmingham_University) in 1913. Five vertically-aligned [photodetectors](/source/photodetectors) were used to scan a line of printed text. Each cell generated a different tone (G, C, D, E, G8) when detecting black print, so that each character was associated with a specific time-varying chords of tones. With some practice, blind users were able to interpret this audio output as a meaningful message. However, the reading speed of this device was very slow (approximately one word per minute).{{cite journal |last1=Shankweiler |first1=D |last2=Fowler |first2=CA |date=February 2015 |title=Seeking a reading machine for the blind and discovering the speech code. |url=http://www.haskins.yale.edu/history/haskhist_fowler_shankweiler.pdf |journal=History of Psychology |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=78–99 |doi=10.1037/a0038299 |pmid=25528275 |s2cid=2347141 |archive-date=2015-12-17 |access-date=2023-03-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151217221735/http://www.haskins.yale.edu/history/haskhist_fowler_shankweiler.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite journal|last1=Cooper|first1=FS|last2=Gaitenby|first2=JH|last3=Nye|first3=PW|title=Evolution of reading machines for the blind: Haskins Laboratories' research as a case history.|journal=Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development|date=May 1984|volume=21|issue=1|pages=51–87|pmid=6396402}} From 1944 until up to the 1970s, new prototypes of reading machine were developed at [Haskins Laboratories](/source/Haskins_Laboratories) under contract from the [Veterans Administration](/source/United_States_Department_of_Veterans_Affairs). The research project was conducted by [Caryl Parker Haskins](/source/Caryl_Parker_Haskins), [Franklin S. Cooper](/source/Franklin_S._Cooper) and [Alvin Liberman](/source/Alvin_Liberman). Their first attempts to improve the optophone all ended in failures, and users were still unable to read more than 5 words per minutes in average, even after long training sessions. This observation led Liberman to suppose that the limitation was cognitive rather than technical, and to formulate his [motor theory of speech perception](/source/motor_theory_of_speech_perception). He realized that the speech signal was not heard like an acoustic "alphabet" or "cipher," but as a "code" of overlapping speech gestures, due to [coarticulation](/source/coarticulation). Therefore, a reading machine cannot simply convert the printed characters into a series of abstract sounds, rather it must be able to identify the characters and to produce a speech sound as output using a [speech synthesizer](/source/Speech_synthesis). The first commercial reading machine for the blind was developed by [Kurzweil Computer Products](/source/Ray_Kurzweil) (later acquired by [Xerox](/source/Xerox) Corporation) in 1975. [Walter Cronkite](/source/Walter_Cronkite) used this machine to give his signature sound off, "And that's the way it is, January 13, 1976."{{Cite web |title=Kurzweil Computer Products |url=http://www.kurzweiltech.com/kcp.html |website=Kurzweil Tech}} In the mid-1960s, [Francis F. Lee](/source/Francis_F._Lee) joined Dr. [Samuel Jefferson Mason](/source/Samuel_Jefferson_Mason)'s Cognitive Information Processing Group in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology) to work on a reading machine for the blind, the first system that would scan text and produce continuous speech.[http://www.rle.mit.edu/about/history/timeline-1960-1%5B%5D RLE Timeline 1960-1979]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Retrieved 3 January 2015 Early reading machines were desk-based and large, found in libraries, schools, and hospitals or owned by wealthy individuals. In 2009, a cellphone running Kurzweil-[National Federation of the Blind](/source/National_Federation_of_the_Blind) software works as a reading machine.{{Cite web |title=Mobile Products |url=http://www.knfbreader.com/products-mobile.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100815094216/http://www.knfbreader.com/products-mobile.php |archive-date=2010-08-15 |access-date=2010-10-19 |website=KNFB Reader}} ==References== Category:Assistive technology Category:Blindness equipment --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Reading machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_machine) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_machine?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.