I CAN READ BY ME

1
I Can Read

• - Reading in the dark.

2
Statistics on the Blind

• 37 million People in the world are blind India
  (9 million), Africa (7 million) and China (6
  million)
• Every 5 seconds One person in our world goes
  blind
• 75 million People will be blind by 2020
• (if trends continue)

3
Cybernetics

• Cybernetics is about having a goal and taking
  action to achieve that goal.
• "Cybernetics" comes from a Greek word meaning
  "the art of steering.
• Ironically but logically, AI and cybernetics have
  each gone in and out in the search for machine
  intelligence
• So I Can Read can be termed as a Cybernetics
  System For Disabled (blind)

4
Working Of The System

• Reader, which scans a single line at a time.
• Userfriendly contains a board with obstacles,
  which will help blind to scan only a single
  line at a time without confusion between 2
  distinct lines.
• The text is "spoken" by a synthetic voice
  through the PC interface

5
Pen Size Scanner

• Scan any text document into Word or any other
  major word processor enabling on and text
  reading.

6

• Scanned material will be incorporated into a
  familiar mainstream environment, allowing the
  document to be made easily available to other
  Users.
• This is the pen size device, which will be having
  internal infrastructure for scanning the text
  above which its being moved

7
PC Interface through parallel port

• PC interface to the device through parallel port
  should be provided
• It will store the scanned data in to PC.
• The data will then be converted into audible
  version will be given through the speakers or
  headphones using a Text To Speech System (TTS)

8
Text To Speech System

• 3 Components of TTS System
• Text Pre-processing
• Prosody
• Concatenation

TTS System
Text Pre-processing
Prosody
Concatenation
I/P text
9
Text Pre-Processing
Word Segmenter
Acronym Converter
NumberConverter
Word to Diphone Translator (Phonetization)
NumberConverter
MLDS
Diphone Dictionary
10
Number Converter

• Replace numerals with their textual versions
• 100 one hundred
• Handle fractional and decimal numbers
• 0.25 point two five

11
Acronym Converter

• Replace acronyms with single letter components
• A.B.C. A B C
• Change abbreviations to full textual format
• Mr. Mister

12
Prosody

done
Acoustic Manipulation
MLDS
Diphone Retrieval
Concatenation
yes
no
Diphone Database
13
Concatenation

• Using PSOLA at the joining ends
• Ensures smooth transition
• Straight joining at the end points due to
  presence of pauses

Diphones
Words
Words
Sentence
14
Advantages

• Will be much helpful for the educational
  institutes and also residential group of people
  to organize group reading of books
• Main feature - this will be totally a hand held
  device which can be carried anywhere and will be
  used anywhere and at anytime for reading the text.

15
Future scope

• Making the device PC independent i.e. making the
  device portable by embedding the micro controller
  for controlling the text to speech conversion and
  making it audible with the help of audio kit.
• Change in phonetics so as to make them in
  language like Indian English, Hindi, and Marathi.
• Taking under consideration maximum font styles
  and font sizes.

16
Conclusion

• IcanREAD will act as a magic stick for blind
  persons and allow them to take full advantage of
  literature and after having this device blinds
  will also able to say that I
  can READ !!!

17

• Slings
• And
• Arrows
• Welcomed !!!!