Seeking a reading machine for the blind and discovering the speech code

A machine that can read printed material to the blind became a priority at the end of World War II with the appointment of a U.S. Government committee to instigate research on sensory aids to improve the lot of blinded veterans. The committee chose Haskins Laboratories to lead a multisite research program. Initially, Haskins researchers overestimated the capacities of users to learn an acoustic code based on the letters of a text, resulting in unsuitable designs. Progress was slow because the researchers clung to a mistaken view that speech is a sound alphabet and because of persisting gaps in man-machine technology. The tortuous route to a practical reading machine transformed the scientific understanding of speech perception and reading at Haskins Labs and elsewhere, leading to novel lines of basic research and new technologies. Research at Haskins Laboratories made valuable contributions in clarifying the physical basis of speech. Researchers recognized that coarticulatory overlap eliminated the possibility of alphabet-like discrete acoustic segments in speech. This work advanced the study of speech perception and contributed to our understanding of the relation of speech perception to production. Basic findings on speech enabled the development of speech synthesis, part science and part technology, essential for development of a reading machine, which has found many applications. Findings on the nature of speech further stimulated a new understanding of word recognition in reading across languages and scripts and contributed to our understanding of reading development and reading disabilities.

Biography of louis braille and invention of the braille alphabet

Louis Braille (1809-1852) was born in France. At the age of three, he wounded his right eye with a cobbler's tool while playing in his father's workshop. No medical knowledge could save his eyesight at that time. Louis's left eye became inflamed, apparently due to subsequent sympathetic ophthalmia, and he eventually lost the sight in that eye. At the age of five, Louis Braille was completely blind. He is considered to be the inventor of a writing system by touch that bears his name, the Braille system. This revolutionary system has allowed blind people to access written culture, and it can therefore be considered a major advance in the quality of life for the blind. The immediate precursor of the invention of the Braille system was the alphabet created by Charles Barbier de la Serre (1767-1841) who created a language by touch designed for military and secret use. Louis Braille modified this alphabet into the Braille alphabet, which is practically the same one that is currently used. It required time to be recognized and to be implemented as a reading and writing method for blind people throughout the world. In 1950, UNESCO effectively universalized the Braille alphabet, and in 2005 it recognized Braille system as a "vital language of communication, as legitimate as all other languages in the world."

[Louis Braille (1809-1852)--inventor of raised dots system]

Louis Braille was born on January 4th 1809 in Coupvray, France. An injury to his eye at the age of three, resulted in total loss of vision. In 1819 he entered the Institute for Blind Youth in Paris. There he would live, study, and later teach. When he was fifteen, he developed system of reading and writing by means of raised dots, which is known today as Braille. The basis of the Braille system is known as a Braille cell. The cell is comprised of six dots numbered in a specific order. Each dot or combination of dots represents a letter of the alphabet. This Braille system has established itself internationally and formed the basic Braille for all languages.

When your eyes have a wet nose: the evolution of the use of guide dogs and establishing the seeing eye

Formation of "The Seeing Eye," a school for guide dogs, has played a vital role in fostering efforts to develop guide dog programs in the United States and throughout the world. This brief review is intended to highlight the historical evolution of guide dogs for the blind and to tell the story of The Seeing Eye.

Three reading aids painted by Tomaso da Modena in the chapter house of San Nicolò Monastery in Treviso, Italy

In 1352 the artist Tomaso da Modena depicted three monks with reading aids in the chapter house of San Nicolò Monastery. One of them is wearing rivet spectacles, the second is using a reading glass, and the third has a reading glass on a stand. These rivet spectacles are often quoted in the literature as the first pictorial representation of spectacles, while the reading glass was found in only one reference in the literature with only one illustration, and the reading glass with stand was not found at all.

Tactile vision substitution: past and future

Tactile sensory substitution for blind persons has been studied primarily in a laboratory setting. Although the studies demonstrated the feasibility of the approach, to date no practical systems are in use. In this paper, previous tactile vision substitution studies are described, and the reasons why practical systems have not yet been developed are discussed. The theoretical basis for sensory substitution is examined primarily in regard to the capacity of the somatosensory system to mediate high resolution "visual" information. Future developments that may lead to practical systems for blind persons are considered.

[Historic notices of Louis braille and the development of dot-writing (author's transl)]

Louis Braille is called by his first biographer to be the "Johannes Gutenberg for the blind". Being blind himself--caused by a sympathetic ophthalmia after a perforating hurt to his eye--he invented at the age of 16 years a simple and ingenious method enabling blind people to read and write. His system consisting of six elevated and palpable dots was rejected by the teachers of these days, claiming there could be a distance between blind and fullsighted men. Despite this opposition the Braille system succeeded because of its advantages for the blind: Nowadays this method is used all over the world.