Development project for screen reader interface dynamically hastens speech while giving emphasized information to the tactile sense

In present screen readers for blind people, users are still required to continue listening to synthesized voices and also they might easily miss important points of a document. A development project of a new screen reader interface has been promoted in cooperation with Japan’s Ministry (METI). The interface named TAJODA can dynamically control the speech rate while giving rich texts to the tactile sense. The speech rate can be changed according to word units by clicking a button of the interface using a thumb. From evaluation tests using sightless people, the maximum speech rate was determined at around 2000 morae/minute. Seven vibro-tactile patterns were selected for presenting rich texts onto an index finger using a tactile matrix display (2×8). Both speech and tactile information are synchronized automatically through a USB interface. It was also ascertained that users can read some documents two to three times faster using the TAJODA interface [Asakwa et al., IEICE Trans. E87-D(6) (2004)].