Whether you are blind, or have low vision and work with assistive technology products daily, or sighted and have only a vague concept of what assistive technology can accomplish, the knfbReader Mobile consistently elicits a "Wow" response when it is first encountered. The phone itself (the Nokia N82 is currently the only phone capable of running the knfbReader software) is immediately pleasing to behold. A sleek, "candybar"-style phone, the Nokia N82 rests comfortably in the hand with relatively few controls. On the face of the phone, all the controls are contained, roughly, on the bottom one-third of the surface, with the upper two-thirds devoted to the screen for easier viewing. At the bottom are the 12 buttons representing the traditional telephone-style keypad. These 12 buttons are arranged in perfectly straight columns with ample space surrounding each key. All 12 are easily discernible by touch, and there is a double nib on the number 5 key. Above the phone keypad, from left to right, are three squares, each with distinctly unique tactile features. The first on the left is the Left soft key, offering different functions when either the top or bottom edge is pressed. On the right is the Right soft key, distinguished from the left by a raised horizontal line across its center. This key, too, offers different functions when either the top or bottom edge is pressed. Between these two keys is a distinctly raised square scroll key. Its top, bottom, left, and right edges act as arrow keys in a variety of functions when using the phone or knfbReader, and its center acts as an Enter or Select key. To the extreme right and left of these three squares are the Send (left edge) and End (right edge) keys, each a small vertical bar. (These two keys are the only ones on the phone that may pose a bit of difficulty in locating initially; the phone is otherwise so tactilely friendly that most users will become quickly acclimated.) At the top edge of the phone are the headset jack and a small recessed Power button. Users who have difficulty determining visually whether a device is powered on or off will respond favorably to the power feature of this phone. When powered on, the phone vibrates and then plays a welcoming tune. When powered off, it speaks the word "power."
While the focus of this review is the knfbReader software, the vehicle chosen to carry that software, the Nokia N82 phone, is worthy of some attention itself. An extremely sophisticated phone, the Nokia N82 can send and receive text messages; send and receive e-mail; surf the web; take, store, and send pictures; store and play music and videos; serve as a GPS (Global Positioning System) wayfinding device; store contacts, personal notes, and calendar entries; and even double as an FM radio. With the additional purchase of TALKS or Mobile Speak screen-reading software, all the foregoing features can be accessible to users who are visually impaired. (For this review, the TALKS software was used.)
When you purchase the knfbReader Mobile from KNFB Reading Technology or one of the company's authorized dealers, you receive the Nokia N82 phone with the knfbReader software installed. While some customers purchase the phone to use solely as a reading device, most will want to take advantage of the phone's myriad features as well. Toward that end, you can, as an option, also purchase TALKS or Mobile Speak software, rendering the phone's many features accessible to users who are visually impaired, and must, of course, purchase phone service from a company that supports this particular phone. The phone's operating system is the Symbian S60, currently supported by AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States.
Caption: The knfbReader Mobile opening screen.
Reading print with this phone could not be easier. To launch the reader software, simply press the upper edge of the Left soft key. The Reader announces that it is ready. You then position the phone's camera to take a picture of the print that you want to have recognized, press a button, and listen. The camera lens is near the top on the back of the phone. The bottom edge of the square Scroll key activates the camera. Users of the first handheld reader (the KnfbReader introduced in the summer of 2005 and now called the KnfbReader Classic) will recognize the progress announcements and clicks, verifying that the picture has been taken and the image is being processed. In most cases, the text is read aloud in a matter of seconds and is simultaneously displayed on the screen.
Reader Features
There are a number of user-adjustable settings, all of which are fairly intuitive. The Reader can be set, for instance, to scan and read an item in "books, articles, and labels" or "bills and memos" formats, depending on the type of document being recognized. If the first attempt is less than satisfactory, reprocessing in another format often nets positive results. For identifying currency, however, the process is streamlined even further. You simply hold the phone above a flattened bill, press the 0 key, and the image is almost instantly scanned and announced.
Other adjustable settings include the size of text on the screen (it can also be turned off entirely), the orientation of text (portrait or landscape), speed, volume, navigation options while reading, whether documents should be saved automatically, and other adjustments.
Once an item has been scanned and recognized, you can review it as an entire document or examine it in increments of sentences, lines, words, or characters. Settings are easily adjustable on the fly, so that if you are examining a business card, for instance, you could listen to the card in its entirety and then listen to one character at a time to confirm the telephone number or e-mail address. Documents can be saved at the press of a key. Each time a document is saved, the knfbReader Mobile creates a folder named for the date on which the file is saved. Within that folder, files are numbered sequentially, beginning with 01.xmt and on to 02.xmt, 03.xmt, and so on.
Reliability
Although James Gashel, KNFB Reading Technology's vice president of business development, stated that the knfbReader Mobile is not "as forgiving" as the Classic (a PDA joined to a digital camera, which was portable but considerably larger than this phone), I actually found the reliability of identifying print to be extremely satisfactory. Gashel recommended placing a black cloth beneath documents before scanning to provide a consistently dark background, but I found this to be necessary only about 10% of the time. One type of print that consistently required the dark background, however, was newspaper print. Without the dark background, the Reader produced nothing intelligible when taking a picture of a newspaper article; once the background was supplied, it performed well.
What else did I read? Some obvious trials were book pages, magazine articles, and business cards. The Reader is so amazingly small and portable—weighing only 4 ounces and sliding easily into any pocket—that it was readily available to shoot any mystery print that any of us routinely encounter. Menus (in restaurants, hotel rooms, and on airplanes) were usually recognized sufficiently to be useful. Other items that the Reader successfully read were food packages; cosmetics; mail of all sorts, from credit card statements to advertisements and coupons to newsletters; and all manner of receipts. In a Sheraton Hotel room in North Carolina one morning, I shot pictures of various pieces of print lying about and saved them for this review. Revisiting the folder with that date, then, I now revisit those pieces of print with you.
Looking at file 01.xmt, I recall that I shot a picture of a card lying beside the coffee maker and heard: "Perhaps you could use a little pick-me-up..." Following were perfectly clear step-by-step instructions for making coffee or tea, ending with the line: "Caution: Contents will be hot." Ah, the entertainment that people who are visually impaired miss by not reading every inch of ubiquitous print in such environments!
Of course, of even greater interest in the same situation was the easy ability, with the assistance of the knfbReader Mobile, to identify which packet contained "real" coffee and which decaf. (Previously, this information was simply not available to those of us who are unable to read print.) Another saved file, 02.xmt, from the same stay, was a welcome letter from the general manager of the hotel. Then, there is file 03.xmt, which warned me not to keep valuables in the room unless they were stored in the generously provided safe, not to leave patio or balcony doors open, and not to discuss my travel plans in front of strangers. Another piece of paper, when shot with the camera, revealed itself to be transportation information—names and telephone numbers of local companies that might transport a person to the airport. I snapped a picture of the plastic placard affixed to the base of the lamp and learned that it was a warning that if a guest smoked in the room, there would be a $200 fine. Finally, when my bill was slid under the door, I used the knfbReader to take its picture and was able to check out of the hotel without assistance or guesswork.
The Reader software will be familiar to those who have used the KnfbReader Classic, since it offers many of the same settings. Also similar is the option of a "field report," which gives a precise indication of how accurate your aim is—telling you, for instance, that the right edge or bottom edge of the text is cut off. After a few weeks' use, I found that I rarely availed myself of this option, using it only as a means of troubleshooting when the Reader failed to recognize a printed item.
As I mentioned earlier, I used the TALKS screen-reading software for this review and found it particularly gratifying to have a single device that could serve so many purposes. Switching between applications is practically seamless. If you are reading a magazine article or a business card and a call comes in, the phone rings with whatever ringtone you have selected. You answer the call, complete the call, and can then return to the reading where you left it. (The same is true for incoming text or e-mail messages.)
Getting Help
The Reader software comes with a CD of audio tutorials that introduce all the basic functions of the Reader. On the phone itself, when the Reader application is loaded, there is a Key Describer mode that announces the function of each key. Also, while in TALKS, the on-device Help files provided by Nokia are available, but these often fall short, giving only the most basic information on how to use a particular feature. In the case of the Reader software itself, little else beyond that provided on the phone and in the audio tutorials is necessary. It is just easy to use. With regard to features of the phone itself, however, the best source of information is the TALKS manual—downloadable from www.blindsea.com—and I found technical support from Sendero Group to be helpful.
Sticking Points
While the knfbReader Mobile software and the Nokia N82 phone running TALKS are, for the most part, a pleasure to use, there were a few interruptions that happened too frequently not to mention in this review. One such annoyance was within the Reader software itself. Because I use the software primarily for on-the-fly reading, I do not have it set to save documents automatically, choosing instead to save manually any item that I may want to review a second or third time. When recognizing a number of pages quickly—say, to identify today's mail—the Reader software would sometimes get stuck. Pressing the Star key prompts the "Ready" response, indicating that the Reader is ready for another picture to be snapped. With some annoying frequency, however, it sometimes took multiple "Ready" announcements before the camera would actually activate again for a subsequent page.
Similarly, the phone itself sometimes freezes, so that powering down is not possible. All too frequently while working on this review, I found myself popping out the battery to force the phone to shut down.
The Bottom Line
Assistive technology has a long-standing tradition of being expensive. At $2,100, the knfbReader Mobile is certainly expensive. Yet, its predecessor, the KnfbReader Classic, sold for $3,500 and flew off dealers' shelves at a respectable rate. By adding a screen-reading package—approximately $300—to this product, you have a multipurpose tool—a reading device, currency identifier, cell phone, camera, music player, web surfer, and more—at a thousand dollars less. The product is new and will undoubtedly get even better with time and user input. In other words, even with its minor glitches, it is an amazingly attractive advancement in assistive technology for people who are visually impaired. As the company slogan promotes, the knfbReader Mobile offers people who are visually impaired the chance to "Go mobile!"
Manufacturer's Comments
KNFB Reading Technology
"As developers of the knfbReader Mobile, it is very gratifying to note that this review confirms what our customers continue to tell us. The two words we most often hear in response to this technology are "life changing." Our commitment, therefore, is to continue our development so the knfbReader Mobile of today will grow in capability and improve in performance on behalf of those who need it.
"The findings relating to saving documents and freezing up of the phone should be explained further.
"Regarding saving, our software has been designed to minimize potential data loss. However, users of any computer system, including the knfbReader Mobile, are always advised to be proactive about saving and backing up their work. This is especially important with the knfbReader Mobile when taking pictures of a multiple page document so the text will not be lost in the event of an unforeseen system failure. This is why we have included both automatic and manual saving features for convenient protection against data loss.
"Regarding freezing of the phone, the review should clarify that this can happen unexpectedly with virtually any cell phone. Also, in the case of the Nokia N82 with a screen reader (TALKS or Mobile Speak) running, all too frequent lockups can occur. While these occurances are certainly annoying, there is no evidence or indication that the knfbReader Mobile is the cause. In fact, cell phones with screen readers that do not have the knfbReader Mobile will still lock up with the same frequency. This can best be avoided by being sure to exit out of all running applications except the one in use so there is maximum memory available. Switching off and restarting the phone at least once, or perhaps several times a day, will often help to free up memory. Being sure to have the latest version of the screen reader and phone software available is always recommended, since developments being made continue to improve the reliability of both the phones and the screen reader software.
Concerning things to come, text-to-speech reading in multiple languages (perhaps as many as 15 different languages initially) will be available shortly, along with a growing selection of voices, both male and female. Rapid translation from one language to another is also just around the corner. More rapid image processing, so reading begins even faster, can be expected. For persons with visual impairments, visual as well as audible menus are coming soon! Aside from this we are keeping up with cell phone developments so users of our Mobile Reader software can have a growing number of phone choices in the future."
Product Information
Product: knfbReader Mobile.
Manufacturer: K-NFB Reading Technology, P.O. Box 620128, Newton Lower Falls, MA 02462-0128; phone: 877-547-1500; web site: www.knfbreader.com.
Price: $2,100.
If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail us at accessworld@afb.net.
