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Robobraille

• Funded with the support of: the European Commission under the eTEN Programme.
• Partners: Synscenter Refsnæs (Denmark), St Josephs (Ireland), Royal National College for the Blind (UK), ANS Associazione Nazionale Subvedenti (Italy), Pagkypria Organozi Tyflon (Cyprus) and Centro de Inovacao para Deficientes (Portugal)
• Duration 1/07/06-31/12/07

Robobraille is a new software package and pan-European email service for Braille and text-to-speech translation. The Robobraille robot can convert electronic documents (in text, HTML, Word) to contracted Braille or synthetic speech through an efficient and high-quality email service. Users can email documents to the service and within a matter of minutes, the documents are returned to either contracted Braille, or synthetic speech depending on user preferences and language. The Library and Media Centre is currently testing the Robobraille service.

The use of printed communication and information excludes many people with sight loss. The aim of Robobraille is to make information accessible to people that would not otherwise be able to access it, or would need the help of others or expensive equipment to read the information.
Over the next 14 months, this service will be validated in the participating countries. Synscenter Refsnæs developed the Robobraille service in Denmark and they are the co-ordinators for this European Funded project. A running prototype of this service has been in operation there since August 1, 2004. The current service is capable of translating Danish text to and from contracted Braille in 6- and 8- dot Braille. The NCBI Library and Media Centre Service and NAHVI (National Association for the Housing for the Visually Impaired) are involved in the validation process in Ireland.

For more information please go to: www.robobraille.org [ 1 ]