E-books to keep blind in touch

NZ technology will speed up publication in Braille by years, writes MICHAEL FOREMAN.

Microsoft and Christchurch firm Pulse Data International are working together to produce a blind-friendly interface for electronic books.

Pulse Data, manufacturer of the BrailleNote handheld computer for the blind, will develop software that will enable blind users to download e-books in the Microsoft Reader format.

The e-books can then be either read on the BrailleNote by touching raised cells that form Braille characters, or played on a built-in speech synthesiser.

Pulse Data managing director Dr Russell Smith said the e-book would be transmitted in the normal way but translated into Braille for blind readers.

As well as the translation software, Pulse Data will produce a Braille-based e-book directory searching system, including secure ordering and credit card payment functions.

The agreement with Microsoft means the company must also implement a BrailleNote web browser that is now under development.

"It's a significant chunk of work," said Dr Smith, who estimated it would take six months to complete the project.

"It will be about six months before Microsoft is really rolling with the e-book project as well. Our goal is that the two events will coincide."

Microsoft will contribute technical and marketing expertise as well as supplying Pulse Data with free development software.

Geoff Lawrie, managing director of Microsoft NZ, said Pulse Data's work had been instrumental in promoting New Zealand's software development reputation on the world stage.

Dr Smith said the collaboration was significant for blind people as well as for the future of the BrailleNote.

At the moment it could take five to 10 years before a new medium such as the internet was available to blind people.

"What this will do is make electronic books available to the blind from day one."

Dr Smith said blind people would no longer have to wait for new books to appear in Braille editions, a process that could sometimes take years.

He said the e-book software, which would be available to all existing BrailleNote users as an upgrade, would add a new dimension of user activity.

"At the moment you can use BrailleNote to write a letter in Microsoft Word and send e-mails, but this development will extend it into a leisure reading machine."

Pulse Data had sold more than 400 locally manufactured BrailleNotes since the product was launched last April, and was struggling to keep up with demand.

"We can't produce them fast enough," said Dr Smith. "The BrailleNote has been a spectacular success for us."

He expected that the company would sell 2000 of the devices next year, and the handheld business would represent about one-third of the company's turnover, currently more than $15 million.

BrailleNote comes in two models, costing $7600 and $11,800, but the company is developing two VoiceNote versions, which have synthesised speech only and will cost about $4000.

Pulse Data, which specialises in technology for the visually impaired, employs 50 people in New Zealand and 25 at subsidiaries in the United States, Europe and Australia.

More than 90 per cent of its turnover comes from export sales.