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So your cell phone can already make calls, send and receive text messages, exchange pictures and video clips, take pictures, listen to music, watch movies, send email, surf the Internet, and hell, if you really wanted it to, probably act as the remote control for your TV. So it only makes sense that it would eventually run a text-to-speech application. It’s called K-NFB Reading Technology, and it’s going to drop on the Nokia N82. And it’s pretty damn cool.

Step 1: Take a picture of text.
Step 2: Phone converts text to speech.
Step 3: Listen to audio.

Yes, it serves the most utility to the blind. However, it can serve other purposes, too. For instance, if you’re an audio learner, you can scan in text and have it read to you. If you’re on the run, you can snap a few chapters of a book and listen to it on the road.

users with learning disabilities can enlarge, read, track, and highlight printed materials using the phone’s large display

So everyone wins. There’s no launch date or price, which is a bummer. The technology was developed by Kurzweil Technologies Inc. and the National Federation of the Blind.

[Mass High Tech]

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