The Blind Are Using Physical World Connection

Scanning a barcode will offer other informative applications besides price comparison. I view this as a wirelessCueCat.

The CueCat might not seem like a bad idea any more.

Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing affordable scanning systems to give blind people greater independence in daily activities, such as cooking, grocery shopping or riding a bus.

Their system relies on devices available in any electronics store, including a cell phone, Bluetooth wireless headset and portable bar code scanner.

Here's how the Trinetra prototype works:

The blind person uses a bar code-reading pencil to scan a grocery item. The information is sent via the wireless headset to an Internet-enabled cell phone.

The phone communicates with a public database, which translates the bar code into a recognizable product name.

This name is relayed to the cell phone, where text-to-speech software articulates it into the headset.

Using this technology, Rossi can shop for groceries without the help of a friend or store clerk. He also can distinguish between products in his own refrigerator and kitchen cabinet