The optophone is a device, used by the blind, that scans text and generates time-varying chords of tones to identify letters. It is one of the earliest known applications of

sonification Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information or perceptualize data. Auditory perception has advantages in temporal, spatial, amplitude, and frequency resolution that open possibilities as an alternative or complement to visuali ...

. Dr. Edmund Fournier d'Albe of Birmingham University invented the optophone in 1913, which used

selenium Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...

photosensors to detect black print and convert it into an audible output which could be interpreted by a blind person. The

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

company, Barr and Stroud, participated in improving the resolution and usability of the instrument. Only a few units were built and reading was initially exceedingly slow; a demonstration at the 1918 Exhibition involved Mary Jameson reading at one word per minute. Later models of the Optophone allowed speeds of up to 60 words per minute, though only some subjects are able to achieve this rate. Tone generating method of the FM-SLIT

References

External links

* * Mills, Mara
"Optophones and Musical Print."
Sounding Out! (2015) Blindness equipment Auditory displays {{sound-tech-stub

See also

References

External links