,THE ,KURZWEIL ,READING ,MACHINE WAS THE DEVICE THAT TAUGHT A COMPUTER TO READ A PRINTED PAGE ALOUD UNVEILED #AC ,JANUARY #AIGF BY #BG-YEAR-OLD ,RAYMOND ,KURZWEIL1 WHOSE ,KURZWEIL ,COMPUTER ,PRODUCTS HAD SPENT TWO YEARS SOLVING THREE PROBLEMS NOBODY HAD JOINED BEFORE3 A CHARGE-COUPLED-DEVICE FLATBED SCANNER "1 OMNI-FONT ,,OCR THAT RECOGNIZED ORDINARY PRINT RATHER THAN A SPECIAL TYPEFACE1 AND A TEXT-TO-SPEECH SYNTHESIZER THAT SPOKE THE RECOGNIZED TEXT4 ,FOR BLIND READERS IT WAS THE FIRST MACHINE THAT COULD TAKE ANY BOOK OFF A SHELF AND READ IT4 ,STEVIE ,WONDER'S MACHINE ,THE LAUNCH STORY IS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY'S MOST FAMOUS3 ,STEVIE ,WONDER SAW A DEMONSTRATION1 BECAME THE PRODUCTION UNIT'S FIRST CUSTOMER1 AND A GENUINE FRIENDSHIP FORMED ,KURZWEIL HAS DESCRIBED ,WONDER USING THE MACHINE TO READ HIS OWN MAIL4 ,THE DEVICE'S PRICE " PUT IT IN LIBRARIES AND AGENCIES RATHER THAN HOMES1 BUT IT CREATED A PRODUCT CATEGORY PRINT-TO-SPEECH THAT EVERY LATER SCANNER-READER DESCENDS FROM4 ,XEROX BOUGHT THE COMPANY IN #AIHJ2 THE LINE CONTINUED THROUGH ,XEROX ,IMAGING ,SYSTEMS AND LATER ,KURZWEIL ,EDUCATIONAL ,SYSTEMS INTO THE ,NUANCE ACQUISITION CHAIN4 ,WHY IT ANCHORS THIS TRAIL ,THE ,,KRM IS THE UPSTREAM NODE OF THE EYES-FREE LINEAGE THIS WIKI TRACES3 IT PROVED THAT CONVERTING PRINT TO ACCESSIBLE OUTPUT WAS A SOLVABLE ENGINEERING PROBLEM1 AND ITS COMPANY ,,DNA FLOWED INTO THE INDUSTRY THAT LATER PRODUCED NOTETAKERS1 SCREEN READERS1 AND THE SOFTWARE STACK BEHIND ,SPEAKUP AND ,,BRLTTY4 ,KURZWEIL HIMSELF WENT ON TO MUSIC SYNTHESIZERS AND FUTURISM BUT THE READING MACHINE REMAINS THE INVENTION HE BUILT FIRST1 AND ARGUABLY THE ONE THAT MATTERED MOST4 ,SEE ALSO - ,BRAILLE ;N ,SPEAK THE PORTABLE NOTETAKER1 A DECADE LATER - ,SPEAKUP ,,BRLTTY THE FREE-SOFTWARE SUCCESSORS - ,BRAILLE ,LOUIS ,BRAILLE ,NEMETH ,BRAILLE ,CODE ,ABRAHAM ,NEMETH - ,EYES-,FREE ,LINUX THE MODERN STACK THIS MACHINE STARTED - ,THE ,LIBRARY BRAILLE CODES AND TRANSLATION ON THE MAIN SITE