Imagine, for a second, that you’re blind. Like the millions of other blind people in the world, the only way you’d be able to understand what’s written in this article is through text-to-voice software like Apple’s VoiceOver. This software analyses and then announces each word, sometimes taking several minutes to read a single page. On particularly text-heavy or badly designed websites, this experience can be nothing short of a verbal barrage, as the program attempts to explain everything appearing on the page.
Some users compare it to a ‘guessing game’, and are overwhelmed by the thought of having to browse the internet for the kind of information they are interested in.
Dr Yevgen Borodin and his peers at Charmtech Labs wanted to change this. He knew web browsing for the visually-impaired was often time-consuming and inefficient, so he put his mind to a system that could determine what content to include, and what could be emitted.
And so it was that he developed Capti Narrator, freemium software for Mozilla Firefox or iOS devices that translates written text in the form of articles or documents into spoken word structured much more naturally than that found on software like VoiceOver.
Not only can Capti read public websites, it can link with other apps to transfer content directly. Have a favourite news app? Connect it to Capti, and it will translate the articles for you in one of the many selectable voices (including an Australian, which is a change from the norm).
There are many other innovative features too. Users can change the reading pace, start listening on one device and continue where they left off on another, or pull free content from eBook sources including Project Gutenberg and Bookshare.
Of course, the app isn’t only for the blind. Create a playlist of content you want to listen to, and press play while you’re driving, out cycling, or taking the dog for a walk.
While development is continuing on Capti to remove bugs, early builds have seen strong reviews, and saw Dr Borodin recognised as one of the 35 Innovators Under 35 by MIT Technology Review in 2015.
You can download the free or premium versions of Capti Narrator on the iOS App Store, or at the CaptiVoice website.