A Window into KNFB Reader: An Evolving Project, a New Platform, and New
Horizons
by Joel Zimba
From the Editor: Joel Zimba is the reading project innovation manager
for the National Federation of the Blind. One of his major
responsibilities is to supervise the innovation of the KNFB Reader, a
dream come true for those of us who want to be able to read print with a
device small enough to fit in our pocket. Joel and Jim Gashel recently
had the opportunity to introduce the groundbreaking program to the wider
tech world at the largest assistive technology conference on earth,
hosted by California State University, Northridge. Here is what he has
to say about that experience:
I am taking the stage with Jim Gashel, vice president of business
development and product evangelist for KNFB Reader, LLC, and Jenny
Lay-Flurrie—the chief accessibility officer for Microsoft. The room full
of onlookers quiets as she approaches the podium. It is the first day of
the thirty-second annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, and we
are launching a new product.
Pictured are Joel Zimba, Jim Gashel and several Microsoft employees all
holding a tablet running KNFB Reader. All are wearing Cat in the Hat
style hats in observance of Read Across America Day which occurred on
March 2.
After over a year of development, a project I was introduced to on my
first day working with the National Federation of the Blind is being
presented to the world. I man the controls and demonstrate the
capabilities of KNFB Reader for Windows, while Jim describes the history
as well as the globe-spanning collaboration that led to this moment.
I can remember sitting in the audience of the 2014 National Convention
of the National Federation of the Blind, when Jim Gashel first
demonstrated the modern incarnation of KNFB Reader for the iPhone. You
can read Jim’s perspective on those events in the December 2014 Braille
Monitor article, “A New Era in Mobile Reading Begins: Introducing the
KNFB Reader for iOS.” In that article Mr. Gashel details his first
meeting with Ray Kurzweil. He discusses events leading to the creation
of the first reading machine for the blind, resulting in the KNFB Reader
Mobile line of products. Finally these collaborations bring us to the
indispensable KNFB Reader app so many of us carry everywhere and use
every day. On that July afternoon, I never imagined I would be part of
the team that would keep KNFB Reader evolving, much less metaphorically
cutting the ribbon on an app that brings the power of KNFB’s text
recognition to Windows 10-powered desktops, laptops, tablets, and phones.
The launch event, held in the Microsoft area of the CSUN conference
rooms, is not the end of a story but the beginning of an ongoing tale.
It consists of three madcap days of networking, demonstrating KNFB
Reader on three platforms and multiple configurations, and promotion of
the KNFB Reader technology, which is the most widely available,
efficient, and powerful text recognition solution available to date. By
night I am mingling, recruiting distributors of our multi-platform
Enterprise product, and talking with researchers and other app developers.
I am no stranger to conference exhibit halls. Since 2011 I have
demonstrated various forms of assistive technology for both
professionals and end users at dozens of such events. None compare to
the size and scope of the CSUN exhibit hall. If you have attended a
national convention, you will have some idea of the frenzy of such a
loud, busy, and heavily populated space. Hundreds of vendors both
intentionally and unintentionally competing for the attention of
passersby with their colorful displays, video presentations, and of
course the talking, beeping, and otherwise calamitous technology itself.
On the second day I am already losing my voice from trying to be heard
over the call of the great blue whale echoing from the Touch Graphics
booth next door. Behind me President Riccobono announces the debut of
KNFB Reader for Windows in our own multimedia promo created just for
CSUN, while I demonstrate the stand mode feature of KNFB Reader, which
takes pictures automatically as you turn the pages of a book. The
gentleman I just met had not yet ventured into the modern era and still
uses a desktop-based, stand-alone device from the last decade. My new
friend will likely purchase his first smartphone just for KNFB Reader,
which is not an uncommon situation.
On Friday morning a visitor to our booth had a question about using KNFB
Reader on her BrailleNote Touch from HumanWare. In November of 2016 all
users of the BrailleNote Touch received KNFB Reader free of charge. The
device I am now holding in my hand is the first product of its kind
which can turn printed text into Braille with a single command. This
makes good on the promise Jim Gashel made in the final lines of his 2014
article, when he teased the KNFB Reader expansion to the Android
platform. I battle the typically congested conference WiFi to configure
cloud synchronization using Dropbox for her.
This is my job: to know the intricacies of our products on all
platforms, to work with our engineers to squish bugs, and to provide
support to KNFB Reader customers. I usually do this from behind a desk
or at the end of an often-tenuous telephone connection. Meeting so many
KNFB Reader users from all over the world face-to-face reaffirms my goal
of improving this powerful tool that increases the independence of blind
people worldwide, enabling them to live the lives they want. This is the
mission of the National Federation of the Blind, and I am honored to
play my part.
Perhaps my favorite question comes from the sighted person being
introduced to KNFB Reader for the first time. “How do you take a picture
if you’re blind?” Of course, I was wrestling with this question myself
before the release of the app in 2014. When I demonstrate the program’s
Field of View Report, which details how much of the printed page is
visible to the camera and how that can be coupled with tilt guidance to
help keep the device in the horizontal plane, incredulity gives way to
surprise and then often unease. No longer is this seemingly
fundamentally visual activity solely the domain of the sighted.
I now know that this is only half the story. The part we benefit from,
but never directly observe, is the powerful KNFB image pre-processing
system, which can turn a picture that would otherwise be unsuitable for
recognition into a document that is read nearly flawlessly. I am often
cavalier when I throw a piece of paper under a document camera at a
rakish angle. I know I will soon be navigating the recognized output
with ease. Some of the algorithms developed by Ray Kurzweil forty years
ago are still alive and well in KNFB Reader. We use them every day. This
is how that crumpled receipt still gives up the telephone number of the
restaurant where I left my hat.
William De Prêtre
I am not alone in representing KNFB Reader at CSUN. I am joined by Jim
Gashel and William De Prêtre. William is a chief software engineer with
our partner Sensotec NV located in Belgium. He, very nearly
single-handedly, coded the Windows version of KNFB Reader. Every morning
we gather for a working breakfast to assess any new developments from
the Twittersphere, take on long-standing challenges in real time, and
plan for where we are going next. In addition to the pleasure of having
a colleague become a good friend, I have the opportunity to personally
express my appreciation to William for his herculean effort over the
past year: deadlines, unexpected dead ends, and undocumented
interfaces—he faced them all; developers all-too-often never meet the
happy customers who benefit from their work every day.
In the launch event speech, Mr. Gashel stressed the importance of
partnerships. Indeed, I would say that is the thread which unites all of
my experiences throughout the CSUN conference. Our ongoing partnership
with Microsoft, which certainly shaped KNFB Reader for Windows, also led
to changes and improvements in Microsoft products, especially with
regard to accessibility. While I was acquainted with many of the Google
contingent attending CSUN, many more of them were familiar with KNFB
Reader and certainly with Ray Kurzweil, who is now a vice president at
Google devoting his time to the arcane art of machine learning and
artificial intelligence. A gathering composed of thousands of people
from all over the world very quickly came to feel like a community.
A three-day conference is never all business. Several of us spent the
entire day wearing Cat-in-the-Hat-style hats in celebration of Read
Across America Day—March 2. Several Dr. Seuss books were on hand for
reading with KNFB Reader. Theodor Seuss Geisel was born on March 2,
1904. Every year the National Federation of the Blind marks this
auspicious occasion and promotes literacy—especially Braille
literacy—and access to books for all.
Speaking of community, our Federation family was well represented.
Dozens of us descended upon a nearby restaurant early in the week.
Before I knew it, I had plenty of volunteers for the exhibit hall booth.
I am especially thankful for the help I received from Lisa Irving,
Nahrain Spurlock, and Ali Farrage, intrepid members of the San Diego
chapter who took on the duty of breaking down the booth and shipping
everything home on the last day.
The launch was not the end, and CSUN was not the end. The Windows
product will establish a foothold, and it will grow and change. KNFB
Reader will continue to become more robust and powerful. Very soon
another of Jim Gashel’s promises will come to pass; Chinese and Japanese
will make an appearance. This will put KNFB Reader into the hands of
countless more of the world’s blind people. Soon a document recognized
on your home computer will appear, ready for reading on your mobile
device with no effort on your part. A separate multi-platform product
called KNFB Reader Enterprise now brings our software to all of your
devices at one low price. Looking ahead, major new developments are
underway which will begin to reveal themselves at our National
Convention this coming July. Stay tuned.
To learn more about KNFB Reader and KNFB Reader Enterprise, go to
www.knfbreader.com or call (347) 422-7085. You can also email
support@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. To obtain a quote for volume purchases of KNFB
Reader Enterprise or a site license, contact enterprise-info@xxxxxxx.
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist Feel free to visit my
Web site WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
You are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
for additional resources and information about assistive technology training
services.
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