Lakehead professor recognized. (Thunder Bay).A professor at Confederation College Confederation College is a provincially funded community college located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1967, and has area campuses in Dryden, ON, Fort Frances, ON, Geraldton, ON, Kenora, ON, Marathon, ON and Sioux Lookout, ON. has developed software that will give individuals who are visually impaired a chance to read books once again. Rob McCormack is the inventor INVENTOR. One who invents or finds out something. 2. The patent laws of the United States authorize a patent to be issued to the original inventor; if the invention is suggested by another, he is not the inventor within the meaning of those laws; but in that of ReadPlease 2000, text-to-speech software which will read aloud to the individual, in a human-like voice, any text seen on a computer screen. In helping his father who was losing his eyesight eye·sight n. 1. The faculty of sight; vision. 2. Range of vision; view. due to macular degeneration macular degeneration, eye disorder causing loss of central vision. The affected area, the macula, lies at the back of the retina and is the part that produces the sharpest vision. , he first developed a reading machine that scanned books and repeated the text outlook. This then gave McCormack the tools he needed to create ReadPlease in 1999. "We probably have half a million users of ReadPlease around the world; there is a free version and a commercial version," says McCormack. The software was written in Delphi, a programming language that McCormack learned three years ago. The software is used by individuals with reading or learning disabilities and those who are learning the English language English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. . "When I first released it most of my downloads came from Russia and Korea," explains McCormack. He did not realize that people were using the software to learn English. One woman who has lost her vocal cords vocal cords: see larynx. Vocal cords The pair of elastic, fibered bands inside the human larynx. The cords are covered with a mucous membrane and pass horizontally backward from the thyroid cartilage (Adam's apple) to insert on because of cancer is using the technology to communicate with others. Users are able to choose from four different voices when the text is being read to them. With the free version, one must first copy and paste To copy files from one location to another or to copy text and images from one document to another. All modern operating systems and applications have a copy and paste capability that is typically selected from an Edit menu. See cut and paste and Win Copy between windows. the text before it can be read. "We just signed an agreement with AT&T in the States; we are going to release better voices" in the near future, says McCormack. When creating this software, he mainly relied on people's feedback to overcome the hurdles. Furthermore, he was able to hire experienced programmers to meet the challenges. McCormarck graduated from Queens University in 1977, with a degree in civil engineering. Most of his career has been spent doing engineering work in construction, but he delved into computer technologies 13 years ago as a hobby. "Computer (technology) is largely a hobby to me," he says. "My brother Doug, who was very good at computers, sort of taught me the ropes. I am largely self-taught, but if I did not have a brother I would have had to look somewhere else for help." In 1990 McCormack came to Confederation College where he first taught civil engineering classes, and is now a professor in the mulitmedia program. On April 22, 2002 he was awarded the CANAIRE IWAY Award for Adaptive Technology Adaptive technology is the name for products which help people who cannot use regular versions of products, primarily people with physical disabilities such as limitations to vision, hearing, and mobility. , which honours individuals or groups that have made outstanding contributions to Canada's world-recognized information society. "We had lots of applications, but he was chosen because he had the best nomination submission," explains Karen O'Donoghue of CANAIRE Inc. |
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