By Diana Scheddin
A professor at Confederation College has developed software that will give individuals who are visually impaired a chance to read books once again.
Rob McCormack is the inventor 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 due to macular degeneration, 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 programmming 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.
“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 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 the text before it can be read.
“We just signed an aggreement 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, 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.
