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Show when he leaves home." The result of 25 years of Veterans development by Bionic Instruments, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., bioengineering firm, the laser cane now is being produced in quantity. Its cost is $1950. Thirty to 40 hours of training in its use over a period of two weeks are needed. The Mobility Foundation of North Wales, Pa., has been formed with the primary objective of providing laser canes for those who need, want and are not financially able to purchase them. The cane is one of a series of developments that promise to improve the lives and opportunities of many of the blind and the near-blinREADING MACHINES. It's called the d. converfor optical-to-tactil- e sion. In one hand, a user holds a miniature camera about the size of a small pocketknife to read printed material and convert it into impulses. And with the index finger of his other hand, the user can feel the letters and numbers via a 1" x Vj" tactile array of 144 miniature vibrating rods contained in a electronics portable, battery-operate- d and about size the section weight of a Optacon Anna Bauer, 6, reads with help of an Optacon. The tiny camera in her right hand converts print to impulses; left hand feels letters via vibrating rods. portable cassette tape ample, as the camera "E," the user feels a three horizontal lines the finger. recorder. For exmoves across an vertical line and moving beneath Selling for $2895, the Optacon was developed with federal aid by a team headed by Dr. James D. Bliss of Systems, Inc., Palo Alto, Cal., which now produces it, and Dr. John G. Linvill of Stanford University, whose own blind daughter has also been involved in the project since 1964. Tele-senso- ry Helps in jobs of now, more than 3200 of the machines have been produced. With the ability to read print directly, their users can independently carry out many everyday tasks reading their letters, bank statements and bills, following cookbook recipes, and enjoying books and magazines. And many users have been helped to advance in jobs and enter vocations previously closed to them. Various accessories increase the Optacon's occupational usefulness. For example, accessory lenses allow a blind computer programmer to read displays on a computer video terminal and a blind secretary to read what she is typing, make corrections, and fill out preprinted forms The Optacon in its present form is hardly the last word Its top reading speed now is 80 to 90 words a minute. But well within the next five years, it's expected, new accessory equipment will let the machine speak out in words and phrases, making reading speeds of up to 200 words a minute possible. And, in fact, the technology is well along in development by Dr. Jonathan Allen at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Meanwhile, a machine that reads aloud to the blind has been developed by a brilliant, inventor, Raymond Kurzweil, president of Kurz-we- il Computer Products in Cambridge, As .j 26 18 mg "tar. 1.2 mg nicotine av per cigarette, FTC Report DEC 76 conlinued |