Amedia Corporation

Speech Synthesis in Information Devices for the Visually Impaired

ReadSpeaker SBU, the MD division of HOYA Corporation (Head Office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Hiroshi Suzuki), is pleased to announce that ReadSpeaker’s speech synthesis software has been selected as the text-to-speech engine in “YMB” and “YMB Rapid”, which are speech magnifying readers for the visually impaired developed by Amedia Corporation (located in Nerima-ku, Tokyo; CEO Yuu Mochizuki).

YMB and YMB Rapid with ReadSpeaker

Amedia develops and sells “YMB” and “YMB Rapid”,  two high-speed voice reading machines that can be used by the visually impaired to read printed materials. YMB includes a scanner and YMB Rapid uses a camera. Both products use ReadSpeaker Text to Speech to read printed materials out loud.

This is expected to significantly improve the efficiency of processing printed materials for visually impaired people, and is proposed as one of the items for consideration under the Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities.