An Israeli firm has announced it had developed a computer mouse and operating system that can help the blind "see" computer graphics, claiming a world first.
VirTouch Ltd said it has signed a deal with a Dutch venture fund to secure $1.25 million in equity financing to expand its operations following the signing of several deals for the system in Europe and Israel.
Company spokesman Art Braunstein said there was no comparable product in the market for reading text and graphics on a computer by touch. "The system opens the computer and the internet to millions of blind people," he told AFP.
The system, which is the brainchild of two Russian immigrants, enables the blind to use touch to recognize graphics, read text and Braille and play tactile computer games through special pins on a computer mouse.
Braunstein said the system, costing $5,000 apiece, could also have applications in the seeing world in such industries as architecture and design.
VirTouch is a Jerusalem-based hi-tech company that has been operating since November 1998 and is capitalized at six million dollars. — (AFP, Jerusalem)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
