Norwood, MA (PRWEB) December 16, 2008
Impairments such as blindness, dyslexia, or illiteracy prevent a significant number of patients from reading prescription-medication label information. Utilizing RFID and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies, ScripTalk Station leverages Analog Devices’ Blackfin processor to transform drug-label printing into audible, spoken words. When a sight-impaired patient places a prescription bottle on the ScripTalk unit, a digitally-generated voice “reads” the prescription label out loud to the patient, articulating both the drug name and the recommended dosage. The result is that sight-impaired patients are able to manage their own medical concerns in a safe and private manner, through a technology-enabled product that is specifically designed to be affordable and very easy to use.
Already installed in all of the Veteran Administration outpatient pharmacies, ScripTalk is recognized by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs as an assistive technology that helps independent-living veterans who are unable to read their own prescriptions.
True Technological Independence
A system-level convergence of technical requirements around price, power consumption, processing performance, peripheral interfacing and technology-ecosystem led En-vision’s engineers to the Blackfin processor for the lightweight, portable ScripTalk design. The Blackfin device also satisfied En-vision’s need for a single processing engine that can simultaneously implement the ScripTalk Station’s intuitive user interface, high-quality audio output, and accurate TTS signal processing on a single platform.
High-quality voice processing is fundamental to the effectiveness of ScripTalk Station, and the Blackfin third-party ecosystem was a fundamental driver in achieving clarity and accuracy for sight-impaired patients. Early in the ScripTalk product-development process, En-Vision partnered with Mistral Solutions, an established “concept-to-deployment” design engineering firm. Having designed and developed numerous Blackfin-based consumer electronics devices, including media players, digital audio players, and automotive “hands free” devices, Mistral was already familiar with Blackfin’s design, performance and TTS capabilities. Mistral was able to leverage this experience to enhance the ScripTalk Station’s marketability by integrating multi-lingual TTS using Nuance RealSpeak
