optophonen.
/ˈɒptəfəʊn/, U.S. /ˈɑptoʊˌfoʊn/ An instrument designed to enable a blind person to read, in which a photoelectric cell is used to scan a text and produce electric signals that are converted into audible ones corresponding to the different characters.
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society > communication > reading > reader > [noun] > reading machine > which enables blind persons to read
optophone1913
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > optical instruments > instruments for observing > [noun] > scanning devices > to enable blind person to read
optophone1913
Optacon1970
1913 E. E. F. D'Albe in Electrician 24 Oct. 103/1 The reading optophone consists essentially of a selenium preparation illuminated by a line of light broken up into dots.
1923 Glasgow Herald 3 Oct. 6 Messrs Barr and Stroud..by the invention and manufacture of their ‘Optophone’ have supplied the blind with a practical means of reading almost any printed type. Every letter sounds a tiny musical-motive up in the treble region.
1960 Daily Tel. 18 Oct. 15/1 She used an optophone, an experimental instrument developed from an invention of the late Dr Fournier d'Albe.
1997 New Scientist 11 Jan. 20/2 Phil Pickon..is embarking on a three-year project to build an optophone—an appliance that turns light into sound to help blind or partially-sighted people.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1913