RFID powered TellMate comes to the rescue of visually challenged
How about RFID going ahead and helping special people out there? I really feel good if technology comes to the help of the mankind and in a recent implementation RFID has gone ahead and helped out visually challenged people. A system called TellMate has been developed which uses passive RFID tags for helping the visually challenged people identify objects which would otherwise have been difficult for them to recognize in their daily lives. For e.g. a blind person generally faces problem in recognizing certain items in their wallet and this system is aimed at solving such difficulties faced by them.
The system uses 13.56 MHz ISO 15693-compliant tags where it includes three RFID function buttons for recording the description of the object to which it is attached, playing the recording and the third one for stopping the playback. In case of identification of credit card an RFID label is attached to it, the record button is pressed and description of the object is recorded. Using the system anything can be recorded as an object and for identification purpose the user would be required to hold the handheld within a distance of the tag and hence hear the recording related to it. This system is aimed at bringing back the lost freedom to the blind people and makes them as independent as possible.
The system is the brainchild of S.J. Chin for helping out the visually challenged. This It has a lot of potential for educating the blind and makes them self independent to quite an extent. The system will be distributed through retailers specializing in equipments for blind in Asia, Europe and United States. It will retail for $500 in U.S. What sets apart TellMate from other such systems is that it not only works as a reader but a complete information system. Besides identification purposes it also works as a fully functional MP3 player and FM radio and users can even keep a digital notebook of lists, reminders and observances. One can even get to know the current date and time too. We all must sincerely thank RFID for what it has been doing for the mankind.