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Article: Breakthrough computer for blind people
- Article from:
- The Press
- Article date:
- April 14, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2000 The Press. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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A computer developed in Christchurch that opens the Internet to
blind people has been described as a breakthrough.
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has twice discussed the new
BrailleNote computer with Russell Smith, the managing director of
Christchurch electronics firm Pulse Data International.
The head of the Microsoft unit that looks to the needs of the
disabled, George Allen, was in Auckland yesterday for the computer's
launch.
A demonstrator from the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the
Blind, Marcel Oats, said the computer was a breakthrough. He agreed
it could be the equivalent of a laptop computer for blind people.
The computer contains a panel of cells of tiny rods that give in ...