KNFB Reader has been a household name in text recognition for quite some time now, at least within the community. The original dreams of the Kurzweil solutions was to make KNFB affordable, even though back then it was still exclusively on Nokia phones.
Today, KNFB Reader makes it to the Windows store at a discounted price of just $19.99. This is a limited time price, one which is supported through a KNFB partnership with Microsoft, as the company detailed in a blog post . Developed also by Sensotec as on other platforms, The app has received extensive testing and now provides a low-cost cross-device solution which is simple to install and operate. Currently, Desktop OCR (or at least specifically designed for the blind) have been limited to bulky, multi-gigabyte software such as Openbook or Kurzweil 14. With this, not only does a $20 OCR app become a reality from a dream, but users can save quite the space by using it over other solutions. It will even allow you to use the built-in camera of your laptop, which would turn any computer into a cheap and probably less-accurate, but still usable, scanning solution. If you’re an advanced user with multiple scanners, there is a combo-box in the app which will let you choose these.
All in all, the new KNFB Reader Windows Store app should appeal both to expert and beginner users, and once purchased, you can use it on other Windows store devices also.
Note: This post was updated to reflect latest announcements by Microsoft. Continue following CSUN 2017 coverage here through Cool Blind Tech to receive last-minute changes to information, any time.
