Try to imagine a world where written words are invisible. Where every sign, every book, every message is an inaccessible enigma. This is the world that is “inaccessible” to those who cannot see. But try to imagine a simple, inexpensive device that can give voice to these silent words. The glasses created by Akhil Nagori, an eighth-grade student, do just that: they capture images of text and turn them into audio through a real-time transcription process.
It is not a product costing thousands of dollars, or a prototype developed by an advanced research laboratory. We are talking about a project made with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, a camera and little else, for a total cost of less than 70 dollars. Text-to-audio transcription can really be within everyone's reach, democratizing access to written information.
When simplification meets ingenuity
The operation of the device is remarkably intuitive in its conception. The glasses (which are really little more than a frame) house a camera connected to a battery-powered Raspberry Pi. With the push of a button, the camera takes a picture of what is in front of the wearer’s “field of vision.”
The image is then processed through an optical character recognition (OCR) API, which extracts the text present, much like Google Lens does. Finally, a speech synthesizer transforms the words into audio, reading them to the user. A process that takes just a few seconds, giving immediate access to written information.
What I find fascinating is how the transcription happens without the need for an internet connection or reliance on external services. An elegant solution that puts user autonomy first. And it is achievable by everyone, the project is Open Source.
The Transcription of a Technological Leap in Historical Perspective
If you think about it, it's amazing how this project highlights the technological progress of the last decades. In the early days of computing, optical character recognition and speech synthesis were enormous challenges, fields of research that required expensive infrastructure and teams of experts.
Today, an eighth-grader can integrate these technologies into a wearable device for less than $70. I swear: usefulness aside, I really enjoy thinking about how advanced this project is. We're talking about skills that once might have been a Ph.D., now accessible to anyone.
Text-to-audio transcription, often taken for granted by those who can read without difficulty, thus becomes a tool of freedom, independence and dignity for those who really need it. All thanks to the curiosity and ingenuity of a boy who decided to "stand on the shoulders of giants" to see further.
And perhaps this is the most powerful message: the technology it becomes truly revolutionary when it leaves the laboratories and becomes an instrument of real change in people's lives.
