SOLVING REAL PROBLEMS THROUGH DESIGN.
iPhones already have a function called voice over built in as standard, which will turn any text into words, that the iPhone can then read aloud. And with Optical Character Recognition apps, which turn a photograph of text into words, that the iPhone can then read.
But there is no way for the visually impaired person to take that perfect photo of the text, for the phone to read.
So, I designed the Giraffe Reader, where you dock your phone, line up the paper (bank letter, food menu, postcard etc) you wish to read to the base, and have your words read to you.
This replaced a dedicated bit of kit on the market for $4,000. My design cost $60.
I made a version of the design open source, so you could download the net and construct one your self out of cardboard. I made a tutorial video, and placed instructions on instructables.com.
Designed while at Helen Hamlyn Centre/ London’s Royal College of Art.