Patent landscape report on assistive devices for visually and hearing impaired persons
TECHNOLOGIES FACILITATING ACCESS TO PUBLISHED WORKS
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4.9 TECHNOLOGIES FACILITATING ACCESS TO PUBLISHED WORKSInnovative technologies which facilitate access to published works are of great importance to those communities who rely on hearing and visually assistive devices and technologies. The Marrakesh Treaty 32, adopted in 2013 in Marrakesh, Morocco and administered by WIPO, is an initiative in which the main goal is to create a set of mandatory limitations and exceptions to increase the number of accessible format works for those who are of blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled persons. This treaty has a clear humanitarian and social development dimension. Technology associated with innovative technologies which facilitate access to published works, appear in the 4.2.1 (vision) and 4.2.2 (hearing) technical categories of the present Report. The following figures reveal some of the interesting ‘themes’ or ‘topics’ occurring within these two technology categories, in order to highlight the types of innovation occurring. This information was retrieved by interrogating a patent Themescape map 32 (see also the Themescape below under Figure 39) based only on patent information occurring within the 4.2.1 (vision) and 4.2.2 (hearing) technical categories and via text clustering of the patent data within these categories. Patent documents appearing are not mutually exclusive, meaning that they can appear across different themes (based on keyword) of these categories. 
Figure 38 – Interesting Themes / Topics Identified from the Themescape Map (shown below) of Technologies Facilitating Access to Published Works (Technical Categories 4.2.1 and 4.2.2) Raw data for Figure 38: Accessibility to Information 404, Braille 874, Copyright 758, IP Rights Management 86, Hearing 2721, Vision 1608. 
Figure 39 –Themescape Patent Map of Patent Data Located within the Technologies Facilitating Access to Published Works (hearing and vision) Technical Categories (4.2.1 and 4.2.2) The Themescape map above also highlights innovation from other technology categories appearing concurrently with this category. Many innovative patents appearing in the dataset appear over multiple technology categories. Examples of this include the following, representing the technologies with the highest number of patent applications in the Themescape and the patent dataset of the present report: Braille text presenting apparatus for use by e.g. blind person, highlighted in US8382480B2 37, also categorised in 2.2.1 Touch Tactile Haptic Technology. The invention describes a method for converting data into Braille text, and permitting scrolling of a Braille display. 
Figure 40 – Apparatus and methods for converting data into Braille text and permitting scrolling of a Braille display, highlighted in patent US8382480 B2. Prosthetic hearing implant which has a speech processing unit generating sets of stimulation signals for respective audio signals, highlighted in US8369958B2 38 also categorised in 3.2.3 Electric Electronic Stimulation – Hearing. 
Figure 41 – A prosthetic hearing implant capable of independently and concurrently processing multiple audio signals, highlighted in patent document US6230135B1. Verbal communications conveying method for providing tactile communication, highlighted in US6230135B1 39, also categorised in 3.1.1 Display of Information. This method and apparatus is based on a so-called “Phonetic Braille Code”, using Braille symbols representing word sounds or phonemes rather than letters in order to accelerate the real-time transmission of the information. It converts electrical signals into Phonetic Braille Code, and uses a two-finger Braille reading approach. 
Figure 42 – A tactile communications system which provides a method and apparatus for presenting tactile communications in real time, highlighted in patent US6230135B1. Braille display device using electrorheological fluid and manufacturing method thereof, claimed in US8047849B2 40, categorized under 2.2.1 Touch Tactile Haptic Technology and 3.1.1 Display of Information. The device and manufacturing method described in this patent document refers to a refreshable braille display device using an electrorheological fluid and braille pins allowing for a presentation of the information in Braille. 
Figure 43 – Braille display device using electrorheological fluid and manufacturing method thereof. Optical character recognition (OCR) in combination with Text-to-Voice technology, as for instance the one claimed in IN201200396I4 41. An electronic pen is scanning a text and capturing it as an image, with OCR, extracting the text from the text image, creating a text document and sending it to text-to-speech converter, creating an audio file which can be read out to the print disabled person. 
Figure 44 - Penpal - an electronic pen aiding visually impaired in reading, understanding and visualizing textual contents Sound/voice conversion to text: US2012329518A1 42 describes an example of this technology. The claimed mobile device has both a speech-to-text and a voice-to-text module, converting information received, such as audio data as radio frequency signals (RF) into text, facilitating access of hearing impaired persons in this type of information. 
Figure 45 - Mobile wireless communications device for hearing and/or speech impaired user Directory: edocs edocs -> Commissioner ajit pai edocs -> Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D edocs -> Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D edocs -> Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D edocs -> Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D edocs -> Before the Federal Communications Commission Washington, D edocs -> Federal Communications Commission fcc 15-77 Before the Federal Communications Commission edocs -> Statement of commissioner ajit pai Download 13.52 Mb. Share with your friends:
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