optophone

[ op-tuh-fohn ]

noun

1. an electronic device that scans ordinary printed characters and produces combinations of sounds, enabling a blind reader to recognize the characters.

optophone

/ ˈɒptəˌfəʊn /

noun

1. a device for blind people that converts printed words into sounds

Word History and Origins

Origin of optophone¹

opto- + -phone

Example Sentences

The original construction of Dr. Fournier d’Albe’s “type-reading optophone” … has recently been modified by replacing the Nernst lamp by a small drawn-wire lamp, and by arranging the whole apparatus in such a manner that any ordinary book or newspaper can be inserted and read without cutting it up into pages or columns.

From Nature

He is also working on an instrument called an " optophone " by which light will be transformed into sound, for the benefit of the blind in whom the light nerves are dead.

From Time Magazine Archive

By using this optophone, I could tell you the moment it does.

From Project Gutenberg

"Somebody used a 'can-opener' on it," commented Garrick, looking at it critically and then ruefully at the charred wreck of his optophone that had tumbled in the ashes of the pile of books under which it had been hidden, "Yes, that was the scheme they must have evolved after their midnight conference,—a robbery masked by a fire to cover the trail, and perhaps destroy it altogether."

From Project Gutenberg

I was telephoning excitedly Garrick's instructions and as he waited for me to finish he was taking a last turn at the optophone before we made our dash on Warrington's.

From Project Gutenberg