https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optophone

Jump to content
[ ] Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar hide
Navigation

  * Main page
  * Contents
  * Current events
  * Random article
  * About Wikipedia
  * Contact us

Contribute

  * Help
  * Learn to edit
  * Community portal
  * Recent changes
  * Upload file
  * Special pages

[enwiki] Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia
Search
[                    ]
Search

[ ] Appearance

  * Donate
  * Create account
  * Log in

[ ] Personal tools

  * Donate
  * Create account
  * Log in

Contents

move to sidebar hide

  *  
    (Top)
  *  
    1 See also
  *  
    2 References
  *  
    3 External links

[ ] Toggle the table of contents

Optophone

[ ] 7 languages

  * Deutsch
  * `bryt
  * Italiano
  * knndd
  * pnjby
  * Ikinyarwanda
  * rdw

Edit links

  * Article
  * Talk

[ ] English

  * Read
  * Edit
  * View history

[ ] Tools
Tools
move to sidebar hide
Actions

  * Read
  * Edit
  * View history

General

  * What links here
  * Related changes
  * Upload file
  * Permanent link
  * Page information
  * Cite this page
  * Get shortened URL
  * Download QR code

Print/export

  * Download as PDF
  * Printable version

In other projects

  * Wikimedia Commons
  * Wikidata item

Appearance
move to sidebar hide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Device used by the blind
[250px-Optophone_in_detail]Detail view of the optophone

The optophone is a device, used by people who are blind, that scans
text and generates time-varying chords of tones to identify letters.
It is one of the earliest known applications of sonification. Dr.
Edmund Fournier d'Albe of Birmingham University invented the
optophone in 1913,^[1] which used selenium photosensors to detect
black print and convert it into an audible output which could be
interpreted by a blind person. The Glasgow company, Barr and Stroud,
participated in improving the resolution and usability of the
instrument.^[2]

Only a few units were built and reading was initially exceedingly
slow; a demonstration at the 1918 Exhibition involved Mary Jameson
reading at one word per minute.^[3] Later models of the Optophone
allowed speeds of up to 60 words per minute, though only some
subjects are able to achieve this rate.^[4]

[250px-Tone_generating_method_of_th]Tone generating method of the
FM-SLIT reading machine (above), and Frequency-time plot of its
output (below).

See also

[edit]

  * Optacon

References

[edit]

 1. ^ d'Albe, E. E. F. (1 July 1914). "On a Type-Reading Optophone".
    Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and
    Engineering Sciences. 90 (619): 373-375. Bibcode:
    1914RSPSA..90..373D. doi:10.1098/rspa.1914.0061.
 2. ^ d'Albe, E. E. Fournier (October 1920), "The Type-Reading
    Optophone" (PDF), Scientific American: 109-110, archived from the
    original (PDF) on 2012-04-26, retrieved 2011-12-01
 3. ^ Jameson, M. (1966), "The Optophone: Its Beginning and
    Development" (PDF), Bulletin of Prosthetics Research: 25-28,
    archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-01-30, retrieved 
    2011-12-01
 4. ^ Fish, R.M. (1976), "An audio display for the blind", IEEE
    Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 23 (2), IEEE: 144-154,
    doi:10.1109/tbme.1976.324576, PMID 1248840

External links

[edit]
#
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Optophone.

  * d'Albe, Edmund Edward Fournier (1922). "Optophone" . Encyclopaedia
    Britannica (12th ed.).
  * Mills, Mara. "Optophones and Musical Print." Sounding Out! (2015)


Stub   This sound technology article is a stub. You can help
icon   Wikipedia by adding missing information.

  * v
  * t
  * e

*
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Optophone&
oldid=1334224366"
Categories:

  * Blindness equipment
  * Auditory displays
  * Sound technology stubs

Hidden categories:

  * Articles with short description
  * Short description is different from Wikidata
  * Commons category link from Wikidata
  * Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1922
    Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference
  * All stub articles

  * This page was last edited on 22 January 2026, at 07:20 (UTC).
  * Text is available under the Creative Commons
    Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply.
    By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy
    Policy. Wikipedia(r) is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
    Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

  * Privacy policy
  * About Wikipedia
  * Disclaimers
  * Contact Wikipedia
  * Legal & safety contacts
  * Code of Conduct
  * Developers
  * Statistics
  * Cookie statement
  * Mobile view

  * Wikimedia Foundation
  * Powered by MediaWiki

Search
[                    ]
Search
[ ] Toggle the table of contents
Optophone
       
7 languages Add topic