KurzweilAI.net,
October 22, 2001
Groundbreaking for the largest adaptive technology research center in the world -- the $18 million National Research and Training Institute for the Blind -- was held on Friday, October 19.
The Institute will be a major national center for research, development, and training for adaptive technology for the blind and visually impaired.
The Institute has been organized by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the world's largest organization of blind people, with over 50,000 blind members.
Dignitaries participating and speaking at the event included U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski, U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes, Lt. Governor of Maryland Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, and Ray Kurzweil.
Kurzweil has had a 26 year relationship with the NFB, which began when the NFB worked closely with him to develop the world's first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind. Heading up the team of blind scientists and engineers working with Kurzweil in the 1970s was Michael Hingson, who was recently on Larry King Live recounting his story of his escape from the 78th floor of the World Trade Center building 1 with his guide dog.
The Institute "could develop and guide the development of pocket sized reading machines, of on-demand Braille production technology, of GPS and pattern recognition-based navigation systems, of automobiles that blind persons could drive themselves, and of other adaptive technologies that we can hardly imagine today," said Kurzweil in his remarks at the event.
Related articles:
Remarks at The Celebration, A Gala to Celebrate the Groundbreaking of the National Research and Training Institute for the Blind by Ray Kurzweil
Kurzweil awarded MIT's Lemelson Prize for Invention and Innovation
How Ray Kurzweil Keeps Changing the World
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