Applied AI group of Centre for development of advanced computing, Pune, a scientific society under the aegis of the Ministry of Information Technology of Government of India is implementing project titled "Visually Impaired Women Empowerment (VIWE) through Shruti-Drishti" with the help of Department of Information Technology (DIT), Ministry of Communication & IT, Govt. of India and and WML (a govt. of West Bengal undertaking) sponsored by Media Lab Asia (a section 25 company promoted by DIT).

Under the project, the noble activity of deploying Shruti-Drishti (Text-to-Speech & Text-to-Braille) system integrated with Braille Embosser, Tactile Reader & Braille keyboard in 40 Girls/Co-Ed Blind Schools across the country has been undertaken. The system enables visually impaired to browse internet using minimum key combinations and is able to cater the need of content for print disabled children in schools. A three days training on operation of the system is also provided to special teachers/computer instructors of the schools.

"Shruti Drishti" is an Integrated Text-to-Speech [TTS] & Text-to-Braille [TTB] System for the for Visually Impaired using the Information Extraction and Retrieval techniques. Shruti Drishti is a web page browser developed for visually impaired users is considered to provide user-friendly environment, sharing and strengthening of global knowledge by removing barriers and providing equitable access to information through speech and Braille assistive technologies.

Shruti Drishti has an option of presenting the displayed information in a speech mode using a speech synthesizer or in the Braille format. The speech mode of information representation provides descriptive information available on web page, including links, text etc. It is keyboard event driven and provides 'keyboard only' accessibility using a minimal set of keys. It also provides a large text window for partially sighted users and a standard web page browser to enable users to work together with sighted workers. Shruti Drishti is a combination of Text to Speech [TTS] & Text to Braille [TTB] application - to provide high-value integrated Web Browsing through listening anytime, anyplace.

Features of the packages

The main features of the software are:

• This software is least expensive which provides advantage over the commercially available systems.
• Browse and access a document from a Conference Web-site through listening or reading with the help of Tactile Reader.
• User can browse the web sites with the help of single key input /minimum Key combinations and provide very user friendly interface keeping in view for visually impaired.
• Extracts the contents from the normal web page as well as the word documents.
• Facility Bookmark any web page
• Facility to increase & decrease the Volume and speed with single key.
• Facility to take Braille print through standard Braille Embosser.
• Partially blind user can view text in bold font with yellow background with the facility to increase or decrease the font size on single key.

Events

INDO-ASEAN SEMINAR

Indo-Asean seminar Held on January 18-19, 2007, which was organized by C-DAC and ASEAN Secretariat. The Indo-ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) Seminar aimed at providing a platform for the Indian and the ASEAN community to explore the feasibility and usability of the Shruti Drishti software for their respective organizations / countries. The event served as a forum for experts from India and ASEAN to exchange experiences and ideas on assistive technologies.

AWARDS

• The system has also received Golden Icon Award in the 'Trail Blazing application of the year New Entrant Category' at the 8th National Conference on eGovernance [2004] from the Department of Administrators Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Govt. of India & the Government of Orissa.
• Award for brochure in the Technical Art Competition from Society for Technical Communication (STC)

Shruti Drishti software has been delivered to Blind women's schools across India under "Visually Impaired Women Empowerment through Shruti Drishti" programme in phase wise. Following are the schools which are equipped under this project.

Schools Selected in Phase-1

Schools Selected in Phase -2

Schools Selected in Phase-3