Cao Jun, founder of Beijing Protection and Ease Interactive Technology Company, has always dreamed about using technology to bring eyesight back to blind people. Cao himself is a blind person, though he can tell night from day.
"Sending text messages is a distant dream for blind people," Cao said. He knew the inconvenience, and thus wanted to develop a mobile phone application to "read" text messages.
Cao started the technology company in 2008 to realize his dream.
He encountered many difficulties at the early stages, and devoted all energy and money into the development of a mobile phone screen reading application. At the end of 2008, the application was successfully launched. Shortly afterward, he learned that touch screen phones were replacing feature phones, and thus spent half a year developing a text message application for blind people using touch screen phones.
The mobile applications Cao's company has developed can help blind people reading e-books and news, chatting via QQ, financing account, playing games, and posting micro-blogs.
Cao has experienced countless hardships in the process of chasing dreams. In order to develop a walking guidance system and bus station reporting system for blind people, he and developers experienced walking on road and traveling various bus routes as blind people; in order to calculate the average speed of blind people touching mobile phone screens, he and blind volunteers to test again and again. "Every time I hear blind people realize their dreams through our applications, I feel motivated again," Cao said. At present, his company is developing an electronic seeing-eye dog to make blind people walking easier. He has also experienced in a driverless vehicle activity, and hopes that blind people can "drive" on their own someday.
Read the Chinese version: 让科技点亮盲人的生活; Source: Beijing Daily; Author:Hou Shasha
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