HP Licenses Scanning Technology to Mouscan for Mobile Text-to-voice Solution

HP Licenses Scanning Technology to Mouscan for Mobile Text-to-voice Solution

HP and Mouscan, a Korea-based start-up company with scanning and mouse expertise, today announced a licensing agreement that will offer people a way to listen to printed text.

Mouscan will use HP handheld scanning technology and its own text-to-voice software to develop Voiscan, a product that will allow people to scan hard copy text in any language using a handheld device and then receive a spoken translation of the scanned text.

The technology has potential applications as, for example, a reading aid for the blind and visually impaired, a translation tool for tourists traveling in foreign countries and an educational aid for those learning to speak another language.

Under the agreement, HP will license its intellectual property to Mouscan in return for royalty payments. Mouscan will develop, manufacture and sell the product, which the company expects to be commercially available worldwide by the end of 2008.

“HP welcomes partnerships with start-ups like Mouscan to help them find capital while giving new life to technology developed in HP Labs,” said Joe Beyers, vice president, Intellectual Property Licensing, HP. “Our IP licensing program is one way HP can help make useful technologies such as Voiscan widely available.”

The Voiscan product incorporates a handheld scanning technology invented by HP Labs, the company’s central research unit. Unlike most scanners, HP’s handheld scanning technology does not require the scanned image to be laid flat; this allows the user to scan images on a wall or other vertical surfaces.

Read the complete Press Release