This app allows visually impaired, hear books in their native language

A project from Carnegie Mellon University has given hope to millions of visually impaired in India to get their desired audiobooks in their native languages. This is all possible through a free Android app called Hear2Read.

The app can be quickly trained to read texts aloud in local languages, and supports Tamil, with Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and other languages and dialects.

“Each language is different and historically TTS systems have been done one at a time. We looked at commonalities of Indian languages and developed tools to apply the same technology to multiple languages,” said Suresh Bazaj, founder of the project

The app can be used offline without using an internet connection to translate texts and the language database is small enough that it can be stored on the phone.

The Hear2Read app also integrates with Android, allowing browsers, email and other apps translate text to audio.