A Christmas gift that changes users' daily lives: ODIMO, the first games console for visually impaired people

ODIMO revolutionizes leisure for French speaking visually impaired users and its creator, Brainbox & Company, has chosen Acapela text to speech to voice empower the interface.

ODIMO was born thanks to a granddaughter’s desire to create a solution which allowed her grandmother to continue enjoying her daily crossword on her own.The result is a simple and intuitive games console, which revolutionizes leisure for visually impaired people, providing great fun and enjoyment. It offers users the possibility to continue playing their favorite games – crossword puzzles, arrow crosswords, sudoku or basic card games – either entirely independently, on their own or with others.

ODIMO has been specifically created for people who can not read or write anymore and has a powerful interactive dialog interface, which makes the most of voice solutions.No need to read or write...the user only needs to listen, think and speak! Acapela text to speech vocalizes all the information in a clear and natural voice which is relayed to the player who gives his/her spoken response via automatic speech recognition.

ODIMO is ergonomically designed thanks to collaboration between associations, visually impaired people themselves and an ergotherapist.

'To speech empower ODIMO, we were looking for super natural voices, able to perfectly convey and transmit all the information, including proper names and acronyms, to create optimal dialogue conditions for the player. Technically, we also needed a solution which automatically generate audio flow, allowing us to offer our subscribers about thirty new crossword puzzles and arrow crosswords every 2 months. Acapela speech synthesis meets both requirements' comments Thibaut de Vaureix, Brainbox & Company General Manager.

ODIMO, a user friendly games console bringing freedom and fun!

ODIMO is easy to use. Just insert a cartridge into the console and start playing in an interactive way through the built in loudspeaker and microphone. The player answers the console’s questions, ODIMO understands the answers and guides the game accordingly, from start to finish, using a simple interface featuring only a buzzer and 3 buttons. Help is available to support the player at any time, step by step, via the '?' button.

ODIMO does not require a computer or screen. The games console uses mains power or 3 batteries (LR06). Light weight (about 500gr) and compact (A5 size), it is easy to take anywhere.

ODIMO won the Leisure category of Autonomic'Innov 2010. The console has been available since November 2010 at a launch price of 320 euros,  which includes one year’s subscription to the games.For more information (in French) visit http://www.myodimo.com