© KYODO PHOTOFeel for music: A new karaoke machine for vision-impaired people developed by Nippon Telesoft Co. shows song lyrics in real time through a computer and a pin display that render the data into braille.
A personal computer connected to the machine and the Joysound network translates the lyrics into braille and sends the data to the karaoke machine, which displays it in the form of dots that pop up on a pin display.
The display can render up to 80 braille characters at a time, allowing blind people to sing in real time, Nippon Telesoft Co. said.
The braille machine, which can handle lyrics in Japanese, English, Italian and Chinese, is the first of its kind in Japan, the company said.
"Up to this point, I'd been bringing in braille lyrics on cards I made by myself or asking other people to whisper the words into my ear. But now I don't need these anymore and can have great fun," said Toyoko Kawabe, who tried out the machine at a karaoke bar near JR Takadanobaba Station in Tokyo.
Although there are about 300,000 sight-impaired people in Japan, there are only five karaoke bars with braille karaoke machines in the entire country.
The machines are in Tokyo, Niigata, Saitama and Kagoshima Prefectures, and reservations to use one must be made one day in advance.
"So far we have developed braille machines that are useful at schools and for work. But we think something for fun can also be a good product," said Hideaki Kaneko, 59, president of the company.
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