by Breanna Lai, for KUAM News

Guam - The Guam System for Assistive Technology is housed in the University of Guam's Dean Circle and is home to many helpful devices for people with disabilities. The latest addition to the center is a device called the Intel Reader.

Carla Torres is UOG's assistive technology specialist, and tells KUAM News the new device is "designed to help people with print disabilities, so people with visual impairments, people with specific learning disabilities with reading, such as dyslexia."

With just a push of a button the Intel Reader captures printed text and converts the ink into digital and audio formats that can be magnified on the screen and played back audibly. This portable device is small enough to carry in your purse to a restaurant making reading the menu easier than ever before.

The Intel Reader is not only for the visually impaired, this device can be used as a learning tool as well. For added privacy headphones can be plugged into the device. And if you want to capture an entire book the Intel Reader has a nifty capture station to assist you in this process.

"If you are scanning large volumes of text, such as a Harry Potter Book, it will get tiring for you to hold the device and take pictures of it, so by putting it in the capture station you can capture large volumes of the text," Torres demonstrated.

After the reader captures an image it then converts it to a text file, that can be converted into an audio file, that you can then upload to your computer media player, MP3 player, or even your iPod. "The Intel Reader really opens up the world of print for everybody who doesn't have that print access," she added.

Torres said anyone is free to come into GSAT for a demo of the Intel Reader and other products, some of which can be leased for 30 days at a time.