A couple of years ago, there was talk about a product on the
market that would be able to read prescription bottles for those
whose eyesight is not the best. Many people taking medication are
elderly. In several of those cases, reading small print is hard to
do. Farsightedness isn’t just for the elderly. It can be a problem
for people of all ages. And when it comes to reading medicine
bottles, not being able to decipher the print can be downright
dangerous.
A couple of years ago, there was talk about a product on the market that would be able to read prescription bottles for those whose eyesight is not the best. Many people taking medication are elderly. In several of those cases, reading small print is hard to do. Farsightedness isn’t just for the elderly. It can be a problem for people of all ages. And when it comes to reading medicine bottles, not being able to decipher the print can be downright dangerous.
That’s why the thought of having a product that reads the medicine bottle out loud, was such a good one. Not being privy to all the new inventions on the market, I don’t know if this idea ever came to pass or not. If not, I hope someone is still pursuing this cause. It’s an idea whose time has come.
Having a small hand-held machine deciphering hard-to-read writing shouldn’t stop with simple medicine bottles. This type of product would be a boon to pharmacies around the globe. Have you ever tried to read the doctor’s handwriting before turning in a prescription? I’ve often wondered if one of the many classes doctors take includes the ability to make writing look like scribbles, lines and dots on a page. If this is true, then pharmacists must take a whole semester of classes learning to decipher a doctor’s handwriting.
Teachers could also make good use of this tool. Some kids have lousy penmanship. I did. I distinctly remember my mother telling me (repeatedly) that one day, I would be embarrassed by my lousy penmanship. She’s right, I am. My husband won’t even let me fill out the simplest form. He swears no one will be able to read it. Fortunately, my kids grew up with my writing. They can usually figure out my notes. Either that or they ignore them.
The police department could fine tune these machines and use them not only to decipher messages, but to try and find the hidden meaning behind these messages. Come to think of it, most of us could use a machine like that. If we’re not trying to understand what our spouse, children or co-workers are really saying, we’re trying to decipher our mother’s latest phone call. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to learn if the phrase “everything’s OK” or “your father and I are fine” was what the person was truly expressing? Then again, maybe there are some things we’re better off not knowing.
Anyone about to sign a contract would probably find one of these tools to be a great asset. Smart manufacturers would take this product one step further. Besides being able to scan and read the words out loud, perhaps they could phrase the words into a language us non-lawyer types could understand. That would be sure to be a hit among consumers.
Traveling to foreign countries always puts the traveler at a disadvantage, especially when you don’t know the language. Carrying around a scanner that could “read” messages out loud (translating them into English first) would be a great help. It could be used for reading menus, travel guides, even the local newspaper. It’s always a learning experience to hear the news from a different part of the globe.
Translation skills are not only needed for legal documents and foreign languages, there are other uses as well. Try reading, then understanding, the ingredient listings for many foods we eat. Or how about the products we put on our skin? Then again, we might be so frightened at what these ingredients translate into, and in the end, these hand-held readers might do the economy more harm than good.
Cindy Brown is a Hollister Free Lance correspondent. Her column appears every Monday.
