optophone

(ˈɒptəˌfəʊn)

(Electrical Engineering) a device for blind people that converts printed words into sounds

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

optophone

a device combining a selenium cell and telephone apparatus that converts light energy into sound energy, used to enable blind people to sense light through the hearing and thus read printed matter.

See also: Blindness

Mentioned in ?

blindness

References in periodicals archive ?

The photoconductivity of selenium found its use in a photometer by Siemens, 1875, a photophone by Graham Bell, 1880, an optophone by Fourniere d'Albe, 1912 and then talking films in 1921 [61].

Effects of selenium red nanoparticles on leishmania infantum, cellular apoptosis and INF-[gamma] and IL-4 cytokine responses against visceral leishmaniasis

Raoul Hausmann (1886-1971) was perhaps the most talented of the German-speaking Dadaists, being photomontagist, painter, photographer, dancer, and inventor of the 'optophone' (a device intended to convert light into sound; patented in 1935) as well as a prolific writer and theorist.