HP and Mouscan, a Korea-based start-up company with scanning and mouse expertise, have announced a licensing agreement that will offer people a way to listen to printed text.

Mouscan will use HP handheld scanning technology and its own text-to-voice software to develop Voiscan, a product that will allow people to scan hard copy text in any language using a handheld device and then receive a spoken translation of the scanned text.

The technology has potential applications as a reading aid for the blind and visually impaired, a translation tool for tourists, and an educational aid for people learning a foreign language.

Under the agreement, HP will license its intellectual property to Mouscan in return for royalty payments. Mouscan will develop, manufacture and sell the product, which the company expects to be commercially available worldwide by the end of 2008.

"HP welcomes partnerships with start-ups like Mouscan to help them find capital while giving new life to technology developed in HP Labs," said Joe Beyers, vice president, Intellectual Property Licensing, HP. "Our IP licensing programme is one way HP can help make useful technologies such as Voiscan widely available."

The Voiscan product incorporates a handheld scanning technology designed by HP Labs. Unlike most scanners, HP's handheld scanning technology does not require the scanned image to be laid flat; this allows the user to scan images on a wall or other vertical surfaces.

HP's scanning technology also allows users to scan a large image with multiple passes of the device, which then digitally reassembles the overall image out of the segments captured during each pass.