Many consumers, especially elderly, blind or visually impaired people, have problems in accessing product label information on foodstuffs and household detergents. The idea for the "universal access to product label information" is based on the identification of a product via its bar-code (EAN), an automatically generated query to a product database and a customised presentation of product information. These functions are provided by an info-device called 'TeleEye'. It enables even blind users to distinguish products at home and supports visually impaired people at shopping in supermarkets. Since it is able to check product descriptions for user-individual ingredients (for diet or allergy) and to produce corresponding warnings, especially elderly people with special dietary needs benefit from the system. The Internet-based European consumer product database system, the management of ingredient and diet specific expert knowledge, and the users' info-device are realised in private and public applications within the European IST-project PACKAGE
