Handheld Intel Reader can read out books, papers, ebooks / 12.11.2009 05:45
While ereader devices, such as Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, or iRex are excellent products for storing thousands of ebooks and making it possible for people with normal eyesight to read their book collections from the sharp screen, these new devices haven't really helped people with poor eyesight. There are many people with dyslexia, weak eyes or who are blind altogether. For many years, PC applications that can turn computer text into speech have been available. Intel has taken this idea as the building block into its new ereader device, but the company enhanced the idea with a number of useful features.
The Intel Reader is a portable handheld device that lets you load books, papers, documents and ebooks into its storage and then you can listen to them, instead of having to read them. In principle, the device lets you listen to any printed text because it comes with a digital camera, optical character recognition software and speech software. If you have poor eyesight or dyslexia but still can take a picture, the Reader makes wealth of information readily available.
Here's how it works. You take a picture of a page that you want to read (or rather, listen). The Intel Reader processes the image in order to find text in the image. If it does, it converts the text into speech. Plug in headphones or use the built-in loudspeaker to play back the text that was processed to speech. It takes about 30 seconds per page to convert an image to speech. The sharper the image, the better the result of the conversion process will be.
As the largest microprocessor manufacturer, Intel rarely introduces products directly to consumers. The Reader device is one of the few special products the company has built and packaged to the end-users. The list price for the product in the US is $1500.
Handheld Intel Reader can read out books, papers, ebooks / 12.11.2009 05:45
While ereader devices, such as Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, or iRex are excellent products for storing thousands of ebooks and making it possible for people with normal eyesight to read their book collections from the sharp screen, these new devices haven't really helped people with poor eyesight. There are many people with dyslexia, weak eyes or who are blind altogether. For many years, PC applications that can turn computer text into speech have been available. Intel has taken this idea as the building block into its new ereader device, but the company enhanced the idea with a number of useful features.
The Intel Reader is a portable handheld device that lets you load books, papers, documents and ebooks into its storage and then you can listen to them, instead of having to read them. In principle, the device lets you listen to any printed text because it comes with a digital camera, optical character recognition software and speech software. If you have poor eyesight or dyslexia but still can take a picture, the Reader makes wealth of information readily available.
Here's how it works. You take a picture of a page that you want to read (or rather, listen). The Intel Reader processes the image in order to find text in the image. If it does, it converts the text into speech. Plug in headphones or use the built-in loudspeaker to play back the text that was processed to speech. It takes about 30 seconds per page to convert an image to speech. The sharper the image, the better the result of the conversion process will be.
As the largest microprocessor manufacturer, Intel rarely introduces products directly to consumers. The Reader device is one of the few special products the company has built and packaged to the end-users. The list price for the product in the US is $1500.