Intel Reader

Intel Reader

Posted: 12.18.2009, 11:36am

By:

Robin Raskin

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(54 votes, average: 4.57 out of 5)

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The Pitch: Lord knows there’s no shortage of book readers, but Intel’s Reader is something completely different. It’s designed as an assistive device for those who have trouble reading the printed word. While it’s a far cry from pocket-sized, the Reader is a two-handed device that’s about the size and thickness of a hefty paperback. The body hou ses a high-resolution (5 megapixel) camera with autofocus and a full-powered, Linux-based PC with an Intel Atom processor.

The user aims the camera at the printed page and snaps a picture. The picture is then converted into the spoken word and played back via reader’s internal speaker or headphones. Or the printed page can be converted into text and magnified on the unit’s built-in, 4.3-inch monochrome screen. There’s sufficient on-board memory (4GB of solid state memory with 2GB for user storage) to house one-half million text-only printed pages.

Pros: Serves an underserved community.

Cons: Taking a photo of each page can be tedious, and the device does not reproduce graphics – just text.

Recommendation: Three cheers for Intel for recognizing the role that technology can play in sight-impaired readers.

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Louise

Good product!

Lloyd Wehnes

As to graphics reproduction: how do they sound?

Lloyd Wehnes

Cool product. All for it.
But "Point it at a page and take a picture" for someone who is visually impaired as a concept sounds a little difficult to understand.
Nice to see that the technology is there waiting to be used for the next step.

Kord

The Reader has red "alignment" LEDs that shine an "X" over the intended target page.

rousemedia

How big are the buttons? Is it easy to use?

Steve

It's great to see a product that actually solves real human problems and will help people overcome physical/health limitations - as opposed to most of the others that are just another way to distract yourself until the marketers start hyping the next "must have" gadget.

Jonathan Quist

I'm all in favor of assistive technology that isn't priced like military toilet seats, but given industry discussions over other ebook readers, and the description of this device which implies that it can store a photographed book, I would anticipate copyright issues need to be worked out. Given the state of technology, it's about time for a small general-purpose device like this, allowing a user to read items on store shelves, playback purchased (or other) e-books, audio books, DAISY-formatted CD books, etc. If this device is a step in that direction, I'm all for it.

Hector

I can't see a copyright issue for this. No more than there would be for my scanner at home which also can convert scanned text to editable text which could then be converted to spoken words. All of this could be stored on a PC as well. If doing all this will these components isn't considered a copyright violation (I doubt it is), then it'd be a hard sell to say it would be for a portable unit. In fact, I think this great technology from Intel will eventually find it's way to a standard PC where it would be mostly a software add and much cheaper.

Mike Elliott

Nice looking device. Seems easy to use. As to usefulness well lets just let the sight impaired vote they are the ones it will mean the most to. Bravo on the design and to Intel for making the effort in this direction.

Spaceisdeep

How do you aim the camera at the printed page if you're blind?

Nick

This would only be an issue for the profoundly (i.e., completely or nearly completely) blind. The majority of sight-impaired people have some vision -- many have enough to see a page of a book, and point a device like a camera in the direction of said page, but not enough to make out the actual letters on the page without assistance. This device is obviously intended to serve this group.

Susan

With regard to the "cons", the Intel Reader actually does reproduce graphics.

Brian

I am a blinded veteran and just tried the Intel Reader today. What a fantactic device. Thank you Intel!

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