Overcoming reading challenges
It may be considered cool to carry a Kindle, but Intel's new Mobile Handheld Reader isn't targeting the trendy, it's targeting the dyslexic, blind and sight impaired.
The chip maker's digital health group has developed the paperback book sized device - which transforms printed text to speech - to help the approximately 55 million people in the US suffering from poor eyesight, dyslexia or other conditions that make reading either challenging or impossible.
The device, which has been endorsed by the International Dyslexia Association, of course sports Intel's diminutive Atom chip, along with a high-resolution digital camera which users can point at a page of text to capture the words.
The device's software then converts the image into digital text which is then converted into an audio file and read aloud to the user, who can choose whether they prefer to be read to in a sweet female or husky male voice. Impatient listeners can also set the device to accelerated playback for some speed reading.
It apparently takes around 30 seconds to process each page of text, depending on the relative complexity of the page layout. Intel's boffins reckon it takes an estimated 30 minutes to scan in the pages of a 250-page book and then another hour to process them, so no small undertaking for would-be book worms.
Luckily though, the audio files can be converted to Mp3 format, and can then be transferred to a plethora of other devices, including PCs and mobile phones, so the user isn't tethered to just one player.
