Reading Pen ii
- We Are Not Convinced
by Andrew Downie,
Information & Technology Services, OTEN-DE
In December 1999, we commented in general terms on the forerunner to
this product, the Reading Pen i. We hoped to get our hands on one, but
never did. However, we have now had a chance to assess the latest version
of the Pen. This is a device designed to help people who have difficulty
interpreting printed material.
In summary, the concept is that you scan a line of text with the Pen
to have it display the text on its screen and to speak the words via
synthetic speech. If unsure (or completely at a loss to interpret)
of a word's meaning, the built-in dictionary can be called into
play. Upon receiving the Pen, we asked a specialist in the area of reading
problems to use it. Results were disappointing, despite careful reference
to the instructions. We therefore gave it every opportunity by putting
it into the hands of a technologically savvy 16-year-old. Again, with
Pen in one hand and book in the other, he went through the exercises.
On some occasions, the Pen read a whole line of text with complete accuracy.
However, over several sessions, this outcome was all too infrequent.
Our tester's summary comment (well, the one that can be printed)
is that it is very much like soccer - so often so close, but not
achieving the goal. After some practise, most of a line could usually
be recognised by the Pen. However, most of the time one or more errors
occurred. This proved very frustrating to a person who has quite strong
literacy ability. A person who is struggling to read would likely find
it infuriating.
The Pen is powered by two AAA batteries. Text is displayed on a small
screen. Seven small buttons control operation via a menu structure which,
at least initially, was rather confusing. The speech is emitted from
a tiny speaker and volume is only just adequate in a quiet room. When
we plugged in an earphone, my left ear was assaulted by a booming voice.
In fact, with the earphone lying on the table, speech was almost louder
than through the Pen's speaker. So it is necessary to adjust the volume
when switching between earphone and speaker and this can only be done
through the menu. Even then, the quietest volume setting was too loud
through the earphone.
If perseverance resulted in scanned material being presented with a
high accuracy level, this would be a very powerful little device. Our
experience to date does not fill us with confidence that this will occur.
However, we are continuing to experiment to see what we're doing wrong.
Although in many respects a very different type of aid, your money may
be better spent on somethimg like the Franklin Language Master 6000SE.
In brief, it is a dictionary with both LCD and synthetic speech output.
Its ability to guess what word you're looking for when you spell phonetically
is very impressive.
The Pen is manufactured by the Israeli company, Wizcom. Its dimensions
are 15 x 3.8 x 2.5cm. Weight is a shade over 400g. It is distributed
in Australia by Code and Data, 5/17 Mooramba Road, Dee Why. Phone (02)
9971-3742 They are on the web at www.code.com.au.
Cost is $627.
Reading Pen 2
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