[bookport] Re: Port and Courier on the same machine
- From: DCHAMM1@xxxxxxx
- To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 12:10:28 EST
Here is some info I was able to find that may answer your question.
What is the Difference Between Book Port, Book Courier, and Road Runner?
While all three devices were manufactured by Springer Design, Inc., APH
contracted with this company to take a great idea like a portable reading
device
and put the features that blind and visually impaired students and
professionals need most. Road Runner was the first of this generation of new
devices,
but it had limited storage space and a clunky user interface, especially on
the
PC side. Book Port and Book Courier represent the next generation of this
class of reading devices.
Both Book Port and Book Courier read electronic text and digital audio files,
record audio memos, and contain a clock and sleep timer. Both run on two AA
batteries, support universal serial bus (USB) connections, and feature a
pocket/belt clip. But, the similarity stops there.
Book Port contains several features that are aimed squarely at the special
needs of blind students and professionals including the following:
* Braille Reverse Translation that lets the user directly read Web
Braille and other contracted braille files.
* Audio phrase detection that lets the user navigate through spoken
word audio content with three levels of pause detection. This means the user
can
move through spoken word audio content by sentence, paragraph, and section,
even in raw audio files with no kind of markup. This phrase detection also
gets applied to DAISY Digital Talking Books to provide extra navigation in
those books that may not be marked up to the sentence or paragraph level. Of
course, the user also benefits from the additional navigation supported by the
DAISY format if that markup exists in the particular book.
* Audio time and pause compression applied on the PC which results in a
file that is quicker to read and takes up less space on the unit.
* Direct support for DAISY 2.x Digital Talking Books like those
available from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD).
* Direct support for DAISY 3.0 Digital Talking Books like those
supported by the National Library Service (NLS) and Bookshare.org including
books
that are either audio or etext.
* Note taking capability.
* Character based navigation in electronic files.
* Raised pitch indication of capital letters.
* Phonetic pronunciation of characters on demand.
* Direct support for Microsoft Word files.
* Article definitions that let the user decide what constitutes the
division among multiple articles in a single file and commands to move from
article to article on the unit.
* Advanced transfer software that includes a preview window to provide
a glimpse of the file's contents before sending it to the unit. This preview
window works on digital audio as well as Word, contracted braille, and text
files. The software also contains additional advanced features such as audio
progress queues, file queuing when you send files and the unit is not
connected to the computer, frequent folder use monitoring, and the ability to
send
Web pages to the unit directly from within Internet Explorer or to send files
from Windows Explorer through the Send To menu.
* Find and reverse find commands.
* Braille keyboard to enter find text.
* Simple, direct commands to navigate by character, word, sentence,
paragraph, and page.
* Spell word command.
* Automatic software and firmware updates via the Web.
* The ability to control text files so they are line oriented. This is
critical in material like poetry and certain kinds of technical material.
* The ability to move line by line or sentence by sentence even when
the unit is idle.
* Filters that remove repeating characters and double repeating
characters from files before they get sent to the unit.
* An external beeper that will be used to alert the user when an alarm
triggers, even if the user is not using the unit at the time of the alarm.
(The alarm feature is not active in version 1 of the firmware but is expected
to be available in version 2.0.
* Dedicated keys for on-the-fly speed and volume control, even when the
unit is reading.
* Different keypad that resembles a telephone keypad with high-contrast
numbers and letters.
* Command structure much like a screen reader, so the user is already
familiar and comfortable with the units keypad.
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