[bookport] Re: Port and Courier on the same machine
- From: "Don Barrett" <donter@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 12:21:45 -0500
Thanks very much for this info; very helpful.
Don
-----Original Message-----
From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of DCHAMM1@xxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2006 12:10 PM
To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookport] Re: Port and Courier on the same machine
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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