![]() ![]() In reality, the V100 is a conventional book scanner (more on that in a moment) paired with optical character recognition (OCR) software to turn scanned images into text and text-to-speech (TTS) software to turn the text into audio. But what the V100 doesn't do is convert printed books to audio so easily that it's worth doing yourself just so you can, say, listen to books while driving. I could also see it being of great interest to someone with, say, macular degeneration, which leaves sufferers with peripheral vision only and makes reading difficult or impossible. Plustek says it's aimed primarily at libraries and other institutional users that may find it helpful to convert printed books into audiobooks, particularly for the benefit of the visually impaired. The V100, which comes with a one-year parts-and-labor warranty, is a niche product. But it's not what you probably expect from Plustek's description. ![]() This is not to say that the BookReader isn't an interesting product, or that it doesn't do what it's designed to do. Sounds pretty exciting, right? So exciting that when Plustek put out its press release about the V100, I had to spend the better part of a morning on e-mail explaining to people that it wasn't the exotic new gadget the press release implied it wasn't a fully contained unit that converted books to audio files without a computer and it wasn't even meant for the general public. One more touch of a button and the BookReader transforms printed words into audio output." The Web site makes it sound even better: "You only need to press one button, and the Plustek BookReader will convert printed text into high-quality speech with a lifelike voice." According to the press release, "The user simply places a book or document on the and at the press of a button, the book is scanned for reading pleasure. The Plustek BookReader V100 ($700 street) is a case in point. Some products sound much cooler than they actually are. Best Hosted Endpoint Protection and Security Software. ![]()
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