cread | read & see

Reading is as easy as pointing your finger at the text with the prototype FingerReader being developed by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Unlike other readers available for visually impaired people, which first need to process and translate text, the MIT finger reader reads in real time, and uses remarkable technology to assist the reader follow line after line. MIT's Professor Pattie Maes, who founded and leads the Fluid Interfaces research group developing the prototype, says the FingerReader is like "reading with the tip of your finger and it's a lot more flexible, a lot more immediate than any solution that they have right now." Books, magazines, newspapers, computer screens and other devices can all be read comfottably with the FingerReader but a solution for touch screens is still being developed because of the disruption to text that occurs when the finger touches the screen. Vibrations help guide the reader's fin

A patent-pending reading application included with two new Samsung products streams single words with an optimal recognition point and claims to increase reading speeds dramatically. Spritz was launched at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on February 23 after three years of 'stealth mode' research and development. Using a display called a 'Redicle', Spritz displays a single word at a time, with a red letter marking the optimal recongition point (ORP) and will be particularly useful on wearable technology such as Samsung's Gear 2 but can also be found on the Galaxy S5 smartphone. Spritz's original media release explains the technology and how it speeds up reading by saving the time usually spent by the eye moving to the next word and seeking the ORP:  'Spritz's technology streams individual words inside of a special display called the "Redicle," which helps the eyes to position themselves precisely at the recognition point for

While visiting a remote village in the central mountainous region of Bali that could only be reached by foot and hair-raising motorbike ride, the presence of two things surprised me. In a place where there was no running water, sewerage, electricity or proper roads, we visited a substantial Christian church built of concrete and tiles on the side of a mountain. And among the baskets of chillies and other crops being prepared for market, young people were fiddling with their mobile phones. This picture - of the phone use at least - is repeated across the developing world where cheaper, basic phones such as per-paid Samsungs, Nokias and Blackberries are prolific and now a new book reading app has been developed to bring free books to these millions of 'feature phones'. Worldreader Mobile, operating on the  biNu platform, has just moved out of the beta phase and already 10 per cent of biNu's 5 million users have accessed the app - about 107,000 in India, 60,800 in Nig

An Australian ad company, BMF ,  has developed an innovative book mailing product that will hopefully lead to many more good quality books being donated to reading programs for disadvantaged people. Mailbooks for Good is like an 'inbuilt' book mailing envelope that is part of the cover of the book and which can be folded out to encase the book with address and postage included to a chosen book charity or program. Mailbooks for Good is being trialled now with five Random House titles available from Gleebooks in Sydney with the beneficiary being The Footpath Library . The current Mailbooks for Good titles, selected in cooperation with Random House, are Crack Hardy by Stephen Dando-Collins, Wanting by Richard Flanagan, And Now for Some Light Relief by Peter Fitzsimons, The Fix by Nick Earls and Bureau of Mysteries by HJ Harper. The idea is that customers see a book they like in a bookstore and realise that not only can they read it, but can easily send it on to

With nearly half the Australian population struggling with basic literacy for every day life, 2012 has been declared a National Year of Reading by Australia's libraries and library associations. They are promoting all things books and reading-related in 2012 with programs and events taking place across the country and online with the aim of helping people discover or rediscover the joy of reading. In the spirit of National Year of Reading 2012, here's a look at some of the activities going on in the near future. Reading and counting It is Literacy and Numeracy week, and nationwide events include: Read for Australia – which occurred today at 2pm - a synchronised national reading of Aaron Blabey's Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley; The Dorothea McKellar Poetry Awards, the winners of which will be announced at Gunnedah in NSW on August 31. Feast of festivals Turning the page, other events in the NYOR12 include the Melbourne Writers Festival which continues this week. Mo

Noticed a nasty cough lately? If you've just read Lord of the Rings and find yourself delighting in dark places, you could be channelling Gollum through a phenomenon called "experience-taking" according to Ohio State University researchers. They examined what happened to people who, while reading a fictional story, found themselves feeling the emotions, thoughts, beliefs and internal responses of one of the characters as if they were their own. In the right situations, this "experience-taking" may lead to real changes, if only temporary, in the lives of readers. One example involved students reading about a student overcoming obstacles to vote in an election. They were found to be more likely to vote in an actual election shortly after. The experience-taking phenomenon is short-lived it would seem and doesn't always occur. “You have to be able to take yourself out of the picture, and really lose yourself in the book in order to have this authen