Draft:Reading pen (device)

• Comment: Clearly just marketing for the not yet available to buy device from readioo. (A new company founded in 2024, website registered April 2024). The "Social and educational impact" section is about vaguely related topics like Screen time. The lead and "Technology" section are unsourced and specific to the readioo. The lead is misleading as it makes it sound like this can work with in a more general way than it does, i.e. it only 'reads' specific books/printed material purchased from the company (currently 1 book and one board for pre-order). Lastly no attempt to actually include existing pen readers such as C-Pen readers. KylieTastic (talk) 09:28, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: This draft is a less promotional version of Draft:Reading pen, by another editor. There may be a WP:Conflict of interest for both editors. Wikishovel (talk) 08:14, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

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The Readioo Pen is a reading pen in Sweden.

A reading pen is an interactive device which provides synchronized audio content linked to physical books to support reading and language learning. When the user taps on specific parts of a physical book, the dot grid of the optical identification (OID) code in the book will then be recognized by the infrared scanner in the pen, and then the pen plays the corresponding audio files. The reading pen is typically different from scanning pens with text-to-speech function, such as C-Pen readers.

Technology

The reading pen includes a printed circuit board (PCB), a built-in battery, and a storage card. Such reading pen integrates optical identification(OID) technology that allows invisible codes to be embedded in physical printed book materials. Optical Identification refers to the process of associating optical counterparts, such as galaxies, with a radio source based on their positions and characteristics in the electromagnetic spectrum. When the user dots on the specific printed books or materials, the optical sensor in the tip of the pen detects the hidden codes, and accordingly, the device plays corresponding pre-recorded audio files. It has to be noted that the reading pen only 'reads' specific books/printed materials that are supported by the pen.

Alternatives

The Tiptoi pen by Ravensburger in Germany

• Readioo pen by Readioo since 2024.
• Tiptoi audio pen by Ravensburger since 2010.
• The Bookii audio pen by Tessloff-Verlag in 2018.
• The Taiwanese Chameleon Reader distributed in Europe by ENJOY Studio since 2019.
• The “DILESY” pen in Estonian/Latvian joint project.

Implications

A reading pen could contribute to enhanced enjoyment of content that promotes reading, for example, by adding audio elements that may intensify the emotional impact of an already familiar text passage or establish a fitting background atmosphere. Moreover, interactive aspects provide opportunities for children to foster their emerging understanding of literacy, for example, features including narrator voices or digitized speech, and sound and music elements can create tension, add humor, or provide extra information, thus supporting the reading experience in a positive manner.

As part of an exploratory study on the daily using experience of Tiptoi reading pen, six families with children of preschool and primary school age were surveyed about the use of digital audio pens. In all families surveyed, the children have largely barrier-free access to books and are encouraged to use them by their parents. The reading pens are primarily perceived as an auditory extension of the books or as a toy, and parents consciously differentiate pens from screen media (tablets, PCs, etc.), which they tend to be more skeptical about, therefore there are no usage rules or access restrictions for children. They also serve as a way for children to pass the time (e.g. when traveling) and thus provide relief for parents, or as a playful learning tool. Importantly, the reading pens are considered particularly attractive and supportive for children who cannot yet read for themselves. School and extracurricular learning contexts are possible areas of application in which the pens can be used as a useful addition to accompanied reading and language development. In the expert interviews with three educators and a librarian, the audio pens are considered to be fundamentally suitable for reading or language learning. Other studies have found that the availability of reading pens at home showed positive relations to children’s verbal short-term memory. At the same time, for vulnerable groups such as children with single-sided deafness with a cochlear implant, Tiptoi reading pens resulted in a significant benefit in both recognition of sounds and understanding of sentences.