Victor Reader Stream and ClassMate Reader

Book Centric Design Philosophy

Book Centric - What does it mean

It means the players are not just media players that have added DAISY functionality

Rather, they are designed as book players to play books of different media formats

Book is at the centre of the player interface for all media types.

Thus, you have book playback functionality for not only DAISY but also audio files and text documents

Advantages of Book Functionality

Why is it important to play content as books instead of files?

Because books have properties important to the reader.

These book properties provide the reader with advantages for structure and organization of content.

Managing all player content as books also provides playback consistency which increases usability.

Book Properties

What are the book properties managed by Stream and ClassMate?

Each book has a defined start and end (could be a book with many files or one file).

Book playing stops at the end of the book.

Each book has its own set of bookmarks.

The player remembers the reading position for each book.

The player takes advantage of whatever structure is available for navigating the book.

Example Using non DAISY Audio Books

Consider MP3 audio files.A book may consist of a collection of MP3 files, one file per chapter.Or, a single MP3 file may be independent and better managed as a single book (e.g. podcast).Or, a collection of multiple folders and files may be best treated as one book (e.g. Music files).In each case, the user will want a different reading experience even though all files are of the same type.For this reason, the players provide a defined Bookshelf structure.

How do the Bookshelf Properties Work?

Consider 2 Stream Bookshelves: Other Books and Podcasts.

Files stored in the Podcast bookshelf will be treated as one file per book.

Thus, each podcast file will have its own bookmarks and reading position.

Playback will stop at the end of the file and not simply continue to next podcast which would be annoying.

However, suppose user has multiple audio files comprising one book.

How do the Bookshelf Properties Work? (cont’d)

In this case, the user saves this collection of files in a sub-folder of the Other Books bookshelf.Now playback does not stop until the end of the last file in the folder.One set of bookmarks and one reading position are saved for the entire sub-folder.User can navigate between files (pseudo chapters) of the book.

Stream and ClassMate Bookshelf

Bookshelves with these different book properties allows user to decide ‘how to’ read the content instead of the player guessing based on the file type.

There are bookshelves for DAISY, Audible, commercial MP3 books, Podcasts, Music, and Text files.

Bookshelf Properties

Talking Books and Other Books bookshelves define a book as a collection of files.

Audible, Podcasts, and Text bookshelves define books as single files.

Music bookshelf defines one book for all music files plus and additional book for each music playlist.

Notes bookshelf combines all recorded voice notes as one book.

Optional bookshelf subfolders allow book categorization (e.g. fiction, non-fiction, newspapers).

User has the advantage to save content on the appropriate bookshelf.

They make their decision not on file type but rather on how they want to navigate and read the content.

After all, it is the user, not the player, that knows best how different content should be read.

This bookshelf approach maximizes usability for students, professionals, and leisure readers.

Bookshelf Provides Maximum Usability

ClassMate Reader A Unique DAISY Player

DAISY has extensive benefits for the learning disabled.Most significant is the synchronized full text/full audio book.Allows the LD reader to see and hear text at the same time.Before ClassMate Reader this required a software DAISY reader.Now, with the ClassMate’s integrated screen this advantage is brought to the LD reader in a portable player.

ClassMate Reader Features

Text is voiced with the built-in text-to-speech and displayed simultaneously on the screen.

ClassMate also plays and displays non DAISY text files

It has a built-in talking dictionary – a valuable study tool for the reader.

It plays MP3, and provides a voice recording feature.

It also has the Bookshelf management advantages described for the Stream.