       STAND-ALONE READING MACHINES: A COMPARATIVE REVIEW
                        by David Andrews

     From the Editor: There is perhaps no more attractive-
sounding piece of technology for the blind today than the stand-
alone reading machine. Just place a page of printed text on the
glass, press a button, and sit back to listen to a tireless voice
read at whatever speed you choose. That is the fantasy, and as
improvements are made in this exciting new technology, it comes
closer and closer to reality. But choosing and operating a
machine successfully are not nearly as simple as the promotional
brochures make it sound, and the cost still seems very high to
most of us. If you are contemplating the investment of your hard-
earned funds in one of these marvels or even if you merely wish
to dream about what to invest in when you win the lottery, read
the following article to learn what an objective technology
expert thinks about the various options in this important field. 
     David Andrews is the Director of the International Braille
and Technology Center for the Blind at the National Center for
the Blind in Baltimore. He understands the complexities of the
various machines and manages to explain them in plain words. Here
is what he has to say:

     The most dynamic and competitive category in adaptive
technology for the blind today is that of print reading systems.
Included in this category are a variety of systems that scan the 
printed page and turn its contents into synthesized speech. These
include both the so-called stand-alone reading machines and
computer-based reading systems. Until just over a year ago there
was only one stand-alone reading machine; there are now five.
These include the Kurzweil Personal Reader and the Reading Edge
from Kurzweil Computer products; An Open Book from Arkenstone,
Inc.; the Robotron TR320 and Rainbow from Robotron Pty. Ltd.; and
the ReadMan Pronounce from Schamex Research. 
     What follows is a review of the four major machines
currently available. The Kurzweil Personal Reader is left out
because, though it is still for sale, its optical character
recognition technology and features are outdated. The Reading
Edge offers better performance and more accuracy at a lower
price. The two Robotron machines, the TR320 and Rainbow, are
identical except for speech, so I counted them as one machine to
get the total of five. I evaluated the Rainbow since it offers
significantly better speech than the TR320.

                    Descriptions and Features

                        The Reading Edge
                   Kurzweil Computer Products

     The Reading Edge is the latest stand-alone offering from
Kurzweil Computer Products, a division of Xerox Imaging systems.
It replaces the Kurzweil Personal Reader, which has been sold for
the past five or six years. The new machine was first introduced
in the fall of 1992. 
     The Reading Edge is a compact, one-piece unit with an
eighteen-key attached keypad. It measures twenty inches wide by
seven and a half inches high by fifteen inches deep and weighs
twenty-three pounds. The scanning surface measures eight and a
half by eleven and a half inches. With the optional carrying case
the machine can be used as a semi-portable unit. Aside from the
question of portability, the small, one-piece design is a nice
bonus because it can save valuable desk real estate.
     Like its predecessor, the KPR, the Reading Edge comes with a
bookedge scanner that scans to the edge of the glass which is
aligned with the front edge of the machine. This design is handy
for reading books since the spine can be put along the edge of
the glass, allowing the machine to scan the print, including that
closest to the binding. The availability of the bookedge scanner
is one of the strongest pluses for this machine and should be
heavily weighted by would-be purchasers who read a lot of books.
It is possible to read books with the other scanners, but it
takes a little more work and ingenuity. The scanner surface on
the Reading Edge is somewhat smaller than that of the earlier
Kurzweil machine. It measures eight and a half inches by eleven
and three quarters inches. If the page is over eleven inches
long, however, it is possible to do two scans and stitch the
resulting pieces of text together. 
     The Reading Edge sits at a slight angle--that is, the front
is higher than the back. This helps in reading books since the
angle helps to hold them in place. There is also a lid covering
the scanner glass, which holds books and documents in place. The
front of the machine contains earphone and recording jacks. There
is also a compartment for storing the keypad. The rear of the
machine contains a serial port and the power cord. On the right
side are knobs to change volume and reading speed. The latter is
a nice feature because it allows the user to speed up and slow
down the built-in DEC-Talk synthesizer, even while it is reading
a document. No one else offers this feature, although Arkenstone
is adding it to the next upgrade of its software, due later this
summer. The Reading Edge also has a small credit card-sized piece
which plugs into the machine, which contains its software. This
design will facilitate software upgrades in the future.
     While it does not affect the operation of the Reading Edge,
there is one peculiar thing about its appearance. The front of
the unit contains a Braille label which says:

          the reading edge
         a kurzweil reader
     xerox imaging systems

The Braille used is of a nonstandard size and is spaced
improperly. Further, some, but not all, appropriate Grade II 
contractions are used, and there is no capitalization. The effect
is sloppy considering that otherwise the machine is pretty well
designed. 
     Some of the commands used by the Reading Edge are the same
as those used by the Kurzweil Personal Reader, in particular,
those used to control the reading itself, such as "read previous
sentence," "read current word," etc. Overall the machine is
fairly simple to operate. Of the group discussed here, only the
Robotron Rainbow and TR320 are more straightforward. 
     The Reading Edge does not have the ability to control the
brightness setting automatically. There are sixteen possible
manual settings. The machine will determine the orientation of a
page automatically and read it regardless of the direction of the
print. The Reading Edge has about 220K of memory for storage of
documents, and the contents of the memory do not disappear when
the machine is turned off. While documents must be erased or sent
to a PC eventually, this temporary storage is convenient. The
method used to send documents to an external device using the
serial port is the same as on the KPR and is cumbersome at best.
Kurzweil has developed an external floppy disk drive option for
the Reading Edge, which will be offered in its next upgrade. This
accessory uses the serial port-based 3.5-inch floppy disk drive
sold by Blazie Engineering for $495.
     Another unique feature of the Reading Edge is the use of six
keys on the keypad to write Braille. These keys can be used to
name or edit a document, write short notes, or enter corrections
into the synthesizer's pronunciation exceptions dictionary. It
has a Grade II back-translator so that the user can write in
Grade II Braille. 
     For beginners the machine has a startup message that
provides brief instructions on how to use it, but the message can
be turned off. The Reading Edge has a two-level help system. Like
the KPR it has a nominator key, which can be tapped before
pressing any of the other keys. The second key will then be
briefly described. If only the second key is pressed, only its
name or current function will be spoken. But tapping the
nominator key and then holding the key down results in a full
explanation of its function. This help system works quite well
and is available at any time.
     Like the KPR, the Reading Edge can be used as a speech
synthesizer for a PC equipped with a screen review program that
supports the Kurzweil machine. However, Kurzweil's implementation
of the DEC-Talk is somewhat nonstandard, so the Reading Edge must
be explicitly supported by the screen review program. Existing
DEC-Talk or KPR settings will not work. The Reading Edge does
have the ability to add inflection to the DEC-Talk, which makes
it sound considerably better than implementations without it,
such as the one used in An Open Book. However, in my opinion none
of the new DEC-Talk units sounds as good as the original ones
introduced in the mid 1980's. In particular the pronunciation of
some vowels sounds distorted to me.
     Both Kurzweil and Arkenstone are about to offer software
upgrades to their machines. Among other things both upgrades
offer support for additional languages. Check with the companies
to get an exact list. I have been able to work with beta test
versions of both companies' upgrades. Of the two, the one from
Kurzweil is more significant. It is being called  Version 2.0;
the company has been selling Version 1.01. Kurzweil says that,
among other things, the upgrade has improved optical character
recognition capabilities. A setting for scanning paper faxes has
been added and does offer significant improvements in this area.
Other than that, the recognition improvements seem to be minor.
     The upgrade also offers support for the Blazie Engineering
external disk drive. This is a 3.5-inch 1.44-megabyte external
drive which can operate on batteries. The system offers a simple
and convenient way to save scanned materials as MS-DOS compatible
files. This feature, which works well, is an expensive but
valuable option. The Reading Edge now permits Scan Queuing--that
is, the machine can be told to scan the next page while it is
still recognizing the current page, and it will do so once it has
finished. Previously the machine responded with an error message
when the user attempted to initiate a scan before the current
page was completed. The other major alteration is the inclusion
of an additional editing mode. Previously editing of documents,
titles, and footnotes was done with a six-key Braille keyboard
which was a part of the standard keypad. Now there is also an
editing mode for the non-Braille user. The same six keys can be
used to cycle through lists of letters and punctuation marks,
choosing the ones needed. This is similar to the system offered
by Arkenstone's An Open Book. While it is a little tedious, it
does work. The Reading Edge upgrade will be priced at $165.

                          An Open Book
                        Arkenstone, Inc.

     An Open Book from Arkenstone is a two-piece unit consisting
of a Hewlett-Packard IIp scanner and a central processing unit.
There is also a small seventeen-key pad used for controlling the
machine. The scanner is eleven inches wide, by fifteen and three
quarters inches deep, by three inches high and weighs thirteen
pounds. The scanning surface measures eight and a half inches by
twelve inches. The processing unit is seven and a half inches
wide, by seventeen and three quarters inches high, by ten and
three quarters inches deep and weighs twenty-one and a half
pounds. 
     The actual name of this machine is "An Open Book," not "The
Open Book" or "Open Book."  It seems a little silly to me, but it
is their machine, and they can call it what they wish.
     The scanner is a flat, rectangular device with a lid
covering a glass plate. The lid, which is hinged at the back,
protects the glass and holds the document in place. To use the
system, the lid is raised and the document is placed directly on
the glass. 
     Many people have come to refer to both stand-alone reading
machines and PC-based reading systems as "scanners."  Technically
this is not accurate. The scanner is simply a device which takes
an electronic picture of a printed page. This picture or image is
then transferred to the processing unit of the reading machine,
or to a standard computer in the case of a PC-based system. This
image is then analyzed to extract the text, and the resultant
text is turned into synthesized speech.
     The main part of the Arkenstone An Open Book is the
processing unit. It is based on the Ready-To-Read computer
introduced about a year and a half ago. This machine, in other
words, is based on an IBM-compatible computer designed by
Arkenstone. When used as a reading machine, it does not function
as a computer, and all you can do with it is scan and read.
However, with the addition of a screen review program and
standard keyboard it can be converted into an IBM-compatible
machine. This can be an advantage to someone who just wants a
reading machine now but may want to upgrade to a full PC later.
     The system unit is more vertical in shape than many PC's.
The front contains a slider control for volume as well as a 3.5-
inch floppy disk drive. The back contains standard expansion
slots, serial and parallel ports, a video output port, and a jack
to connect the keypad or a keyboard. The right side of the unit
has a small compartment to store the keypad, an on/off switch,
and a reset button. There is also a flap which can be raised,
providing access to the expansion slots. Arkenstone says that it
designed the physical unit with markings and other aids to make
it easier for a blind person to use. I for one have never had a
problem sticking disks in disk drives, identifying expansion
slots, etc., and I know other blind people who have done it
without markings for years. I find this special design to be of
no value. It might be of some value to a new user, but I doubt
it. The system also produces a variety of tones and beeps to
provide indications about what it is doing and that it is still
working. These can be of some use.
     Along with the scanner and main unit, the Arkenstone has a
small keypad attached to it with a cable. This is used to control
the different functions of the machine. It actually looks like
the numeric keypad found on the right side of 101-key PC
keyboards. Current An Open Books can be purchased with either
this small keypad, a compact keyboard, or a regular 101-key
keyboard. Arkenstone can also install a screen review program. 
     An Open Book is controlled by using a series of menus.
Choices on these menus are accessed by using four keys on the
keypad, which represent arrow keys. The user moves up and down
between items much as with many PC applications. Once an item is
selected, its individual choices are accessed by using the right
and left arrow keys. Choices are made by hitting what is called
the Select Key, which has a raised dot. The system has Beginner,
Intermediate, and Advanced menus. The Beginner and Intermediate
menus do not make all options available to the user and may be
useful to the new user since there are fewer choices to confuse
him or her. One drawback to this system, as it is currently
designed, is that it takes a number of keystrokes to change many
items. One must select an item, move to an individual choice,
select it, and then press the Escape Key the proper number of
times to back out of the menu system. This machine has three
basic modes: the Reading Mode, the Scanning Mode, and the Control
Menus. When reading a document, one might hit the Escape Key to
leave the Document Reader prior to hitting the Scan Key to scan
another page. Since the Scan Key is a dedicated key, it should be
possible to go directly from Reading Mode to Scanning Mode at any
time, but it is not.
     An Open Book does have the ability to control contrast
automatically. Arkenstone was the first to offer this feature,
and it generally works well and is very useful. You can also
control the contrast manually for problem pages. There are a
hundred levels of adjustment available when you choose a "Custom
Setting."  There are also settings for Normal Contrast, Darken
Page, and Lighten Page. The unit can also determine the direction
in which the print goes on the page and read it, whether it is
right side up, upside down, or sideways. This is a great time-
saver for a blind person working alone. While it adds a few
seconds to the recognition process, it is worth the time to most
people, and the feature can be turned off. Different DEC-Talk
voices can be assigned to indicate normal, underlined, bold, and
italic print. A different voice can also be assigned to the
Menus.
     The Arkenstone machine also has provisions for batch
scanning--that is, one can scan (take pictures of) a number of
pages all at once, then have An Open Book do the character
recognition at a later time--like when you are at lunch. It takes
only about ten seconds to scan a page, while recognition can take
from thirty seconds to three minutes per page, depending on the
amount of text, the complexity of the layout, and the number of
fonts used. This can be a great time-saver for those big jobs.
Once the text is scanned and recognized, it is automatically
saved on the system's hard disk. 
     It is then possible to name a document and save it in a
category. The system comes with a number of categories already
set up, such as bills, books, brochures, general, letters,
manuals, recipes, etc. It is possible to establish your own
categories as well. The process for naming documents and creating
categories is a little cumbersome since one uses the arrow keys
to select one letter at a time, rotating through a list of all
possible choices. An Open Book, in addition to batch scanning,
can scan and recognize a page, then read it, or use the Quick
Speech Mode, in which speech is generated faster. However, it
does not work very well. It is choppy and doesn't save much time.
     An Open Book comes with a built-in 3.5-inch 1.44-megabyte
floppy disk drive. It is possible to save files to this drive--a
real bonus to someone with a PC or to someone who wants to
exchange materials with another person. The system can save files
in a variety of word processor and other application formats--
over fifty-five of them.
     The upcoming Arkenstone upgrade, which will be offered free
of charge to all An Open Book and Open Book Unbound users,
consists primarily of bug-fixes and minor feature-adjustments. In
my opinion the most significant addition is the ability to adjust
the reading speed of the DEC-Talk synthesizer while it is reading
a document without interrupting reading or losing one's place.
While the feature does not work as smoothly as Kurzweil's
hardware-based notched knob system, it does work and is a great
convenience. It is also now possible to read a multipage document
continuously instead of page by page and to jump to any page in
the Document Reader.

                           The Rainbow
                       Robotron Pty. Ltd.

     The Robotron machine, which is from Australia, comes in two
models, the Rainbow and the TR320. Other than the speech the two
are identical. The Rainbow contains a DEC-Talk speech
synthesizer. The TR320 has the same Australian-accented voice as
the Eureka A4, also made by Robotron. Most people, including some
Australians who have visited the International Braille and
Technology Center for the Blind, have trouble understanding the
Robotron voice. It is, in my opinion, the most difficult voice to
understand that we have in the Center. Most Americans, me
included, find it virtually impossible to understand. One can
adjust to it to some degree, but not much. With the TR320
Robotron added both American and English voices, but they are no
more understandable. I have chosen to review the Rainbow because
I can understand it.
     The Rainbow is a relatively compact one-piece unit. It
measures twelve and three quarters inches wide, by five inches
high, by twenty and a half inches deep and weighs eighteen and
three quarters pounds. The scanning surface measures eight and a
half inches by fourteen inches. The front panel contains eight
keys, which are used to control the machine. The back panel
contains the power cord, a serial port, and a port for future
expansion. The on/off switch is on the right side. The scanning
surface is on the top, of course, and the lid is hinged at the
back. The machine is very simple to operate and well designed. It
scans and starts reading faster then any of the other machines
reviewed here.
     There are four arrow keys, which are shaped so as to make
their function obvious. These arrows are used to navigate within
the text or to move up and down a menu used to change options.
Once the desired option is reached, the right and left arrows are
used to review the choices. There is only one menu and no choice
selection, as in An Open Book--the choice just spoken is the one
which will apply. As with the Eureka A4, the buttons are rubber
and rock back and forth a little. This means that they do not
reliably change a setting or initiate an operation when pressed.
This problem doesn't occur often, but if the edge of a key is
pressed, it may not catch. 
     The Rainbow will automatically determine the orientation of
a page, but it will not automatically set the contrast. There are
only seven contrast settings, which may not be a wide enough
range for some purposes.
     The manual for the Rainbow came on tape and in print. There
was no Braille manual or reference card. The manual was short and
clear, but the Rainbow itself has no on-line help.
     The DEC-Talk synthesizer does produce some extraneous noise,
which is annoying. A hissing sound is fairly constant and
distracting. This is not true of DEC-Talk synthesizers in the
other reading machines. In its favor, the Rainbow does offer
inflection to the DEC-Talk, as does the Reading Edge. This
improves the listenability. There is a set of commands to control
the machine from an external computer. It is also possible to
send both text and image files between the two devices. 


                      The ReadMan Pronounce
                        Schamex Research

     The ReadMan Pronounce from Schamex Research is the newest
reading machine on the market. Like the others it uses a DEC-Talk
speech synthesizer.
     The ReadMan Pronounce is a two-piece machine with an
attached thirty-one-key pad and a joystick control. The two
pieces, processing unit and scanner, are the same size, so that
the scanner sits on top of the processor, effectively making it a
one-piece unit. The stacked unit measures eleven inches wide, by
sixteen inches deep, by five inches high and weighs twenty-four
pounds. The scanning surface measures eight and a half inches by
twelve inches. It uses a Hewlett-Packard IIp scanner, as does An
Open Book.
     The front of the main unit contains a 3.5-inch 1.44-megabyte
floppy disk drive. The on/off switch and all the connectors for
the ReadMan Pronounce are on the back of this unit. All functions
are controlled from the keypad, which looks like the right side
of a PC keyboard: the numeric keypad, the four-key inverted T,
the six keys above the inverted T, and the three additional keys
above this last group. There are two additional keys at the upper
right of the keypad. 
     The keypad is complex and not well thought out. Most
functions are controlled by one of the seventeen keys on the
numeric keypad section. There are three modes of operation--
reading, saving and retrieving files, and changing options. Each
key has a different function in each mode. 
     Schamex has assigned each key a letter designation. These
are not logical. A is the first key from the left in the second
row from the bottom. B is to its right, and C is to B's right. D
is the first key from the left in the third row up, etc. These
designations go up through I. Then J is the first key from the
left in the bottom row, and the Help Key is to its right. K is to
the right of the Help Key. I don't know why the Help Key wasn't
given a letter, except that all the letters have been assigned,
and still there are additional keys. Further, someone may have
felt that Help was important enough to get a name. Nevertheless,
all this is not very logical. The remaining key designations go
across the bottom, up the right side, and across the top like a
backward print C. Further, the key used to initiate scanning is
the second key from the right in the top row. All the other
machines make the Scan Key a large one in an obvious place. Not
so the ReadMan. 
     The joystick is used to control reading and scanning
functions. Some people may find it useful, and it may be of some
value to physically disabled persons.
     In its default setting the ReadMan Pronounce produces a long
tone after each key is pressed. Then the command is executed.
Since the machine is sluggish in its response anyway, this means
that there is a wait of over a second for anything to happen
after pressing a key. This tone system can be turned off, but the
responsiveness is still not very good. This machine strikes me as
something that was designed for blind people by sighted people
and shown to us for our input as an afterthought.
     The ReadMan has the ability to adjust contrast
automatically. It can also be set manually, and there are nine
possible settings. However, the machine cannot automatically
determine the orientation of a page and adjust for it. It can
read print in either portrait or landscape mode--that is
horizontally or vertically. But it must be told the mode, and
there is only one right way to orient the page in the machine. If
it is wrong, garbage will be generated. This has to be considered
a major drawback of the ReadMan Pronounce.
     The ReadMan can be very slow in the speed with which it
processes pages. The more trouble it has deciphering the print,
the longer it will take. This is true for all the machines, but
the ReadMan Pronounce is the slowest of the group.
     The ReadMan has a complete help system: the help mode
produces the name and full explanation of any key that is
pressed. The machine can also be set at the Beginner,
Intermediate, or Advanced level. This controls the length of
messages and prompting received in normal operation. One unique
feature of the ReadMan is the presence of an on-line manual. The
system does work well, although the on-line manual is not
particularly well written. Some of the wording is awkward, and
the grammar is not always very good. The same problems also exist
in the printed manual. Since the company is run by Iranians for
whom English is not the first language, it would appear that this
is the explanation of these problems. There is no Braille or
cassette manual.
     It is possible to save scanned materials as files. Each file
is assigned a number by the user. It is not possible to name
files in any other way, and there are no categories for files as
in An Open Book.

                  Scanning and Reading Accuracy

     The thing that interests most people is how accurately these
machines scan and read documents. I have developed a set of
standard documents that I use to test optical character
recognition products. These include a poor quality dot-matrix
printout--one produced with a 9-pin printer and bad ribbon; a
letter-quality printout; a laser-printed sheet with different
sized serif and sans serif fonts, ranging from six to fourteen-
point in size; a fax; a flyer from Egghead Software; and a page
from my bank statement. I scanned each of these pages with each
machine. I used default settings to start with and changed things
only if the results were bad. So, unless otherwise indicated,
brightness, contrast, and print style settings are at their
default values for all tests.
     None of the machines was able to read the low-quality dot-
matrix print reliably. By adjusting the brightness setting of the
Reading Edge, I got a good reading with only a few mistakes on a
single page. By changing the machine to the Dot Matrix setting
and putting the brightness setting at its default, I got a very
good reading with only a mistake or two. An Open Book did not do
well at the default settings but improved dramatically when
changed to its Dot Matrix setting. There were a few mistakes--a
few more than the Reading Edge--but I could follow the text. I
was never able to get reliable reading quality from either the
Rainbow or ReadMan Pronounce with this page.
     Both the Reading Edge and An Open Book read the letter-
quality document perfectly. The ReadMan made three or four
mistakes, and the Rainbow made even more. Adjusting the contrast
did not help either piece of equipment.
     The next page scanned had a variety of type sizes and faces
on it. None of the machines was able to read the six-point Roman
or sans serif typefaces well, although An Open Book did the best
by a fair margin. Things improved slightly with the eight-point
size with all the machines, although everything except An Open
Book made a substantial number of mistakes, to the point where
the train of thought couldn't be followed. An Open Book did quite
well with the eight-point sans serif type, making very few
mistakes. In general, all the machines did better with smaller
sizes of the Sans Serif type than with the smaller size Roman
type. The Reading Edge and the ReadMan did not read cleanly with
the Roman type until the twelve-point size was reached. It did
well starting with ten-point sans serif type. An Open Book did
very well with the ten-point and above in both styles. The
Rainbow did not do well until the twelve-point size was reached. 
     The Reading Edge and An Open Book both read the Egghead
flyer pretty well, with only a few mistakes. This page used a
complex layout with three columns and a number of graphics
elements. It also used a variety of type styles and sizes in
different colors. It was easy to follow, and most of the mistakes
were at the top. Neither the Rainbow nor the ReadMan Pronounce
read the flyer satisfactorily. There were enough mistakes that it
was difficult to follow the text.
     I next scanned a Fax page, the standard slick thermal
printed Fax sheet--the kind that always curls up. All of the
machines had trouble with our NFB letterhead. The Reading Edge
did pretty well with a few mistakes. It did, however, think that
some of the print was emphasized, that is, bold or underlined,
when it wasn't. This was a problem that plagued the machine in
all the tests. You can set the emphasis voice to be the same as
the reading voice so that you do not know it is indicating
emphasized print. However, this version of the software cannot be
counted upon to convey such attribute information reliably. An
Open Book read the Fax quite well and did somewhat better with
the letterhead than the other machines. Both the Rainbow and
ReadMan Pronounce read the Fax adequately but made a few
mistakes.
     Finally I scanned a page from my bank statement. None of the
machines was able to read it reliably. With numbers there is no
margin for error. Of the group An Open Book did the best, but I
still would not want to rely on the results for anything
important.

                    Strengths and Weaknesses

     While all of the reviewed machines are similar, there are
differences in features and in operation, as well as in the
accuracy with which they recognize printed pages. 
     The Reading Edge is fairly simple to operate. It has a good
manual, which is provided in print, in Braille, and on cassette.
The machine is compact and could be moved if need be. There is a
carrying bag, which has a handle, shoulder strap, and backpack
straps for maximum carrying flexibility. The bookedge scanner
will be a plus to many users. The nonvolatile memory is useful
for storing documents, even when the machine is turned off. The
speed of reading can be adjusted on the fly. The Braille keyboard
is a unique feature. The unit can also be used as a speech
synthesizer. Long pages can be scanned in two passes, and it is
possible permanently to correct mispronounced words. 
     On the negative side, the initial version of the machine is
somewhat unstable. Some users have reported problems with the
machine crashing or locking up. Xerox even warns users of some of
these problems on a sheet included with the machine. I locked up
the machine once in regular operation and several times when
testing the Blazie disk drive option and am not quite sure how I
did it each time. Also, frequently the Reading Edge incorrectly
identifies print as emphasized. There is only one voice available
for indicating such print, which includes bold, underlining, and
italics. Some machines offer different voices for each of these
attributes. At present The Reading Edge cannot automatically
adjust its brightness or contrast setting. In the original
release there was no way of permanently archiving scanned text
short of transferring it to a computer by using the serial port.
This process is awkward and inconvenient at best. Most, probably
all, users will sooner or later fill up the machine's memory. As
mentioned earlier, a software upgrade, which may be out by the
time you read this review, offers support for the Blazie
Engineering floppy disk drive, but at $495 the drive is a little
pricey.   
     An Open Book has a full set of features and options. Scanned
text can be saved on the unit's hard disk or exported to floppy
disk. Files can also be saved or exported using a large number of
file types. Uncertain characters can be marked with an unusual
punctuation mark, such as the ~, for which the user can later
search in a word processor. The three menu levels may be a help
to beginners. A number of beginners have reported to me that they
found the machine easy to learn. The manual is written in a
tutorial style. Tones and sound effects keep the user apprised
about what the machine is doing. Finally, An Open book can be
converted to a computer if necessary. All one has to do is to add
a keyboard and screen review program.
     On the negative side, An Open Book is somewhat more complex
in its operation than is the Reading Edge or Rainbow. It is more
computer-like. It takes too many keystrokes to change some
functions. I find myself hunting through menus for what I want.
Further, when you change options, like reading speed or DEC-Talk
voices, you do not hear the change until later when you make the
choice and press the Select Key. The speech is somewhat flatter
then on the Reading Edge, making it not as interesting to listen
to. The machine just doesn't sound as good. The quick speech
option is slow and choppy and of little use.
     The Robotron Rainbow is very simple and easy to use in its
operation. It normally starts reading text quite quickly, more
quickly than any other machine tested. Robotron says that it has
dedicated processors for different functions, and this approach
does seem to make a difference. The machine, at $4500, is
somewhat less expensive than other offerings. 
     The Rainbow and TR320 do not have optical character
recognition accuracy on a par with the Reading Edge or An Open
Book. This alone is probably enough reason to eliminate them from
serious consideration until this is improved. At $3995, the TR320
has a price advantage, but with the poor voice and poor accuracy,
I found it almost impossible to read and understand all but the
cleanest laser-printed and type-written pages. The machines do
not have the ability to adjust their brightness, or illumination,
settings automatically. 
     The ReadMan Pronounce has a few nice features. Its physical
design is compact and well thought out. The on-line manual is
easy to use and worthwhile. The joystick is an interesting
approach to controlling the machine.
     On the negative side, the optical character recognition
quality of the ReadMan is sub-standard. This along with the fact
that it offers no price advantage eliminates it from serious
consideration. In addition, others and I have found the company
difficult to deal with. When I originally contacted the company,
officials wanted 100 percent of the cost paid in advance. The
National Federation of the Blind was unwilling to do this. One
must question the viability of a company when it will not accept
a purchase order from a reliable customer like the NFB. We
ultimately purchased our machine from a ReadMan dealer, Jack Wood
of ATR Computer. He has gone out of his way to provide us with
good service. Other developments would indicate that the Schamex
people are starting to learn and be more realistic about the
adaptive technology market. However, they have been less than
forthcoming about some aspects of the ReadMan in the past, such
as disclosing what optical character recognition software it
uses. Since I wrote the above sentences, Jack Wood has ceased
being a dealer for Schamex Research because of his concerns with
the poor optical character recognition abilities of the ReadMan.

                           Conclusions

     Now comes the $64,000 question:  which machine should you
buy? Well, it depends. There are of course considerations that
can't be quantified here, such as special price offers, the
accessibility and quality of your local dealer, what your friends
use and can help you with, etc. However, there are also some
generalities which will be true for everyone. Because the
recognition isn't nearly as good, it is hard to justify the
purchase of a Rainbow, TR320, or ReadMan Pronounce. Unless all of
your documents are of high quality, I would look at either the
Reading Edge or An Open Book.
     Overall, I found the recognition accuracy of An Open Book to
be slightly better than that of the Reading Edge. However, there
are pages that the Reading Edge will read better. For most users
the difference is probably hair-splitting and of little or no
importance. The Reading Edge is simpler to operate. It is best
suited for situations in which you just want to sit down and read
things straight through. It starts reading quickly and sounds
good. It would be the best choice for public settings, such as a
library or university resource center. It is also better suited
for reading books. An Open Book is better suited for those
situations in which you want maximum accuracy or in which you
read more low-quality documents. It is best suited for a user
with more sophisticated needs, for someone who needs to save
scanned materials for later perusal or for export to a disk for
use on another computer. It is also ideal for someone who may
need or want to convert the material to a computer file later on.
     The reading machine and PC-Based scanning markets are
rapidly changing and very competitive. Both Kurzweil and
Arkenstone are about to offer upgrades to their reading machines,
upgrades that are likely to be out by the time you read this.
Both have indicated improved features and better scanning
accuracy. So, if you are not sure yet, keep watching or contact
the International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind for
the latest information. Things are bound to change yet again.

                       Where and How Much

     The Reading Edge is available from Kurzweil Computer
Products, Xerox Imaging Systems, 9 Centennial Drive, Peabody, MA 
01960; telephone (800) 343-0311 or (508) 977-2000. The price is
$5495. A sheet feeder is available at an additional cost.
     The Arkenstone An Open Book comes in three models, the
Standard Edition, the Special Edition, and the Deluxe Edition.
They are priced at $4995, $5395, and $5995 respectively. The
differences are processing speed and storage capacity. The
Standard Edition is based on a 386SX processor and has a 40-
megabyte hard disk while the Deluxe Edition is based on a 386
DX/33 processor with an 80-megabyte hard disk. The Special
Edition, just released, has a 486 DX2/66 processor and a 120-
megabyte hard disk. You will notice that the Special Edition is
less expensive than the Deluxe Edition but offers more power and
storage capacity by a substantial amount. This is because
Arkenstone has received a donation of the 486 processors from
Intel and was able to drop the price on this new model. There is
absolutely no reason to purchase a Deluxe Edition at this time,
and for $400 more the Special Edition makes a great deal more
sense than the Standard Edition. While I have not seen one yet,
it is my belief that it will offer substantially better
performance than the Standard Edition, particularly in speed of
text recognition. Arkenstone says that it should be two and a
half times faster then the Deluxe Edition. Arkenstone can be
reached at Arkenstone, Inc., 1390 Borregas Ave., Sunnyvale, CA
94089; telephone (800) 444-4443 or (408) 752-2200.
     The ReadMan Pronounce is available from Schamex Research,
19443 Superior Street, Northridge, CA  91324; telephone (818)
772-6644. The cost of the ReadMan Pronounce is $5993. A twenty-
page document feeder costs $492, an interactive remote
diagnostics package is $349, and a heavy-duty rolling carrying
case is priced at $379.
     For information on the Rainbow and other Robotron products,
contact David Stayer, 2704 Beach Drive, Merrick, NY  11566;
telephone (516) 868-8718. The cost of the TR320 is $3995, and the
Rainbow is $4495.
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