reading pens

Hi Kim:

I work for the company that makes the Reading Pens, WizCom Technologies.
To answer your question our first generation Reading Pen only would handle individual words. The new generation of Reading Pen, the Reading Pen II introduced five months ago is capable of recognizing both individual words and a line of text.

The primary focus of the device is to help people decode individual words that they need help with. Although the original Reading Pen would also provide a definition, the new one will also speak it. If the user does need help with a line of text, such as reading a question, that capability is available. Generally this will work well provided the text being scanned is of good quality. Also the new model is 3-4 times faster in processing the scanned text, has a redesigned scan head that will permit easier scanning left to right or right to left and will scan fonts as large as 22pt.

However, the Reading Pen II should not be looked at as a tool to replace someone whose reading requires all the text in a document being spoken aloud. There are a number of other programs that provide this level of support. Some of the programs available are: Kurzweil 3000, from Lernout & Hauspie, textHELP! series of programs from the company of the same name, and the WYNN program from Freedom Scientific.

The Reading Pen II represents the only techology that is extremely portable and could be a useful tool for even those requiring all text being spoken aloud. Of course the majority of the users probably need just certain words spoken aloud, not all of them.

It is most suitable for students 9 and older that have average or better fine motor skills. Generally, I asked if the individual can handle the likes of a Game Boy. If the answer is yes, there is a good chance the Reading Pen II could be handled by the individual on a motor skill level.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. Just in case you will be attending, we will be exhibiting at the CEC conference in Kansas City later this month.

Feel free to call be as well if I may be of further assistance: 877-773-2363.

Steve

I just bought the Wiz Pen and the concept is cool. I bought it for my son who has dyslexia. But it is tough (even for me) to operate. Maybe I have a bad unit, or maybe I’m a slow learner, but the scanning just doesn;t work (maybe one try in twenty). I was really hoping for a great product (it’s not cheap at about $280), but I am reluctantly going to return it. If anyone has any operating tips, please let me know; I really wanted this product to work for my son.
KathleenW

Hi Kathleen-
Please give me a call at 877-773-2363, and I will be glad to get you going. There are a couple of hints that generally make users very successful. Also
I have a workbook that I can mail to you as well.
I look forward to talking to you.

Sincerely,

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for responding. Ultimately I am looking at a pen that can read most of a content area text. I have a student who is currently in 3rd Grade and reads at a 4th Grade level. I am looking more towrds next year and how we can help him read more of the content level materials. In the previous letter you mentioned a couple of companies or products that may be better for this. Do they have a web site or some way for me to see if I would be interested in one of those products. Kim

Hi Kim-

Here are some interesting websites, this is not a complete list, but this will give you a good start:

Lernout & Hauspie (Kurzweil 3000) www.kurzweiledu.com/
textHELP! www.texthelp.com
Freedom Scientific (WYNN) www.arkenstone.org/wynn/
Don Johnston Company www.donjohnston.com
PCI www.pcicatalog.com

Another good list is the Closing the Gap directory-
please note this covers a whole range of different products for a variety of disabilities www.closingthegap.com

Good luck,
Steven Heller

I had never gotten Pen to really work, and had given up in frustration. But a quick call to Steve (see above) determined that I had inadvertantly entered the inverse text mode which confused the scanner into thinking it was reading text different that black on white.(They are aware of this easy to get into glitch and have plans to fix). Anyway, with the push (literally) of one button, the pen works great — just as advertised. There is a (short) learning curve ; if you start with the scanner a little to close to the front of the word, it will chop off the first letter, and mostly give a nonsense word. Also, if you scan and cut off the top of a tall letter (eg a d might be scanned as an a), you will get a nonsense word. And very occasionally, the word comes up as something not even close.But it’s usually clear what you’ve done and you just rescan. My son (9yrs old, end of third grade, good motor skills, dyslexia) has only used the pen for today, but he is quite happy with it. My hope is that he will tackle some reading just for fun with the independence the pen can give him. KathleenW