The latest gem to be concocted in MIT's Media Lab is the FingerReader. Billed as "a wearable interface for reading on the go," the device: is a tool both for visually impaired people that require help with accessing printed text, as well as an aid for language translation. Wearers scan a text line with their finger and receive an audio feedback of the words and a haptic feedback of the layout: start and end of line, new line, and other cues. The FingerReader algorithm knows to detect and give feedback when the user veers away from the baseline of the text,...
Move over floating libraries here comes a floating school
During the monsoon season in Bangladesh it is almost impossible to get around. Every year from late June to October one third of the country goes underwater! Consequently, flooding is "the main reason for school drop outs in rural Bangladesh" says Mosammat Reba Khatun. For the last ten years Mosammat has been the teacher on a floating school on the Gumani river in northwest Bangladesh. She teaches 90 students, mostly girls, Bengali, Maths and English. The school collects children from their homes, teaches them on board and returns them at the end of the session. On teaching on the floating school Mossammat says: The teaching...
Words words words words: A look at books and word counts
Design Taxi via ShortList
Shame and Literacy Redux: Rapper Challenges Boxer to read ‘Cat in the Hat’ on Jimmy Fallon
Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and Floyd Mayweather Jr. (Jemal Countess / Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Right on heels of our last post, Shame and Literacy, comes this doozy. Rapper 50 Cent has challenged Floyd Mayweather, who many consider the best pound-for-pound boxer in the universe, to appear on Jimmy Fallon's late night TV show and read the Dr. Suess classic "Cat in he Hat." If he does so successfully 50 Cent will donate $750,000 to a charity of Mayweather's choosing. The two former business partners had a falling out and are now duking it out on social media. First 50 Cent challenged Mayweather...
Shame and Literacy
Unfortunately, I missed the boat when The Reader by Bernhard Schlink first hit American shores in 1997. Originally published in Germany it went on to sell, after an Oprah push, over two million copies in the U.S. and became the first German book to top The New York Times bestseller list. I did; however, watch the 2008 film version recently and have been thinking about it ever since. It has to rank among the most powerful films dealing with literacy ever made. The film follows the relationship between Hanna Schmitz (played by Kate Winslet, who won an Academy Award for performance) and a 15-year-old boy Michael (played...