Customer Reviews

Seiko QT2001EDGB Quicktionary Reading Pen

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased the Reading Pen as a gift for a Shanghainese advanced student of English, but couldn't resist an extended tryout before sending it to China. As a device that makes the complete transition from the printed page to the pronounced word, and then to simple, easily-understood dictionary definitions, the pen is an ideal product for someone learning English who starts from a very different native language and writing system. Another potential audience would be individuals with dyslexis, since phoneme recognition is accomplished accurately. The pen recognized a variety of fonts and type sizes, including all-caps and italic, but was less accurate in reading hand-lettering. It required repeated attempts at recognition for about 10% of words, but second attempts were usually successful. I found it easy to learn to use (I never did view or listen to the instructions). Use of the pen does require a bit of patience and manual dexterity, but motivated users should be able to overcome this. The vocabulary seems large enough--I didn't encounter any words it didn't recognize, though admittedly I didn't turn it loose on William Buckley. Improvements I would recommend include increasing the speed of word recognition (this would be great for older students with dyslexia who would use it as a reading aid) and if possible, making it easier to scan (so young children could use it).

I do not have the speaking version of this device, so I cannot comment on it, however I do have the basic dictionary version, and I find it delightful.

I have always kept a pocket dictionary next to my bed, where I do much of my reading. It is useful, but the tiny print is starting to get to me, and with some books I spent more time in the dictionary than with the book. Not anymore.

The Seiko Quicktionary allows me to to look up a word in seconds with a quick swipe, much as you would use a highlighter. I'm amazed that other reviewers complain about its ease of use--it took me about 15 seconds to master, and if you need more than that it has a built in tutorial. If that's not enough, there are written instructions and a videotape!

The lookup is very quick, and the dictionary comprehensive. I tested it on a variety of archaic and foreign terms, and it seldom stalled. The optical character recognition is versatile and accurate. If it can't read it, you probably did a poor job of scanning. And you have the option of scanning letters in off of the bar codes on the handy case, or punching them in with the little buttons.

Its small size means you can take it anywhere, and with the automatic shutoff the batteries seem to last forever. I'm still on the first pair after months of use.

It is still priced a bit steep, but if you can afford it, and you read a lot, you will use it all the time.

I wonder why the manufacturer sells something that obviously is not ready for market. The product is overpriced, difficult to use, and about as accurate as voice-recognition software.

I'm an English-second-language instructor, and one of my students bought a reading pen so she could efficiently get word definitions and pronunications.

The pen works fine, but in learning to use it, rely on your own experimenting more than by reading the owner's manual. One trick I accidentally figured out (that is not described in the manual) gets the pen to read an entire sentence without the need for your prompts between each word. Here's how to do it: 1) have the pen read the sentence from right to left, 2) press ESC, 3) press left arrow key.

It's a fun product, and seems to work reliably so far.