Sparkup Reader Launches Late July with Read-Aloud Capability on Any Book

The children’s book market has become the focus of a lot of attention from a variety of branches of publishing. From retailers and publishers who promote book with summer reading incentives, to ebook distributors who are rolling out plans for focused marketing of children’s content, this once tiny sliver of the digital publishing market is growing by leaps and bounds. One aspect of of the children’s book market that has gained a lot of ground in terms of startups and technology is the read-aloud capabilities of nearly any book. Companies like Sourcebooks first pioneered a cross-platform approach to recording human voice over at the consumer end, and then new devices like the QR code-driven Story Sticker have allowed more and more people to experience story time in a recorded way. Now, Tel Aviv-based Sparkup Reader has developed a visual recognition device that allows users to record their own voices reading any children’s book, and the program uses the installed camera to sync the words with the page. This allows emerging readers to explore the words and illustrations on each page without getting left behind. “It's been a long journey, a long pregnancy of development of the technology and making the technology available in a real, tangible product,” said Sparkup’s founder and CEO Amir Koren in an interview with Good E-Reader, discussing the 2009 launch of the company. “A lot of development and research went into this. The barrier of any startup company is to make a tangible product when so many companies are starting software or app products.” Sparkup’s device, which is currently available in Europe and will be available in North America later this month via QVC’s Christmas in July promotion, offers users the allure of a read-aloud narration feature while still letting children experience the print edition books that so many parents still want for their children. But in addition to user-generated recordings, Sparkup is currently in negotiations with publishers like Random House, Disney, and HarperCollins to market their professionally pre-recorded titles for this platform. Additionally, Sparkup’s community board will eventually include areas where users can upload their own recordings to share, without concerns of copyright infringement, since the recording only functions after the device scans each page. New developments in the children’s book arena such as this will only serve to further the book industry as a whole, as new generations of readers are introduced to a life-long love of reading. Sparkup Reader Launches Late July with Read-Aloud Capability on Any Book is a post from: E-Reader News

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