Scanmarker Air Pen Scanner - OCR Digital Highlighter and Reader - Wireless (Mac Win iOS Android) (Black)

Product Information

The Scanmarker Air is a scanning pen made by Topscan Ltd. It attaches to a computer (either Windows or Mac) or connects to your mobile device (iOS/Android) and then, once set up with its app, can scan text and read it out loud to help dyslexic students and those with other reading difficulties. BLUETOOTH CONNNECTIVITY: seamlessly connect to any Android, iOS device and PC or Mac so you can start scanning text in no time It is also supported by a number of third party software and services that you might use for work or leisure, such as Word, Excel, Gmail and even Facebook, should you want to quote something to your friends. The device seems sensitive to jitters and users report having to spend time learning to scan with it properly (lining up text in the center of the tip, holding the pen and such), although like us once they learned how they saw fairly good accuracy in scanning.

Like other reading pens, the Scanmarker Air is really built around OCR (optical character recognition) technology. As you scan a sentence, the device sort of takes a picture of the text and then software works to convert that picture into digital text that can, for instance, be translated or read out loud. I know that some other devices offer the option to take a picture of the math formula, but this is not supported with this pen scanner. As for the battery life, the Youdao Dictionary Pen 3 pen scanner will work or about 5 hours if you use it continuously – the charging port is USB-C which is excellent. 4. IRISPen Air 7 All in all, it was very easy to hold and even when we had to hold it for long periods it really was pretty comfortable to hold. Scanmarker Air: Ease of Use Setting Up the ScanMarker Air The pen scanner is one of the best modern pieces of technology that is able to scan an image, machine printed or handwritten text and, by taking advantage of the Optical Character Recognition technology (OCR), it can convert the scanned data into machine encoded text, therefore making it available for easy editing (the data can be immediately loaded in a text editor), automatic translation to another language, text-to-speech applications (useful for visually impaired and blind users, as well as for people that suffer from dyslexia – it is also a key element for A.I. development) and overall for a better preservation of the data (such as old books, which would require significant more time and work to survive the passage of time). While the voice reading was somewhat old school and not as natural as other options, the device’s voice was clear and read out the text pretty well.One thing to be aware of that flustered some past users is that the Scanmarker Air can’t connect to two bluetooth devices at the same time. If you decide to move away from your computer to a mobile device, for example, you have to disconnect from your computer before trying to pair it to your mobile device as your mobile device won’t “see” it. Menu and Function Selection Towards the top of the IRISPen Air 7, there are two LED lights, one indicates the status of the battery (the LED will blink slowly a green colour when the battery is being charged and, when the battery is almost depleted, the LED will start blinking fast – you can also see the status of the battery in the IRISPen app), while the other shows the Bluetooth connection. At the top, you’ll notice a small piece of plastic that the user can remove to reveal a micro-USB port used for charging the device.

Doing so is really easy. You simply tap the relevant button in the app, which is quite easy to find in the device settings. Speed Scanmarker Air doesn’t need much to run properly, essentially just needing the ability to support bluetooth. The menu is fairly simple and you can see what each tab does in the full review of the Youdao Dictionary Pen 3, but know that you can choose the languages even after the setup wizard is done and you can also connect to WiFi to update the software. There is no app, so you can use the pen scanner in offline mode most of the time. Since the Youdao Dictionary Pen 3 also needs to speak what it has scanned (making it useful for dyslexic people), as well as the translation, there is a built in speaker which gets fairly loud. RECHARGEABLE BATTERY: features a rechargeable battery that provides hours of continuous use without the need to frequently charge At a minimum, for desktops and laptop computers, it needs a system running Windows 7 (or higher) and Mac OSX 10 (or higher), so it will run on many older systems.We found the Scanmarker’s app to be pretty straightforward and well laid out. It wasn’t confusing or hard to use at all, you simply scroll down to find things to adjust and tweak. You can, for example, adjust:

Certain features require internet connection to be available, so you have to be in range of WiFi or 4/5g for: On the whole, for the price we would say it does a pretty good job as a read aloud scanning pen. What ages is the Scanmarker Air appropriate for? One issue we had, that relates to the Scanmarker Air not being a stand alone device, is that you’ll need an internet connection to use some features. For example, you’ll need to be connected to the net anytime you connect for the first time to a device, to activate the Scanmarker, and even for its translation ability. Hit the little blank spot before a word begins and then scan a text from side to side without jittering too much We recommend holding the pen at a steady 60 degrees or so because it is a bit more fidgety than some other, more expensive, brands.The device is equipped with 1GB of RAM which does ensure that the transition between windows (on the display) is smooth and it also makes use of 16GB of storage for both the software and the dictionary – more than enough. The way you need to use the Youdao Dictionary Pen 3 pen scanner is by making sure that the head is almost vertical (with a very slight angle) and then by pushing it, the LED should light up and the scanned words should appear on the display. TEXT-TO-SPEECH: reads words and full lines of text aloud to help promote independent reading for those suffering with learning difficulties

The C-Pen Reader is one of the three available devices from the same manufacturer (the other two being the Exam Reader and the Dictionary Pen, which have a larger library with more languages), all of them sharing the same dimensions and weight (measures 5.3 x 1.3 x 0.7 inches and weighs 1.7 ounces) and the main differentiating design factor is the colour: the case of the C-Pen Reader is all white. Because of the small form-factor, the device can be used by adults, but it is also suitable for children, especially because it is reasonably lightweight and it allows for a comfortable grip even with smaller hands. To reliably use the Scanmarker Air accurately, we feel your child should be able to do the following:The choice depends on your specific needs – if you use a scanner from time to time and typically work with short text fragments, that speed isn’t of such great importance. But if you need to scan huge piles of documents almost every day, that using a slow device can have negative consequences. Battery Life If you have or are a parent of a student who has reading difficulties, such as dyslexia, chances are you might be looking for ways to help make reading easier. These days, there are a few companies that make reading pens for people with dyslexia and other reading difficulties, scanners that fit into highlighter-sized devices and that can read scanned text out loud.