Development of a Low-Cost Portable System for Text-to-Speech Conversion: A Mechanical-Aided Optical Solution for Educational Inclusion
Leonardo Rentería, Margarita Mayacela, Juan Cepeda, Mireya Alvarez, Mario Guillen · 2026
Read Development of a Low-Cost Portable System for Text-to-Speech Conversion: A Mechanical-Aided Optical Solution for Educational Inclusion by Leonardo Rentería, Margarita Mayacela, Juan Cepeda, Mireya Alvarez, Mario Guillen (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13568343.txt.
Description
Leonardo Renteria and co-authors build a low cost reading aid that turns printed text into speech, in a paper from 2026. The aid is meant for learners who cannot read print, such as blind students. Costly gear shuts many of them out of printed class material, so a cheap, portable tool has clear value.
A small camera board takes the picture of the page, while a phone app does the rest of the work. The app cleans the image, finds the text lines, reads the letters, and speaks them aloud. A sliding frame keeps the camera level with the page and cuts angle errors. Six users ran 36 trials under low, medium, and high light. Light level changed the word reading rate in a clear way, with low light scoring worst.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Leonardo Rentería, Margarita Mayacela, Juan Cepeda, Mireya Alvarez, Mario Guillen |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |