I get it . The Kindle and its ability to shop for and instantly bribe books anywhere using wireless local area web or Whispernet are incredibly commodious , and it ’s what ’s made Amazon ’s hardware the obvious choice for consuming ebooks . But supportingawful companies like Amazonis getting harder and harder if you were born with a conscience , and the right way about now , an opened source ebook reader , free of corporate restrictions , sounds like the perfect Kindle alternative .
TheOpen Book Projectwasborn from a contestheld by Hackaday andDigi - Keythat encourage computer hardware hackers to line up advanced and practical uses for the Arduino - basedAdafruit Featherdevelopment display panel ecosystem . The winner of that contest was theOpen Book Projectwhich has been designed and organise from the ground up to be everything machine like the Amazon Kindle or Rakuten Kobo are not . There are no secrets inside the Open Book , no obscure chips design to track and share your reading habit and preference with a faceless tummy . With enough know - how , you could theoretically make and programme your own Open Book from start , but as a result of get ahead theTake Flight With Feathercontest , Digi - Key will be bring on a small manufacturing run of the ereader , with pricing and handiness still to be revealed .
https://gizmodo.com/e-inks-new-electronic-paper-could-finally-bring-color-t-1840861920
Photo: (Hackaday.io)
The in the buff hardware is n’t as flowing or pretty as devices like the Kindle , but at the same metre there ’s a certain collection to the exposed circuit board which features brief descriptions of various components , porthole , and connexion etch properly onto the board itself for those looking to muck around or raise the hardware . Users are encourage to design their own natural enclosure for the Open Book if they prefer , either through three-D - printed cases made of plastic , or rustic wooden enclosure created using optical maser press cutting machines .
With a closure of just 400×300 pixels on its monochromous E Ink display , text on the Open Book wo n’t await as pretty as it does on the Amazon Kindle Oasis which shoot a line a settlement of 1,680×1,264 pixels , but it should barely sip power from its built - in Li - polymer rechargeable battery — a cardinal benefit of using electronic paper .
The candid source ereader — power by an ARM Cortex M4 C.P.U. — will also include a headphone Jack-tar for listening to audio books , a consecrated flash crisp for store language file with specific fibre set , and even a microphone that leverages a TensorFlow - train AI model to intelligently process vocalisation mastery so you may quiet mutter “ next ! ” to turn the pageboy instead of reaching for one of the ereader ’s physical buttons like a Neanderthal man . It can also be upgraded with additional functionality such as Bluetooth or wireless fidelity using Adafruit Feather enlargement boards , but the most important feature is plainly a microSD add-in slot allow user to lade whatever electronic text and ebook files they want . They wo n’t have to be determine by what a gargantuan corporation approves for its online book store , or be capable toprice - desexualize schemeswhich , for some reason , have still resulted in electronic files costing more than printed books .
Text will look a little aliased on the Open Book’s E Ink display.Photo: (Hackaday.io)
What remains to be seen is whether or not the Open Book Project can render an ereader that ’s importantly loud than what Amazon or Rakuten has delivered to consumers . Both of those companies benefit from the saving of scale having sold one thousand thousand of devices to date , and are able to fox their weight around when it comes to manufacturing costs and source hardware . If the Open Book can be churn out for less than $ 50 , it could potentially provide some firm competition to the limited ereader pick presently out there .
ebooksKindleKobo
Daily Newsletter
Get the in force technical school , science , and acculturation news in your inbox daily .
newsworthiness from the future , deliver to your present .
You May Also Like
