Open source e -book leader explosion!Can you be free from the store tie?

Recommended for those who want to escape from enclosure!

Yeah, I get it. The Kindle is everyone's first choice e-reader, with the ability to instantly buy books from anywhere via Wifi or Amazon Whispernet. But it became more and more painful to support a troubled company called Amazon. For that reason, the existence of an open source e-book reader, without any restrictions from companies, looks very attractive as an alternative to Kindle.

The idea is different from Kindle and Kobo

The Open Book Project was originally born out of a contest on Hackaday, a community about hardware/software hacks. The competition, which explored innovative and practical uses for the Arduino-based development board ecosystem Adafruit Feather, was won by the Open Book Project.

This project was developed from the ground up with the goal of creating something radically different from Amazon Kindle or Rakuten's Kobo. There is no tip to send.

In theory, you, too, could program an Open Book from scratch. However, since it is the winner of the Take Flight with Feather contest, Digi-Key plans to produce and sell it, with pricing and production numbers to be announced at a later date.

Products have exposed circuits! Build Your Own Case

The hardware doesn't look as pretty as a device like the Kindle, but the exposed circuits are covered in small letters that describe the components and ports (and you can hack it yourself). For those who want to) I think there is a unique charm to the figure engraved. For the housing that wraps the main body, it is recommended that the user either 3D print a plastic one or make an old-fashioned wooden one with a laser cutter or the like.

The black and white E-Ink display only has a resolution of 400x300, which is a far cry from the 1,680x1,264 pixels like the Amazon Kindle Oasis. A possible lithium battery should last quite a while.

Also works with voice commands

Running on an ARM Cortex M4 processor, Open Book has a headphone jack for audiobooks, a flash chip for storing language files, and voice commands. It also comes with a mic for Recognizing voice commands is done by an AI trained with a TensorFlow model, so for example, a soft whisper of "next" brings up the next page.

Read any e-book or text file

You can also add Bluetooth and Wifi capabilities with the Adafruit Feather expansion board. But the most important feature is probably the slot for a MicroSD card that can store any e-book or text file and read it with Open Book. Other e-readers only read books that companies allow them to put on their online stores, and for some reason the prices are manipulated to make e-books more expensive than printed books.

The biggest question right now is whether the Open Book Project will be significantly cheaper than devices from Amazon and Rakuten. Both companies have the advantage of selling on a scale of millions to date, keeping production and hardware costs down. If Open Book can be made for less than $50, it could be a formidable competitor in today's limited e-reader lineup.