I designed an audio player that aims to make studying languages on your own more effective and enjoyable. It's probably a bit different from anything you've seen before, the easiest way to appreciate what it does is to see it in use:
(excuse the poor audio..)
It allows you to listen to recorded materials (ie an audiobook) in a language you are studying, sentence by sentence. You can consume and digest the spoken language at your own pace. A translation of every sentence is available, if needed. After hearing the translation, you can often deduce something new in the original target language recording; maybe there was an unfamiliar construction or a word you didn't know. Working like this you can assimilate a great deal in a relatively short amount of time.
Here's a diagram showing the important functions of the buttons:
Here's how you navigate between different materials:
The player can be used with printed materials. This version of The Little Prince has a special layout to make it convenient to use with the player.
The player is also useful for working with audio drills, like the FSI courses. You can go through the drills a lot quicker and use the materials in new ways when you can quickly move between prompts. I added a translation 'track', that can be useful when you forgot a vocabulary item and you don't have the book at hand:
The interface has been made such that it can be used 'blind'. You don't need to look at the player at all to use any of the functions. You can use it while walking in the park, or driving. It's useful if you want to study without spending more time in front of screen.
I wanted to make it possible for anyone to turn any recorded material in the target language (audiobooks, videos, podcasts etc.) into study material. I talked a bit about this software in a previous thread. (see https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=7169). It's especially interesting if you learning a less-commonly-studied language, as often these languages have few study materials available. The FSI and Little Prince examples in the video were created with about 100 lines of python code, and a little manual cleanup work. The materials have a simple file-based structure, and can be easily shared. To load materials onto the player, you connect it with a usb cable, and you can drag files across, like a flash drive. This also charges the internal battery.
Other features: you can star interesting sentences to review later. It also makes a handy music player, with an FM radio. I have a few more ideas that would allow you to create more interactive materials too.
(Sounds like the audio is clipping in radio mode, I should adjust the firmware..)
This project is something I made based on my own needs. I have a technical background and did all the design work (electrical, mechanical, firmware), it took about a year. There's still a few rough edges to work out in the software, but the hardware I am willing to call 'done.' I don't have any plans from here, as such. I was thinking of selling them for $20 USD, but I'd need to a run of a thousand or so.
Anyway, I'd appreciate your thoughts, whether it's something you think you'd enjoy using. I've been working on it too long to really have an opinion about it anymore.
If you'd like me to message you when/if the player is available, you can add your email here: https://goo.gl/forms/S09XTDQANVTvB9M83
Or like this facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/swpress/
Here are some of the older prototypes:
