Milestone (audio device)
The Milestone (German milestone ) was the first multifunctional voice memo device and audio book player for the blind , visually impaired and sighted people for the DAISY audio book .
history
The first Milestone with the type designation 310 was presented in December 2003 as a pure voice recorder for the blind and visually impaired. The Zurich engineer Stephan Knecht developed the device together with Swiss organizations for the blind. The Milestone 311 came onto the market in autumn 2006 and was the first portable player for the DAISY format. The Milestone 312 has been available since 2008, optionally with an activated calendar, radio and RFID reader and, through add-ons, previously expandable with a color recognition device and a barcode reader. The 212 followed in 2009, a simple daisy player and MP3 player / recorder with a notebook function.
Functions
The Milestone is as small as a credit card, 14 millimeters thin and 70 grams light. The five operating buttons arranged in a cross shape are characteristic.
As a voice recorder , the Milestone uses the built-in microphone to record conversations or voice notes in high quality. Folders and hierarchies can be created on the computer itself beforehand and transferred to the Milestone via USB cable. The voice recording capacity of the Milestone is two hours (311) or 1 day (212/312) in the internal memory, on the SD memory card a multiple of this.
As MP3 player and recorder Milestone take pictures at Hi-Fi - Stereo -quality of Internet , PC , CD player , radio or telephone .
As a playback device for a DAISY audio book, an SD memory card is inserted into the Milestone in the 311/212 . The MP3 compression can accommodate a number of audio books. In audiobooks with the DAISY format, you can leaf through like a printed book, jump from chapter to chapter, from page to page or to the footnotes and back again.
The Milestone 312 can be used to play or record from the internal memory or the memory card.
For blind and visually impaired listeners, the fact that the Milestone can literally be operated "blindly" via the five large, cross-shaped buttons with relief symbols and an additional selector button is relevant.