Ilya Novodvorskiy, an American developer and father based in Prague, has created a reading app that multilingual households, in particular, will find of use.
ReadMio is an interactive application that allows users to read stories out loud that come with their own personalized sound effects and music.
Team ReadMio’s core mission is to provide a positive experience, especially for families and the bonds between parents and children. They believe that the modern world is quite busy, more often than not.
The sounds are strictly voice-triggered, so all you need to do is read the story to activate the enchanting and fun tunes that have been built into the application.
On top of that, the sounds get triggered according to the tone of your voice, offering a completely immersive experience as you read the stories. ReadMio runs on top-notch voice recognition technology.
“In the beginning, we tried most of the available speech recognition services. However, we were not completely satisfied with either. If the parent is reading, the device must recognize the message within a few tenths of a second – otherwise the sound will not appear in the right place. In addition, there was a problem with inaccurate translations for Czech and Slovak,” says Novodvorskiy.
“In the end, we gained enough knowledge and developed our own ideal solution with the help of speech recognition experts,” he explains.
What’s more, the application works also offline. An internet connection is only needed when users want to download new stories, and the stories have been categorized by age and genre, to make it easier for users to find a story befitting their wants.
Additionally, new stories are added every week. Each story has been customized with a beautiful and artsy illustration as a cover. Users can also print the stories if they want to.
Families can choose from dozens of tales known to readers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, including The Three Little Pigs, Daedalus and Icarus, Hey, Ho – Ground, Open Up.
ReadMio is available on iOS and Android, supporting iOS version 11+ and Android version 6 and above. In the near future, ReadMio might become available for Huawei users as well.
Moreover, ReadMio has a printable ‘Memory Game’, which users can play with, to entertain their children.
