A reading bed for lying thereon in a prone position or sitting position. The bed supporting not only the lower portion of the body, but the chest, neck and head of the reader. In addition, the bed supports the arms and elbows of the reader. The bed by supporting the various parts of the body, allows the reader to greatly extend a time period for reading without discomfort to his body.

A reading instrument for magnifying certain chosen printed material on a page or sheet of paper and for visually isolating the chosen material from other, adjacent printed material, the instrument including an opaque plate that is provided with a slot, an elongated magnifying lens attached to the plate in alignment with the slot, a permanent magnet spaced from the lens and attached to the plate and a flat lamina of a ferrous material that is positioned under the printed page so as to inhibit the...

A device designed to help persons of impaired vision to read written or printed texts on a horizontal surface comprises an elongate lens mount with a base having a bottom slot which extends in reading direction to encompass one or more lines of text. The top of the lens mount holds a positively refracting, preferably bidimensionally (i.e. spherically) effective, eyepiece of elongate outline paralleling the bottom slot, its longitudinal plane of symmetry including an acute angle with the vertical...

A reading table arranged for support on a bed, chair or floor including a table top with members for holding a book or other reading matter thereon, the top mounted for changed inclination, lateral and vertical positions relative to upright legs and supporting feet, each of the latter being arranged for adjustment to vary disposition of the table top and to enable fold-up into a storage position.

A machine for pacing reading speed to improve same comprises a housing (10) having a top edge which contains a row of lamps (14). The edge is placed under a line of print and the lamps are caused to be illuminated in sequence from left to right to guide and pace the reader's eye. In a manual version (FIG. 1) the lamps are illuminated by repetitively moving a slide switch (12). In an electronic version (FIG. 3) the lamps are illuminated in sequence by the output of an electronic circuit (FIG. 3B)...

An apparatus for dividing an original surface having image information into a plurality of areas and reading the image information with the use of a photosensor through a plurality of imaging systems provided correspondingly to said plurality of areas. The imaging systems for imaging the image information of the original surface on the photosensor include zone plates.

An original is first illuminated with a light beam of white color or a wavelength adapted for reading of the original, and an optical image of the original is focused on a photosensitive drum previously charged uniformly, to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum. Thereafter, the photosensitive drum is scanned with a laser beam, and a discharge current attendant on the scanning is detected and converted into an electric signal representative of the optical image. Thus, a m...

A reading table arranged for support on a bed, chair or the floor including a table top mounted for lateral shifting motion as well as changed inclination relative to upright legs and supporting feet, each of the latter being arranged for adjustment to vary the disposition of the table top and to enable collapse into a storage position wherein the top, legs and feet reside in adjacent parallel planes.

An automated reading trainer having provisions for manual or automatic feed. The trainer is in the form of a housing having a front opening for receiving a printed sheet of material with chute means for returning the paper after being fed to the machine through the front thereof. The trainer has a specially designed on and off switch mechanism which causes the engagement of sheet feed means with motor driven means to automatically feed the paper through the machine. The switch in the off positio...

A teaching aid for training students to read from left to right which includes a substantially vertically disposed panel which presents to the view of the student a parallel array of horizontal slots. A captive ball within the slot is advanced by the student's finger from the left-hand end of the uppermost slot toward the right. On reaching the right-hand end of each slot, the ball descends along a hidden ramp to the left-hand end of the succeeding slot. Means are preferably provided to impede t...