Reading Buddy

The Project

Reading Buddy is an AI-powered reading and study assistant that helps users work with physical books more easily. The system uses a camera to capture textbook pages, image parsing and OCR to recognize the text, AI to help process the information, and a mechanical page-turning system to move through pages automatically. I was inspired to create Reading Buddy while studying for my AP Chemistry class. I wanted a better way to study from physical textbooks and notes without constantly stopping to adjust pages, copy information, or turn pages by hand. The most difficult parts were positioning the camera correctly, parsing the page images accurately, and making the page-turning mechanism reliable. Small issues like shadows, camera angle, page curves, and inconsistent lighting made the software much harder to develop. Through this project, I learned how challenging it is to connect AI, programming, computer vision, and hardware into one working system. Reading Buddy started as a personal study tool, but it also has the potential to help students and readers interact with physical books in a more efficient and accessible way.

View this project on YouTube