Live captions
Put this device near the people talking, then start captions.
Open in the TV’s web browser, then type the code it shows below. You only do this once per TV: after that it shows captions by itself whenever you caption.
Scan this QR code with the phone’s camera, or openOpen on the phone and type the code it shows below. Put it close to the person talking.
Phones only allow the microphone on secure pages, and this page was opened with http://. Open Readout with an https:// address (see “Phones and HTTPS” in the README) so phones can join.
While a phone is live, this device’s microphone stands by, so nobody is captioned twice. Keep captions on here too: if the phones stop, this device takes over. Phones always use cloud speech recognition.
Readout’s TV helper runs on a computer at home that stays on, on the same network as your TVs. When you tap a TV here, it opens captions in the TV’s web browser, switches the TV to the input where captions show, or casts them to a Chromecast. It works with LG, Samsung, Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Hisense, Vizio, Roku and Google TV TVs, Fire TV, Chromecasts and TVs with Chromecast built in.
To set it up, paste this into Terminal on that computer (a Mac, or Linux such as a Raspberry Pi):
Copy
Then scan the QR code it shows with this phone or tablet. It keeps running in the background, and starts by itself when the computer restarts. On Windows, see “TV helper” in the README.
Open this private link on a computer, tablet or streaming stick that’s connected to a TV. It shows captions without pairing:
Or mirror this screen with AirPlay, Chromecast or a cable. Mirroring keeps working without internet.
Anyone with this private link can add their phone’s microphone to these captions:
Choose a search box on the TV first. What you type here shows up there as you type.
Drag to move the TV’s pointer, and tap to click. Drag with two fingers to scroll.
How have you been feeling this week? Any dizziness
When saving is off, nothing is kept once you start a new conversation or leave for more than 30 minutes. Audio is never recorded; with cloud captions it goes to the speech service to be transcribed.
For cloud captions: these help the speech service get languages, names and the topic right. Words it may have misheard get a wavy underline. On-device captions are English only.
Accounts and usage
An invited person opens the link on their device and chooses their own password. A link works once, for a week.
Only people with an account can start captions on this server, so nobody else can use its speech service. You stay signed in on this device.
New here? Create an account
New here? Ask whoever runs this server for an invite link.
Have an account? Sign in
You’re invited to an account of your own on this server. You’ll be its owner, and can invite others to it.