South Korean technology company Naver Corp has developed a smart reading light called Clova that helps children to cultivate healthy reading habits by narrating their books aloud.
Using computer vision and artificial intelligence technology, the lamp is able to convert the text and images from a book into speech, while an integrated virtual assistant can explain the meaning of words and answer kids' questions to help them learn.

In this way, the product hopes to replace smartphones as the go-to method of independent entertainment when parents are unable to play with their children.
"Kids need to hear books frequently to foster their thinking skills, concentration, imagination and creativity but not all parents can read books to their kids as much as they would like," James Kim, the head of Clova's design team, told Dezeen. "The Clova lamp allows kids to hear their favourite books by themselves whenever they want, to help them develop an interest in reading."

The product takes the form of a classic desk lamp, rendered in matte white, shock-resistant plastic, with a hemispherical head that is angled down towards the desk.
This holds a ring-shaped LED light with a small camera at its centre, which uses image recognition technology to decode illustrations and identifies written words using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
After being analysed by the system's cloud-based AI, the input from the camera is then converted into speech.

"Clova reads out...