Home > News

‘PageParrot’ Raspberry Pi project turns any physical book into an audiobook “in seconds”

A new way to enjoy your physical books
Sebastian Kozlowski
Last Updated on
‘PageParrot’ Raspberry Pi project turns any physical book into an audiobook “in seconds”
PC Guide is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read More

Table of Contents

If you have some physical books that could do with being transformed into audio, we’ve found the Raspberry Pi project for you. The PageParrot on Hackster.io is the way to go, turning any paper book into audio as it reads the pages and translates them all into audio using LLM.

Nick Bild, the author of the project, explains that this project gives you another reason to finish reading all those novels collecting dust on your bookshelf. Whether you’re too “lazy” to read the old-fashioned way or just prefer audio, this is a neat solution. PageParrot can help you get through that backlog and enjoy those stories that might not be digitized yet in audio form. It also saves you the extra cost of buying an audiobook if you already own a physical copy.

The Raspberry Pi mounted on top of the PageParrot project. it shows a PCB with a couple of chips and SD card. Two cables are plugged in. The left white connects another PCB of the webcam below, the right black one heads down the pole and off screen to the right.

PageParrot Raspberry Pi, Source Nick Bild, Hackster.io

A view of the PageParrot project sitting on a white background, shown from the top down. It is made up of aluminum extrusions with a square base, and a pole in the center back extrusion. On top is a extrusion that comes out in the center and show the webcam and Raspberry Pi attached to the end of it. In the center of the base is a book open to the prologue page. On the right of the base is a wireless bluetooth speaker with a T-mobile logo. Down the center extrusion pole, a wire wraps around and heads off screen to the right.

PageParrot top down view, Source Nick Bild, Hackster.io

A view of the PageParrot project sitting on a white background. It is made up of aluminum extrusions with a square base, and a pole in the center back extrusion. On top is a extrusion that comes out in the center and show the webcam and Raspberry Pi attached to the end of it. In the center of the base is a book open to the prologue page. On the right of the base is a wireless bluetooth speaker with a T-mobile logo. Down the center extrusion pole, a wire wraps around and heads off screen to the right.

PageParrot front view, Source Nick Bild, Hackster.io

A view of the PageParrot project sitting on a white background. It is made up of aluminum extrusions with a square base, and a pole in the center back extrusion. On top is a extrusion that comes out in the center and show the webcam and Raspberry Pi attached to the end of it. In the center of the base is a book open to the prologue page. On the right of the base is a wireless bluetooth speaker with a T-mobile logo. Down the center extrusion pole, a wire wraps around and is bundled behind the speaker. In the foreground there is a greeen and red logo on the left saying PageParrot. On the right there is text that reads Turn any book into an audiobooke in seconds. Below on the left and right are two cartoon parrots reading books.

PageParrot Raspberry Pi project turns any paper book into an audiobook

Previous
Next
1 of 4
Previous
Next

How it works and what you need

PageParrot is a rather quick and simple build. Utilizing a Raspberry Pi Zero connected to a USB webcam. Mounted on an extrusion frame, the camera and computer sit above the area that can hold the book and allow the camera to take photos of the page.

Running the Python script after the button press, it sends the image to Google Gemini for reading the text from the image. That output is sent to Piper for synthesizing the speech, which is finally transmitted via the Bluetooth speaker. There is a bit of delay as the Piper model takes time on the Raspberry Pi, but it does then give you audio of the book placed below.

Here is the list of the things you need for the project.

Deals season is here folks, and with it comes a plethora of eye-catching price cuts on some of the industry's most popular tech. Below are some of the best deals you can find right now.

*Prices and savings subject to change. Click through to get the current prices.

  • 1 x Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
  • 1 x USB webcam
  • 1 x Bluetooth speaker
  • 1 x Push button
  • Aluminum extrusions, wire, twist ties, and hot glue

PageParrot in use

Now all you need is something that turns the page for you.

1178
8GB graphics cards in 2025

Would you consider buying an 8GB graphics card?

About the Author

Sebastian Kozlowski

With a fascination for technology and games, Seb is a tech writer with a focus on hardware, news, and deals. He is also a tester and reviewer for the site. Contact him @ [email protected]