PocketHinman vs Immerse Research

An iOS app that uses flickering image comparison and image transparency to imitate the functions of a Hinman Collator. Initial software design: James P. Ascher, DeVan Ard, Samuel Lemley Funding from the Institute of the Humanities and Global Culture, University of Virginia, as part of the 2017-18 Public Humanities Lab.

Immerse is a sacred-text reader built for research: read every tradition side by side, collect and annotate passages as you go, and turn them into organized, exportable compilations. It's an offline library of 400+ sacred texts — and a set of tools for building your own thematic compilations from across every tradition in it. BUILD COMPILATIONS Long-press any passage to select it, then add it to a compilation. Compilations are your collections: gather passages from the Qur'an, the Bible, the Upanishads, the Buddhist sutras, the Bahá'í writings and more under a single theme — Prayer, Justice, The Nature of the Soul. Your compilation grows one passage at a time, across every tradition in the library. ANNOTATE AS YOU READ Add notes to any selection. Create cross-references linking a passage in one book to a passage in another — the connections you notice, kept where you found them. When you build a cross-reference, tap Suggest a match to get AI-ranked related passages from across the whole library, each with a one-line reason. Everything anchors to the exact text you selected. EXPORT AND SHARE Export any compilation — or a set of cross-references, laid out side by side by tradition — as a Word document, PDF, spreadsheet, or Markdown file, complete with your notes. Or share your compilations or cross-references with a private link: anyone with the link can open them or save a copy into their own library. Ready to send, publish, or study from. A COMMUNITY OF READERS Make any compilation public and other readers can find it in Discover — preview its passages, then import the whole collection into your own library with one tap, and follow the readers whose work you want to keep up with. A living body of interfaith study, built by the people using it. THE LIBRARY 400+ complete sacred texts, all offline. Full-text search across every one of them at once — type a whole question and AI finds the passage that answers it, right alongside your keyword matches. Listen to any passage read aloud. Your reading position is saved automatically. Also available in Spanish, French, Persian, Chinese, Turkish, and Russian, with full right-to-left support for Persian. GUEST, NO ACCOUNT NEEDED Read and search the entire library offline, and share quotes. FREE WITH AN ACCOUNT • Compilations — group passages from across the library under your own themes • Notes — comment on any passage • Cross-references — link passages across the whole library • Suggest a match — AI-ranked related passages when you build a cross-reference • Quick compilation from search — add many passages to a compilation at once • Listen — tap the headphones to hear any passage read aloud • Daily Readings — follow a reading plan through any book, or get random verses from traditions you choose, with morning and evening reminders and a streak • Recently viewed — pick up where you left off • Export — compilations and cross-references as PDF, DOCX, CSV, or Markdown • Share links — send a compilation or cross-reference set by private link • Publish — make any compilation public for other readers to find • Discover — browse and import compilations other readers have published • Sync across all your devices IMMERSE PRO — $0.99/month, 30-day free trial Pro helps cover the running costs of the app. It adds: • AI summary — select a passage and get its meaning explained in the context of the book it comes from • Premium voices — natural, expressive narration for Listen, in your choice of voice • Import your own books — bring in EPUB, PDF, DOCX, or TXT files to read, search, and annotate* *Not every file imports cleanly. DOCX files with images or unusual formatting, and scanned (non-text) PDFs, may import unreliably or not at all.