[real-eyes] Re: iphone app for scanning
- From: "Andrea Breier" <abreier@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:01:48 -0600
Hello Roseanne.,,
There are several apps out there that are supposed to work for scanning and
reading text. From what I have experienced prizmo is going to be a good one
to exparament with.
Prizmo OCR App
What you will see below is some Q and A posts from the viphone list. I saved
these for my own personal reference and they have not been posted in any
particular order. After following these steps here I did a little editing
to improve my own experience. I hope you will find them helpful. I
certainly did and my thanks goes out to Sandy for taking the time to post
her experiences, because after all of the other scanning apps that have been
discussed, I probably wouldn't have tried this little gem out for myself.
Prizmo OCR App
Below I have pasted a direct link to the Prizmo App in the US App Store. If
you're not in the US, try inserting your country code in this URL in place
of "us." And if that doesn't work, you might want to contact the Developer
to see if the App is available in your country. The Developer's support
email address is: support@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prizmo/id366791896?mt=8
you first have to select get text from picture, then select source. Select
camera and hold the phone about 6 to 8 inches away from the page you want to
scan and take picture. Then you select preview if you can see a little or
just select use and skip preview if you can't see it. then select next and
if it does not see picture it will tell you or if it does then arrow down to
read
Playing a little more with Prizmo I have made a couple of discoveries
which are seeming to help with success.
1. In the camera view, just after the button for setting auto flash, there
is an unlabelled button which I doubletapped and found I had enabled speech
so that I can now tell the camera to "take picture" once I have heard "auto
focused". This is much better as now I have a free hand and don't shake the
phone with my tapping.
2. In settings, I disabled the blue guiding grid thing. This appears to be a
visual aid for sighted users, but I think might actually work against those
of us who can't use it!
I would love to hear how other people are doing with this app, I do seem
to be having greater success with practice and by ensuring, in the flash
settings that the flash will automatically be used.
> Before I begin, I must apologies for, what I imagine will be, a lengthy
> reply.
>
> First of all, so as to clear the decks, I should say that although I do
> have a modicum of sight, it only gets in the way when using these scanning
> apps, so I am working entirely without looking, so, working on that basis,
> I
> will tell you what I have done re settings and then describe the method I
> employ to make a scan.
>
> In the settings section of Prizmo, I disable the grid guide. then tap
> the done button to return to the home screen.
From the home screen of Prizmo I select "Text" which opens another page,
> now, on this new page there is a camera option which I choose. Then along
> the bottom of the page you should find some toggle
> buttons like "flash" etc, there is just one button which is not labeled
> and
> that is the one you need to double tap to turn on speech command. This
> will
> allow you to tell the camera to shoot, you say "Take picture!" This is
> important as it means you don't have to tap the screen thereby wobbling
> the
> phone. However, if you use this mode, you really need to use the
> earphone/mic because the speaker seems to default to small speaker and you
> can't hear what you are doing otherwise.
>
> OK, Choose your book. Can I suggest that you practice with something
> that is easy to scan. So, something with reasonable print if you can
> ascertain that, something with reasonable paper quality, and something
> that
> will sit nice and flat. My thinking is this, too often we start off with
> scraps of paper or foolscap printed letters etc, in either case, we are
> demanding too much before we are ready. If you use a normal sized
> paperback,
> for example, you won't need to take the phone so far away from your target
> image because of the larger size. Does that make sense? I have found it
> much
> better to get some successes under my belt before pushing things to their
> limit. I find that if you get a bit of confidence it makes you more likely
> to succeed with the tougher stuff.
>
> Right! Now there is the question of light levels. There are various
> options with Prizmo re using the flash, the scan I got from my herb book
> was
> taken without the flash, but the light level here in my kitchen on this
> fairly bright Sunday morning is quite good and I reckon this is a whole
> area for discussion, I.E. how best to proceed assuming a person has no
> light
> perception and wants good results. Whether one should use the flash by
> default or not etc. There are times when the flash could work against you
> if
> the surface you are scanning is shiny, for example.
>
> With the book open and the page I had chosen to shoot was sitting nice
> and flat, I double tapped that "Camera" button, then I hear "auto
> focusing"
> I already have the phone, face down, obviously, in the centre of the page,
> actually, I tend to try to have the top right of the phone in the centre
> as
> that is where the camera is and then, using both hands to hold the phone,
> I
> lift it about six inches above the page and say "Take picture!" If
> possible
> I like to hear "auto focused" just before I give the command, but not
> actually sure it makes any difference. You will hear the picture taken and
> you can move.
>
> I do find that I get better results if I use both hands to hold the
> sides of the phone because I have terrible sense of the flat and I seem to
> do better with both hands to keep it perfectly horizontal, don't know if I
> am explaining this well, but I do have a firmer hold and keep it more
> still
> this way.
>
> Pretty much immediately, I touch the bottom right of the screen and
> double tap the "use" button.
>
> A new page will open, I flick twice to the right to hear "next" and
> double tap that. Now I hear "Processing", it generally takes about ten
> seconds, and, if you have been at all successful, you will hear a trill as
> your scanned page opens. Sometimes, I do get a notification telling me
> that
> no text was extracted, but assuming that doesn't happen, I just do a
> double
> finger flick up to read the scanned page.
>
> I will say this, I have had this app for about a week to ten days and
> every now and again I open it up, dig out a book and give it a go. At
> first
> I only got, perhaps, 20 percent success, this is improving all the time,
> but
> sometimes it just won't work well at all, and this may well have something
> to do with lighting, so I will be paying attention to htat to see if I can
> sort out the best option re flash.
>
> Hope this helps a bit, do keep trying and remember to enable speech and
> disable the grid guide thing.
> When you hit the button on top of the phone it says button the speech
> lowers
> so that must be the button you talked about. Where is the flash button
I believe just one flick to the left of where you found the unlabelled
button should land you on the flash.
Since my successes of yesterday, I have been trying Prizmo out in some
different environments in the attempt to ascertain which variables work
against and or with us. Firstly, I tried scanning in a darkened room and
failed, even though the flash was enabled and did go off. I got the
impression that a degree of light is required for the auto focus to kick in.
I also discovered that my results, while adequate for obtaining a general
impression as to the contents of a sheet of paper or a page of a book, were
significantly less accurate with electric lighting compared with daylight.
In an attempt to make things more consistent, I am going to try using
one of the flashlight apps to give me a constant source of light while using
Prizmo, don't know if this is doable though.
One nice thing, I was waiting in my Doctor's waiting room earlier today,
got bored, put my hand on a tabletop and discovered some leaflets and, you
guessed it, gave one of them the Prizmo treatment. Now, this was not the
optimum situation, I.E. I just had the paper on my lap rather than nice and
flat on a table, but, anyway, I got enough info to tell me that there is a
new Physio Therapist in the town, what her qualifications are, where she
trained and the times of her clinics. It was, by no means, perfect, but good
enough for all that and that was with just one attempt in a less than
perfect situation. Then I was called in by my Doctor, which was a shame as I
was in the mood for reading the rest of the literature!
Ø Making progress how do you not save item you scanned I hit next it
says save
> can't find don't save
Under settings and then general there is an auto save switch, double tap
this to change the selection to off then you documents will not be saved
until you double tap it to change the setting to save again.
What I do when I don't want to save something, when the setting switch is
set to save, and I don't want to save a document every now and then is just
tap the top left which is called "photo" and then tap top left again when
you hear "Prizmo" and you are back at the beginning with nothing saved.
I just got Prizmo. What do I have to do to set it up so I can use the voice
command to take the picture? I would like to avoid the movement of the
tapping.
After you go to camera there is a button upper left it says button then the
speech gets lowered you should use earphones or hold it up to you ear. When
it is in that mode hold it above the area to scan about 4 to 6 inches and
say take picture and wait about 4 seconds. Then you find the use button
lower right on phone then the speech will increase. Go to next upper right
and it will read or tell you could not create.
You mentioned lifting? How do I know when to start lifting? Or, when did
you? Why lift?
Well, I don't think you'd have to do it this way, but I like to put the
phone on the document I want to scan first. I find it easier to centre the
camera that way. Then I gradually lift off until I think I'm at a height at
which I'll get a decent picture. You have to have the camera far enough away
to get the whole document in the view of the camera. I also line the
document up with the edge of the table or worktop I'm scanning on, which
helps me keep the paper straight.
I don't think there's any kind of magical tip that'll make it work. Holding
the phone steady and having good light is obviously important. Using the
speech prompt to take the picture rather than double tapping also helps, I
think. Beyond that, I think it's just practice. I definitely believe that
it's got potential as a viable solution, which is more than I've felt with
any of the other apps I've tried.
How do you save or forward the text from your scans?
There are various ways to save and or forward the text from your scans.
Generally, I use the lazy way which is this: after the processing when the
page opens and I have read through it to see if it worth keeping, I tap the
"next" button, I think it is called, not got Prizmo open just now, but it is
the button after edit and it gives me some options, one of which is "copy"
so I hit that and the text goes to the clip board. Then I can either take it
to email, or my dropbox app and either upload it or paste it into an email.
I will experiment with iLike2Read later today, because that is a nicer
environment in which to read text than the actual Prizmo app.
Having scanned {using Prizmo, of course!} a letter informing me of a
forthcoming appointment at my eye hospital, I sent a copy of the scanned
document to myself, always liking to use Googlemail as my intray; well, I
just thought to add the date and time into my calendar, a function of the
phone that I rarely use, I decided to try a double tap on the date in the
scanned letter and voila! it not only took me straight to the event page,
but also filled in "Hospital Appointment"! How did it know? I then did a
double tap and hold on the phone number and added it to my contacts.
I know that all this is the norm for most of you, but doing it via a
scanned letter, to me, marks a major step forward IMHO.
Hugs, AJ
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without conditions, act with purpose, listen with your heart, and laugh
often.
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Fettgather" <jimfettgather@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 10:37 PM
Subject: [real-eyes] Re: iphone app for scanning
>
> Hello, in all of the messages I have read regarding scanning and the
> iPhone, it seems as if the most important considerations are making sure
> that the angle is correct when scanning, the lighting has to be right, and
> of course the phone must be held absolutely still.
>
> Many people have reported good success by making sure that there is lamp
> light near the phone when scanning and by using a tripod or some other
> device so that the phone is stable when taking the picture.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Roseanne Young
> Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2012 8:10 PM
> To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [real-eyes] iphone app for scanning
>
> Hi all:
>
>
> I just downloaded an app called SayText. It's not quite working like the
> demonstration shows, but it seems it might be a good app if I could focus
> the camera correctly. It is supposed to take the picture when it senses
> it
> is in focus. Does anyone have any experience with this app and if so, do
> you have any suggestions for making it work appropriately?
>
>
>
> Thanks for any help!
>
>
>
> Roseanne
>
>
>
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>
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