[real-eyes] Re: iphone app for scanning
- From: "Andrea Breier" <abreier@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 21:55:04 -0600
Your welcome. Trust me being able to scan and read was at the top on my
list of things I wanted to be able to do with my iPhone. Sadly, none of the
others were even close to turning out to be as advertised. It still is not
perfect, but I am sure it will just get better with each update. I love
being able to read menus and other bits of paper when I don't know what they
are. I am glad you checked it out and that you like it too. Happy reading!
Hugs, AJ
Recipe for happiness: Live with enthusiasm, smile for no reason, love
without conditions, act with purpose, listen with your heart, and laugh
often.
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Thank you.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roseanne Young" <young.roseanne@xxxxxxx>
To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 6:56 PM
Subject: [real-eyes] Re: iphone app for scanning
> Hi Andrea:
>
> Thank you so much for bringing this scanning app to my attention. It's
> working better than other apps I've tried and I'm very happy with it so
> far.
> Your helpful hints were wonderful and it was nice to immediately get the
> results you would expect. I'm anxious to learn more about it as I use it!
> Thanks so much for your help!
>
> Hugs,
> Roseanne
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:real-eyes-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of Andrea Breier
> Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 5:02 AM
> To: real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [real-eyes] Re: iphone app for scanning
>
> 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
>
> Recipe for happiness: Live with enthusiasm, smile for no reason, love
> without conditions, act with purpose, listen with your heart, and laugh
> often.
>
> NET SECURITY: When forwarding email messages please consider your
> obligation to erase all names and email addresses. And send the message
> by
> using BCC (Blind Copy) and you will avoid spammers and viruses on the net.
>
> Thank you.
> ----- 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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>>
>>
>
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> go
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>
>
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>
>
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