[macvoiceover] Re: Camera based OCR
- From: Cheryl Homiak <cahomiak@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2012 01:11:19 -0500
Hmmm, I bought a camera Serotek was selling though I didn't buy it from
Serotek. There was a mat that was supposed to help you line up your camera
according to the size of the paper etc. A sighted friend could usually get good
results but I couldn't get reliable results, certainly not reliable enough to
scan a book. My friend even tried to build me a contraption for holding the
book and I still couldn't do it. there were too many variables: the lighting,
even though you would use a built-in light; the color and brightness in the
background where you were, many things which I'm not technical enough in the
area of camera scanning to explain. I sought help from Serotek support and they
pretty much told me that nobody had perfected it yet (not a quote). I still
have the camera sitting in its box in case maybe someday I can use it. But even
when it worked, it didn't really speed me up because of the time it took to
process the picture and if I just had somebody use the camera and keep going,
eventually the application would either crash or lose pages for me. This camera
was from HoverCam. I am not saying it doesn't work; just telling you my own
experiences.
As for the iPhone, some people may be able to do it but a lot of us, including
me, have struggled and struggled and might be able to scan well enough to
identify a piece of mail but not well enough to consistently scan and use a
document. Again, I know this isn't everybody's experience. I'm just saying: If
you want to try this, either with your iPhone or with your computer and
docuscan, you may have fabulous success but it's a risk; you may have mediocre
success or no success. As for me, I've gone back to using my scanner which
always does what I expect it to do even though I usually take apart my books
for optimal results; I scan lots and lots of books and I need them to always
actually scan correctly, page after page afger page. . Sometimes I use
docuscan; other times I use Abby Finereader and i've also used Readiris; I kind
of tend not to want to depend on the cloud but I still do have Docuscan on my
computer and don't regret buying it. Again, others may be able to use both the
iPhone camera and docuscan with a camera with much greater success than I, but
you will have no way of knowing whether you are one of those people without
putting a lot of time, effort and possibly money into it. So only you can
decide whether it is worth it. I do believe, however, that the day will come
when we will be able to replace our scanners with a camera, computer or other
device, software and maybe a book-holding system. I'm not giving up on the
technology, just saying it isn't where I can really benefit from it yet. All of
this is solely my opinion and is not in any way meant to bash Serotek, Hovercam
or any producers of iPhone apps.
Hth.
--
Cheryl
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to You, Lord,
my rock and my Redeemer.
(Psalm 19:14 HCSB)
On Jun 21, 2012, at 11:14 PM, David Chittenden wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Ok, that already exists, sort of.
>
> Serotech's DocuScan Plus will work on the Mac for taking the picture and
> displaying the OCR results. However, you need an internet connection because
> they did not convert the OCR engine to the mac platform. Instead, the image
> is sent to their server where it is converted and then sent back to you.
> DocuScan Plus works with a desktop camera that is commercially available.
> However, they recommend you purchase the camera through them so that they can
> have the factory lock the camera focus to a specific position for DocuScan
> Plus. The link is
> www.docuscanplus.com
>
> As for the iPhone, I regularly use Prizmo with very good success. The
> learning curve is extremely steep, but it works quite well if you make it
> through the learning. Prizmo is $9.95 USD through the app store.
>
>
> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA
> Email: dchittenden@xxxxxxxxx
> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 22/06/2012, at 12:16, Ian Edwards <ianedwards42@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Caught a podcast about a camera-based OCR unit, and I'm wondering if anyone
>> knows of an accessible way of using a Mac similarily.
>>
>> Here's what I'd love
>>
>> Some sort of mount or bracket that would hold the page right in the right
>> place in front of the camera, and a simple way to take the picture and dump
>> it to an OCR program that works with such images. I'm using a MacBook Air 11
>> inch.
>>
>> here's where someone says, that already exists, here's the link.
>>
>> Any progress on a usable OCR app for iPhone?
>>
>> Peace,
>>
>> Ian
>>
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