Just two things re. OCR and PDFs. First, sometimes in cases where there is a scanned image contained within the PDF it is nonetheless locked so that it cannot be got at by OCR software.
Second, the OCR conversion offered by the Baum screen reader seems to allow you to interact with the page recognized and click buttons etc. Obviously I've no way of knowing how effective this is in practice but surely a review will be forthcoming from Access World or on BlindCooltech or somewhere else eventually. Worth noting this screen reader is very expensive coming out at 2,000 or there abouts. Don't know what that is exactly in dollers but in pounds stirling I think it would equate to something like £1,800 so the Doller price would be I think over $2,000. definitely an Acccess to Work paid for item I'd say. Ray Grant E. Metcalf wrote: Gary, You are probably already aware that when Adobe won't convert a file to text, you can go to the print command and choose the OCR printer option to convert the file. I use OpenBook when I want something bad enough. Of course this may not be the answer to the question you are asking. Also, the process can be quite time consuming if the document is of any size. Hope this helps you or someone. Grant E. Metcalf Bartimaeus Alliance of the Blind, Inc. Email: [email protected] Website: http://bartimaeus.us/ ----- Original Message ----- From: Gary King To: [email protected] ; GW-Info Sent: Sunday, August 16, 2009 2:34 PM Subject: Onscreen OCR How can we get access to secure PDF documents that are just images of pages, or programs that have controls with graphical text labels, or perhaps even the actual titles on DVDs? I guess these frustrations are responsible for a wish that I've heard from time to time on various lists that OCR could be incorporated into a screen reader. I always thought this was just wishful thinking until I heard the June 23, 2009, edition of Innovations. You can hear the program by going to The Global Voice at www.theglobalvoice.info and visiting the Program Gallery. The last interview on this edition of Innovations was with a representative from Baum, a company in Germany which manufactures the Cobra screen reader. I found the most interesting feature of Cobra to be it's onscreen OCR capability. Pressing a key combination will take a screenshot of graphical text and pass it along to a dedicated version of the FineReader OCR engine, where text recognition takes place. You can then read one of those secure PDF documents with images of text or interact with a program whose controls with graphical text have now been identified. Nothing was mentioned about titles on DVD menus, but if they are displayed in a font that FineReader can recognize, then you should be able to access them as well. If onscreen OCR works well in practice, the question now is: Which screen reader company, GW Micro or Freedom Scientific, will be next to offer their users this new innovation in screen reading technology? Gary King mailto:[email protected] If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search form at the bottom of the page. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the message. __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus signature database 4340 (20090816) __________ The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. http://www.eset.com If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search form at the bottom of the page. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the message. If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. All GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo, and can be searched through and sorted using the search form at the bottom of the page. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [email protected] and include leave gw-info in the body of the message.
