Hi Catherine,
Sandra Tomkins put a lot of time and effort into documenting her experience
using Prizmo on her iPhone4 last year, and Esther did an excellent job on
the post below which should help to get you started with Prizmo.
Subsequent to the authoring of this post, IOS5 was released which rendered
it possible to take a picture by pressing the volume up button. I have
chosen to use that technique rather than the voice control method described
below so as to avoid having to use the headset. Pressing volume-up, however
does introduce the risk of movement, though not as much as is involved in
locating and double tapping the on-screen control.
Hope this helps and best regards.
Geoff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Robertson" <a...@anarchie.org.uk>
To: <AnotherList>
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 3:00 AM
Subject: Re: prizmo
Hello X,
Here are the instructions for Prizmo that Esther posted a little while ago.
Cheers,
Anne
One of the features that contributes to Prizmo's increased effectiveness for
visually impaired users is the ability to take pictures with speech control,
by saying, "Take Picture", which reduces the likelihood of a blurred image
due to moving the phone when you double or split tap a button to take a
picture. You turn this feature on in the Settings menu by double tapping
the "Settings" button in the top right corner of the main Prizmo screen.
Flick right to the "General Settings" button under the "Settings" heading
and double tap. On the "General Settings" screen, flick right past the
"Capture" heading and set the "Alignment Grid" to "Switch button, off", then
set the "Speech Control" to "Switch button, on". I believe both switches
are turned on by default, but it is several months since I configured
Prizmo. I'm not sure whether turning off the "Alignment Grid" is necessary,
but you certainly don't need it to be displayed, since you can't see it
while using the camera. Once you have checked that these settings are in
place, double tap the "Settings, back button" in the top left corner to
return to the "Settings" screen, then double tap the "Done" button in the
top right corner to return to the main Prizmo screen.
The main Prizmo screen has a list of types of documents to scan and OCR,
followed by a "Documents" button at the bottom of the screen that are
results you want to store in the app. In general, you will choose to double
tap "Text" (the first listed entry).
The app works in 3 stages, which are indicated by the 3 buttons at the
bottom of the the next ("Photo") screen: (1) Source (obtaining the image
using the Camera -- can also use previous images from your photo album taken
outside the app), (2) Image (options to apply corrections to image before
OCR -- generally requires vision to perform actions, such as cropping to
only include the part of the image that contains text or correct for
distorted pictures because you didn't hold the iPhone flat), and (3) OCR
(perform the OCR with an option to choose the language to improve the OCR),
then display the results for editing, copying, etc. or saving in the app's
stored "Documents". You can navigate through the app without ever using
these buttons, just by double tapping the "Next" button in the top right
corner of the screen to move through each stage, and that's probably the
easiest way to use the app when you get started, especially if you only work
with documents in English. However, if you want to OCR a document in a
different language, you can improve your results by double tapping the "OCR"
button (third or three at the bottom right corner of the screen) and then
flicking left to the language button (e.g., "English") in the row of option
buttons for that screen, and double tapping. You'll be able to double tap
another language from the list of 10 available languages. (Note that you
will not hear "selected" announced beside the currently selected language in
the list, but you can only exit the "Language" menu by either double tapping
a new language selection or by double tapping the "Cancel" button in the top
right corner. Once you have changed the language (e.g., to French) and
returned to the "Photo" screen with the OCR button set, you should hear the
new language, "French", announced if you flick left to that button.) Setting
the OCR language before applying the "next" button improves the recognition
of words with accented characters -- otherwise I may get a "6" for an "e"
with acute accent, and other such examples.
Here's the sequence for the iPhone 4, assuming that you have configured the
"Settings" menu as outlined earlier. It is very helpful to use the $0.99
"Light Detector" app to check lighting conditions and also get a sense of
the optimal centering and height of the iPhone above the page before you use
Prizmo. (You can hear when the "Light Detector" signal is loudest if you
move the phone up and down or left/right and forwards/back with respect to
the page. This only gives a rough sense of where to position the phone when
you use Prizmo, but if you can't hear any difference in signal with Light
Detector when you move the phone around over the page, chances are that
either the background light level is too low to take a good image, or you're
blocking the light source with part of your body. You should also use a
headset connected to the headphone jack, since as soon as the iPhone camera
is accessed in a mode that is capable of responding to your spoken "Take
Picture" command the volume of VoiceOver through the speaker will drop, and
not get restored until you exit the camera screen either by double tapping
the "Use" button in the bottom right corner of the screen or the "Retake"
button in the bottom left corner of the screen.
1) From the main Prizmo screen, double tap "Text"
2) On the Photo screen, flick right to the "Camera" button that is the first
of the 3 "Get text from picture" source options, near the bottom of the
screen, and double tap
3) On the iPhone 4 Camera screen (no heading), there are three buttons at
the top: one for the "Flash" at the top left and one for "Camera Chooser" at
the top right. In between is an unlabeled "Button" that toggles on and off
the speech control function when the switch for that option is turned on
under the "General Settings" submenu of the "Settings" menu. If the switch
for the speech control option is not turned on in "Settings", this unlabeled
button will not appear on the screen. If, when you enter the Camera screen,
your phone does not vibrate, and VoiceOver's volume through the speaker does
not immediately drop, then the ability to use speech control to take a
picture by saying "Take Picture" on this screen has not been toggled on, and
you will have to double tap that unlabeled button to the left of the "Camera
Chooser" button to activate this function. Once you toggle on the speech
control function, your iPhone should vibrate, and the volume of VoiceOver
through the speaker should immediately drop. I believe that the first time
you access the Camera screen, speech control is toggled off (i.e., you can
do a two finger flick down to "Read All" the controls on the screen and hear
everything announced through the speaker). If you double tap the unlabeled
button at the top of the screen to turn on voice control of the camera
shutter, then whenever you enter the Camera screen your speaker volume will
automatically be lowered, requiring use of headphones. Presumably this is to
get a good trigger when you say, "Take Picture". Your speaker volume will
remain lowered until you leave the Camera screen (either by double tapping
the "Use" button in the bottom right corner after taking a photo, or by
double tapping the "Cancel" button in the bottom left corner to leave the
screen without taking a picture), or until you
toggle the speech control feature off by double tapping the unlabeled button
at the top of the screen again. (Note, if you become very confident and
proficient in the layout of the camera screen, so you can double tap the
"Use" button in the bottom left corner without a VoiceOver prompt, you can
run this without headphones. Alternatively, if you're at home in a quiet
setting you may still be able to hear VoiceOver through the lowered speaker
volume and also work without headphones. Also, if you're fast at getting
the iPhone to the correct height and level before you hear the buzz, and
then say "Take Picture", you can work without headphones. But in general,
be prepared to use headphones when you use voice control for the camera
shutter.)
4) Revisiting step 3. Assuming you set your speech control on, and exited
the Camera screen (e.g. by double tapping the "Cancel" button in the bottom
left corner), you can start the process again, with your headphones
connected. After double tapping the "Text" button (Step 1) and before
double tapping the "Camera" button (Step 2), place your iPhone on the page
you want to OCR using the edges of the paper to align the sides of the
device. Center the iPhone so that the camera lens (top right corner as you
normally hold the device) is approximately in the center of the page. (If
you use a case, make sure that the back of the case does not block the
camera lens). Sandy has mentioned suggestions like lightly folding the page
in half length-wise and width-wise to guide positioning and aligning the
iPhone, in the case of practicing with a sheet of letter paper. Make sure
that you flatten the paper because failing to keep either the page or the
iPhone flat when you take the picture will cause some of the letters to show
up as tildes; this is typical if you scan a book page and haven't flattened
the section near the spine enough.
5) Double tap or split tap the "Camera" button, then, using two hands to
make sure you keep the iPhone level, raise it steadily up from the page to a
height of about 7 to 9 inches. (Nine inches is roughly twice the length of
the iPhone.) You'll feel the iPhone vibrate, and then VoiceOver will
announce "auto-focused". At this point you can say "Take Picture" and hear
the shutter close. (You'll probably start by lifting the iPhone too slowly
to reach 7-9 inches before you feel the vibration and hear "auto focused".
Say "Take Picture" anyway -- your image is more likely to be in focus. The
actual distance you lift depends on the size of the page. Small billings
only require about 6 or 7 inches. I practice lifting and then check the
distance I've lifted an iPhone against the handspan of one hand, which for
me is 7 inches, but I have small hands.
6) Double tap the "Use" button in the bottom right corner of the screen.
This is the last element on the screen, so you can also just use a four
finger tap on the bottom of the screen and then double tap. (I preferred
the four finger swipe down, but this is the current gesture for moving tot
he end of the screen.)
7) On the next screen flick right the "Next" button in the top right corner
and double tap. You'll move to a screen labeled "Processing"
8) The results of the OCR will show up in an "Edit" screen which will let
you review and edit your results.
9) Double tap the "Next" button in the top right corner when done. You can
Save your results, or copy them, mail or upload them. Options such as copy
or email are listed as buttons along the bottom of the screen. Do a three
finger flick left to hear the second page of options, which include
MobileMe, DropBox, etc.
--
----- Original Message -----
From: "Catherine G" <fit...@centurylink.net>
To: "'Mac OSX & iOS Accessibility'" <mac-access@mac-access.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 11:17 AM
Subject: RE: Abbyy Fine Reader Express and Prizmo
I have Prizmo on my IPhone. Is VueScan part of Abbyy Fine Reader or is it a
separate app that works with AFR?
Catherine Golding
Olympia, Washington
-----Original Message-----
From: mac-access-boun...@mac-access.net
[mailto:mac-access-boun...@mac-access.net] On Behalf Of Anne Robertson
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 3:07 AM
To: Mac OSX & iOS Accessibility
Subject: Re: Abbyy Fine Reader Express and Prizmo
Hello Catherine,
Prizmo on the Mac is extremely difficult to use.
AbbYY FineReader Express is simple. If you have a scan of a page, or
several pages in one file, you just open the file with ABBYY FineReader
then click the appropriate button for it to convert to a text document, a
Spreadsheet Document, a PDF or HTML. If it recognises your scanner, you
can
use it to get images.
I use ABBYY FineReader with VueScan because I usually want to scan a
number
of pages at once and VueScan allows me to do this, as well as producing
very good scans, much better than Image Capture, for instance.
Cheers,
Anne
On 15 Mar 2012, at 02:55, Catherine G wrote:
Any comments on Abbyy Fine Reader Express?
I have Prizmo. How do I use it as a document reader? Can I take a
picture of the page?
Catherine Golding
Olympia, Washington
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