I'm writing to share my experiences with Digit-Eyes. I tried it on my iPhone 4, with several bar codes, and it didn't recognize even one of them. I don't mean that the code was located, but not recognized. I mean that the code was not even detected as being in the image. I'd tap the scan button, and the constant clicking would begin to let me know that scanning was in progress. I was scanning in a brightly lit room, and the screen curtain was not on. Rotating the containers in front of the iPhone camera, with it held about a foot away from them, produced no results. I had a sighted friend deliberately place the bar code in view, something that I would have not been able to do on my own, and it wasn't recognized, either. We just kept trying different angles, and rotating, but all we got was more clicking from the Digit-Eyes scanner.
I had some experience with creating a system like this several years ago. At that time, CCD cameras were not as accurate. Even so, for best results, we determined that a 3D laser scanner would be required in order for bar codes to be detected in the way that a blind person is likely to present them to the scanner: at angles, in shadow, etc. This is the technique used by other commercial systems like the ID Mate. I was lead to understand that this wasn't a concern with Digit-Eyes, due to the higher quality camera in the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. However, based on my results, I'd say that this isn't so. Perhaps Digit-Eyes works better with dedicated labels, but, if I were to make dedicated labels, I'd just create Braille labels. I realize that everyone doesn't read Braille, and so audio labels still might be of use to some people. However, the advertised function of being able to read bar codes seems to not work, or else, it might work, but requires a level of alignment precision that I've not been able to achieve. I'm usually quite capable when it comes to reasoning through these types of situations, so my conclusion is that I've either overlooked something profound, or else the level of alignment that is required for a good scan is grater than most blind people will independently obtain without assistance. If you need assistance, you might as well ask the sighted person what is on the label. *shrug* I'd like to hear the experiences of others. However, I can't personally suggest that anyone spend the $30 that is charged for this app if they expect to use it as a bar code scanner. Bryan -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
