Right now I would agree that this app is not ready for prime time. I have
been very impressed with the commitment of the developers and was very
willing to take a chance on this product. But not only is it nearly
impossible to scan a bar code, it's also seemingly impossible to print out
the labels. I've now sent images of our label printing attempts to Nancy and
I'm hopeful that they'll isolate the problem. But meanwhile, I haven't had
much luck with either printing labels of various sizes or reading existing
bar codes except for some isolated incidences on the latter. I would
currently recommend waiting to buy this app. I would purchase it as a
labeler and will be happy when or if that works. I would say it's
definitely not a barcode reader for me at least.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bryan Smart" <bryansm...@bryansmart.com>
To: <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 3:03 PM
Subject: A warning about Digit-Eyes
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
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