Hi Steve,

I think the iPad mini camera isn't quite good enough for a blind user to easily 
use with Prizmo.  If you use a StandScan Pro with a third or fourth generation 
iPad (assuming that you have this set up with additional support for the iPad), 
you can get OCR with Prizmo to work.

I doubt you are using either Talking Goggles or TapTapSee to try to read 
complete pages of books or letters with your iPad mini.  The difference is that 
these apps, if pointed to a page of text using the iPad Mini, will only read 
the identifying title, or parts of the text. The difference is that with Prizmo 
I'm getting the complete text.  Using Talking Goggles or TapTapSee will give me 
an identification like "French Lentil Soup recipe", or a few ingredients with 
either an iPad Mini or a recent model iPad for the contents on the page.

You may have better luck trying to OCR the Text Detective app with you iPad 
Mini, since that app uses a video camera mode, and also seems to use an 
algorithm that adjusts better for lower brightness levels by combining the 
images from the multiple video camera frames.  Text Detective runs a lot slower 
on the iPad Mini than on my iPhone 5 to complete its scanning, so you should 
try to hold the iPad mini flat and still (in landscape mode, while it takes its 
scan). You won't be able to get the full text of a sheet of paper this way, but 
you may be able to get a reasonable result if you can get used to centering the 
iPad mini far to the left of where you think it should be positioned.  

Here's a sample of the best scan I was able to get, after several tries to get 
the centering position correct, with Text Detective (the iPhone app) run on an 
iPad mini (switched to full screen mode):
<pasted in Text Detective result with iPad mini>
1 large onion. Ch0PP9 garlic cloves, minced 1 V2 cups lentils 3 quarts water 
(more if needed 1 celery stalk, cut fine 1 tumip, diced

large carrot, finely cut 1 large potato, diced cup tomato SKUCC salt and pepper 
to taste 1/2 cup cooked rice (optional)

1. Pour the olive oil into the soup pot and gently saute the omon and garlic 
for 2 m continually. 2. Wash and rinse the lentils and add them to the soup 
pot. Add the water, cut vegmb the rest of the ingredients except the salt and 
pepper and rice. Bring to a boil. Thanh heat to medium and cook slowly, 
covered, for 1 hour 3. Add the salt and pepper and let the soup simmer 21 short 
while longer. Remove the Serve hot. Add cooked rice if desired
<end of Text Detective result>

For comparison, here's the OCR result from my iPhone 5 (Prizmo and StandScan 
Pro, done earlier):
French Lentil Soup
Ingredients
6-8 servings
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 V2 cups lentils
3 quarts water (more if needed)
1 celery stalk, cut fine
1 turnip, diced
1 bunch sorrel or spinach leaves
1 bay leaf
1 large carrot, finely cut
1 large potato, diced
1 cup tomato sauce
salt and pepper to taste
V2 cup cooked rice (optional)
1. Pour the olive oil into the soup pot and gently saute the onion and
garlic for 2 minutes. Stir
continually.
2. Wash and rinse the lentils and add them to the soup pot. Add the
water, cut vegetables, and
the rest of the ingredients except the salt and pepper and rice. Bring
to a boil. Then lower the
heat to medium and cook slowly, covered, for 1 hour.
3. Add the salt and pepper and let the soup simmer a short while
longer. Remove the bay leaf.
Serve hot. Add cooked rice if desired.
1 here are endless varieties of lentil soups. This particular recipe
comes
to us from France, where two varieties of lentils are grown that can
be
used for this soup (either the green ones or the dark brown ones).
These
French lentils are a bit smaller and a bit crunchier than the lentils
sold
in American supermarkets. This recipe suggests adding rice for the
simple
reason that the combination of rice and lentils produces the complete
protein needed in the daily diet.
24

HTH.  Cheers,

Esther

On 21 Jul 2013, at 13:26, Steve Holmes wrote:

> Has anyone gotten Prizmo to work with an iPad? I have had horrible results 
> with Prismo where other apps like Goggles or Tap Tap See seem to work better. 
> The iPad Mini does not have a flash with its camera.
> 
> On Jun 14, 2013, at 6:36 AM, Annie Skov Nielsen wrote:
> 
>> Hi Anne.
>> 
>> I used goggles with standscan yesterday, there was some creams which I could 
>> not find the barcodes on, nothing worked. At last I used standscan and 
>> talking goggles, If you lift your item a little inside the standscan it 
>> works pretty good. I would like, if the results where shown in braille, 
>> because it can be a little difficult to understand what talking goggles says.
>> 
>> Cheers Annie.
>> Den Jun 14, 2013 kl. 11:00 AM skrev Anne Robertson:
>> 
>>> Hello Nick,
>>> 
>>> I find that Talking Goggles doesn't really work for me with the StandScan 
>>> Pro, but it works great freehand in front of the kitchen window. It's in 
>>> the kitchen that I use it most to identify things like jars of pâté or 
>>> pachaged cold meats.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 
>>> Anne
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 14 Jun 2013, at 10:46, Nicholas Parsons wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Fantastic, thanks, Anne! You've given me the confidence and encouragement 
>>>> I need to go out and order myself one. I think it's going to make a big 
>>>> difference.
>>>> 
>>>> Have you had any luck using the StandScan with Talking Gogles or one of 
>>>> those video-based apps which automatically read the results aloud?
>>>> 
>>>> Many thanks,
>>>> 
>>>> Nic
>>>> 

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