You're right. Those other apps are fine for identifying food packages or such. It sounds to me like one has to have an iPhone to really use these apps. I like the iPad mini for its size and am probably not in the market for a big iPad. I was under the original impression that the camera on the iPad mini was supposed to be as good as at least, the iPhone 4S but I guess I'm wrong. Been there done that with the iPod 4th generation and learned that that camera is just plain dreadful for OCR work.
Out of all this, the Looktell Money Reader works great on iPod 4th gen and iPad mini. Thanks for your additional information and mention of Text Detective; that might be an interesting experiment. On Jul 21, 2013, at 7:59 PM, Esther <mori...@mac.com> wrote: > 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 >>>>> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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