Re: Questions about Prismo
Hello Chris, I use Prizmo very successfully on my iPhone 4, but it's extremely difficult to get good results from a computer screen. I get really good results from books and other printed materials. I have no light perception so use the Light Detector app to check that there is sufficient light for Prizmo to work. Cheers, Anne On 19 Mar 2012, at 13:24, chris hallsworth wrote: Can I use this app successfully on an iPhone 4? Can I even use it to recognize text on a computer or any other screen? -- Christopher H -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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.
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hello Anne. I haven't had much success with Prismo yet. What is the light Detector Ap? Can you tell me exactly what you do to get Prismo to scan and recognize text? Thanks so much. On Mar 19, 2012, at 11:52 AM, Anne Robertson wrote: Hello Chris, I use Prizmo very successfully on my iPhone 4, but it's extremely difficult to get good results from a computer screen. I get really good results from books and other printed materials. I have no light perception so use the Light Detector app to check that there is sufficient light for Prizmo to work. Cheers, Anne On 19 Mar 2012, at 13:24, chris hallsworth wrote: Can I use this app successfully on an iPhone 4? Can I even use it to recognize text on a computer or any other screen? -- Christopher H -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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.
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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
Re: Questions about Prismo
sorry to ask. is this for the ipad or iphone? also will it work on the 3GS? is there a link for the developer and also is this free or paid? cheers lew On 19 Mar 2012, at 19:07, Anne Robertson wrote: Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hello Lew, I don't know how well it would work on an iPad, but I use it on my iPhone. It costs €7.99 so I should think that would be £5.99 or something like that. The developer is Creaceed. Cheers, Anne On 19 Mar 2012, at 20:19, Lewis Alexander wrote: sorry to ask. is this for the ipad or iphone? also will it work on the 3GS? is there a link for the developer and also is this free or paid? cheers lew -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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.
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hello Paul, I use the light detector app from Everyware Technologies (the developers of TypeInBraille) to check lighting conditions before using Prizmo: * Light Detector ($0.99) by Everyware Technologies: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/light-detector/id420929143?mt=8 As Anne said, the app plays a tone which rises with increasing light level in the direction you point your iPhone camera. There's a Vision Australia podcast by David Woodbridge about using Light Detector to check whether lights are on, whether blinds need to be pulled, etc. If you haven't subscribed to David's Apple and other Accessible Technology podcast, you can download it from either his podbean web site or feed: http://davidwoodbr.podbean.com/ feed://davidwoodbr.podbean.com/feed/ Look for Using Light Detector app with VoiceOver on the iPhone. Other list members use this app to check for which lights are on for washers or driers, or to monitor the modem cable box lights. You can even use this app to get a rough idea of how high above the page you need to hold your iPhone for using OCR apps like Prizmo or TextGrabber. If you want to try this, place the paper on a flat surface, launch the Light Detector app, and place your iPhone so that the camera lens (upper right corner) is approximately centered in the page you want to scan, and the sides of your iPhone are aligned parallel to the edges of the paper. Then lift your iPhone directly up, so that it is parallel to the table. You should hear the tone get louder as you lift, reaching a maximum between about seven to nine inches above a standard letter or A4 page -- roughly twice the long dimension of the iPhone. This is only very approximate, by the way, and while you'll probably want to use two hands to lift your iPhone for the OCR pictures, you can do this experiment with the Light Detector app with one hand. You should also be able to move the iPhone towards you or away from you, or in circles at the height where the tone is loudest when you lift directly centered on the page, and hear the difference in sound. And if I can't hear an audible difference in the sound level when I hold my iPhone above the page I want to OCR, and when I move the iPhone from left to right using the Light Detector app, while holding it at about height I'd use to take a picture (about twice the height of the iPhone above the page -- doesn't have to be at all precise), then I know that either there's not enough light for taking a good picture, or else the light source might be blocked by something -- e.g., if I'm standing between the window and the page. I don't go through all this every time I use the Light Detector, but it may help a first-time user to gain confidence in estimating how high the iPhone should be held. It also works to help you figure out how to adjust the height you use for a smaller or larger piece of paper. A lot of this is about getting close enough to the optimal settings to start getting usable results. Once you're in the ballpark, you can experiment with how you use the Prizmo app to fine tune your efforts. The instructions Anne posted were from last year -- pre-iOS 5. Those people who don't want to use headsets when using Prizmo with voice activation can disable this and follow David Chittenden's instructions about either manually placing his finger on the camera button and trying to take the picture with a split tap with minimum shake, or using the new iOS 5 feature of pressing the volume button on the side to take a picture. You should also be able to press the volume adjust button on the iPhone headset to take a picture under iOS 5. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 19, 2012, at 9:07 AM, Anne Robertson wrote: Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hi Lew, The iPad 2 camera is too low resolution to give good results with Prizmo, at least for visually impaired users. You can also tell this is the case by trying to run Prizmo on a screen captured image -- where there is no shake in taking a picture -- and comparing the results on an iPhone and an iPad. Now, the resolution used for screen capture doesn't have to be the same as what's used for the camera, but it's possible to tell that the same screens that I can OCR with the iPhone 4 start to mistake letters on the iPad 2 screen captures. For example, you can check this if you capture a screen of text from iBooks. While a few people have gotten results using Prizmo on the iPhone 3GS, reportedly the camera on this isn't really good enough for regular use by visually impaired individuals. When Prizmo was first being intensely discussed on the viphone list, with a lot of suggestions by Sandy Tomkins of practical ways to improve results, Rose Morales was able to get a near-perfect OCR of a book page on her iPhone 3GS at the first try. That's very unusual, and it was enough to make some people, like Geoff Waaler, purchase the app. He was able to use it to get some results on the iPhone 3GS, but really the place where he's now using Prizmo is his iPhone 4S. I'd say that you'd really want an iPhone 4 or 4S to use Prizmo. The new iPad camera is supposed to be as good as the camera on the iPhone 4, so that might also be a possibility. Here's the App Store link: • Prizmo ($9.99) by Creaceed: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prizmo/id366791896?mt=8 HTH. By the way, there's also a Mac version of Prizmo which uses the camera on your computer. I don't recommend that application for visually impaired users, despite the success of their iOS app. Cheers, Esther On Mar 19, 2012, at 9:39 AM, Anne Robertson wrote: Hello Lew, I don't know how well it would work on an iPad, but I use it on my iPhone. It costs €7.99 so I should think that would be £5.99 or something like that. The developer is Creaceed. Cheers, Anne On 19 Mar 2012, at 20:19, Lewis Alexander wrote: sorry to ask. is this for the ipad or iphone? also will it work on the 3GS? is there a link for the developer and also is this free or paid? cheers lew -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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.
Re: Questions about Prismo
ah. sorry got my wires crossed on this lol. when this app was mentioned earlier regarding light sensing, I thought this was just a light scanner to tell a blind user what level of light is in a room or being given by a bulb or anything like that, oops lew On 19 Mar 2012, at 20:27, Esther wrote: Hi Lew, The iPad 2 camera is too low resolution to give good results with Prizmo, at least for visually impaired users. You can also tell this is the case by trying to run Prizmo on a screen captured image -- where there is no shake in taking a picture -- and comparing the results on an iPhone and an iPad. Now, the resolution used for screen capture doesn't have to be the same as what's used for the camera, but it's possible to tell that the same screens that I can OCR with the iPhone 4 start to mistake letters on the iPad 2 screen captures. For example, you can check this if you capture a screen of text from iBooks. While a few people have gotten results using Prizmo on the iPhone 3GS, reportedly the camera on this isn't really good enough for regular use by visually impaired individuals. When Prizmo was first being intensely discussed on the viphone list, with a lot of suggestions by Sandy Tomkins of practical ways to improve results, Rose Morales was able to get a near-perfect OCR of a book page on her iPhone 3GS at the first try. That's very unusual, and it was enough to make some people, like Geoff Waaler, purchase the app. He was able to use it to get some results on the iPhone 3GS, but really the place where he's now using Prizmo is his iPhone 4S. I'd say that you'd really want an iPhone 4 or 4S to use Prizmo. The new iPad camera is supposed to be as good as the camera on the iPhone 4, so that might also be a possibility. Here's the App Store link: • Prizmo ($9.99) by Creaceed: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prizmo/id366791896?mt=8 HTH. By the way, there's also a Mac version of Prizmo which uses the camera on your computer. I don't recommend that application for visually impaired users, despite the success of their iOS app. Cheers, Esther On Mar 19, 2012, at 9:39 AM, Anne Robertson wrote: Hello Lew, I don't know how well it would work on an iPad, but I use it on my iPhone. It costs €7.99 so I should think that would be £5.99 or something like that. The developer is Creaceed. Cheers, Anne On 19 Mar 2012, at 20:19, Lewis Alexander wrote: sorry to ask. is this for the ipad or iphone? also will it work on the 3GS? is there a link for the developer and also is this free or paid? cheers lew -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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.
Re: Questions about Prismo
That sounds way too complicated for me. Is there an easier program? Also is there a bar code reader ap and what info does it tell you? Jenny and my goofy guide Brooks On Mar 19, 2012, at 2:07 PM, Anne Robertson a...@anarchie.org.uk wrote: Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hi Lew, The Light Detector app is $0.99, and works just fine for an iPhone 3GS, * Light Detector ($0.99) by Everyware Technologies: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/light-detector/id420929143?mt=8 Here's the link to their support page: http://www.everywaretechnologies.com/apps/lightdetector As I mentioned earlier in my reply to Paul, David Woodbridge did a podcast about using Light Detector to check whether lights are on, whether blinds need to be pulled, etc. You can download it from his podbean feed: feed://davidwoodbr.podbean.com/feed/ Look for Using Light Detector app with VoiceOver on the iPhone. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 19, 2012, at 10:38 AM, Lewis Alexander wrote: ah. sorry got my wires crossed on this lol. when this app was mentioned earlier regarding light sensing, I thought this was just a light scanner to tell a blind user what level of light is in a room or being given by a bulb or anything like that, oops lew On 19 Mar 2012, at 20:27, Esther wrote: Hi Lew, The iPad 2 camera is too low resolution to give good results with Prizmo, at least for visually impaired users. You can also tell this is the case by trying to run Prizmo on a screen captured image -- where there is no shake in taking a picture -- and comparing the results on an iPhone and an iPad. Now, the resolution used for screen capture doesn't have to be the same as what's used for the camera, but it's possible to tell that the same screens that I can OCR with the iPhone 4 start to mistake letters on the iPad 2 screen captures. For example, you can check this if you capture a screen of text from iBooks. While a few people have gotten results using Prizmo on the iPhone 3GS, reportedly the camera on this isn't really good enough for regular use by visually impaired individuals. When Prizmo was first being intensely discussed on the viphone list, with a lot of suggestions by Sandy Tomkins of practical ways to improve results, Rose Morales was able to get a near-perfect OCR of a book page on her iPhone 3GS at the first try. That's very unusual, and it was enough to make some people, like Geoff Waaler, purchase the app. He was able to use it to get some results on the iPhone 3GS, but really the place where he's now using Prizmo is his iPhone 4S. I'd say that you'd really want an iPhone 4 or 4S to use Prizmo. The new iPad camera is supposed to be as good as the camera on the iPhone 4, so that might also be a possibility. Here's the App Store link: • Prizmo ($9.99) by Creaceed: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prizmo/id366791896?mt=8 HTH. By the way, there's also a Mac version of Prizmo which uses the camera on your computer. I don't recommend that application for visually impaired users, despite the success of their iOS app. Cheers, Esther -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups MacVisionaries group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@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.
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hi Jenny, In practice the Prizmo program is not complicated to use. The actual sequence of gestures are: 1) Open the app and flick right to Text, which is the first listed source type, and double tap 2) On the next page, flick right to the Camera button and double tap 3) If you want to use the new iOS 5 feature of taking a picture by pressing the volume up button, you don't need to do any set up, and when you're on the Camera screen you only need to center the iPhone's camera on the page -- which means putting the top right corner in the center -- and lift the iPhone about seven inches from the page, listening for when you hear autofocused. If you don't turn on the speech control, you'll hear everything at normal volume. 4) When you've lifted the iPhone to a height around 7 inches above a standard letter sheet, press the volume up button on the side, taking care to hold the iPhone as steady as possible while you hear the shutter click. This is the stage at which using the speech control can improve results, because in most instances tapping buttons on the screen introduces a slight motion and blurring when the picture is taken. It's a bit easier to do this without motion shake using the volume control to take a picture under iOS 5. The other way to do this and minimize motion shake without using speech control by saying Take Picture is to put one finger on the Take Picture button just above the Home button on the Camera screen just before you lift the iPhone. Try to hold things steady when you've lifted the phone to seven inches, and gently tap another finger on the screen to activate this button with a split tap gesture. 5) Flick to the Use button or just touch it in the bottom right corner of the screen and double tap. This is also the last element on the screen, so you can alternatively use a four finger tap on the bottom of the screen to navigate to this button. 6) Flick to the Next button (top right corner) and double tap 7) Wait for the Processing message to finish, and for Edit screen to be announced. You can read the OCR results from this screen. If you want to edit to make corrections, double tap in the text area and make changes. Double tap the Done button at the top right corner, which will turn in to a Next button. Then double tap the Next button (top right corner). 8) At the bottom of the Text screen are option buttons to Copy or Mail among other things. Flick to the one you want and double tap. I usually don't bother to save the results within the Prizmo app, but you can do so by double tapping the Save button at the top right corner. Notice that most of the length in these instructions involve explanations of different options (in step 4) and what other buttons do. Prizmo actually gives full instructions at their web site, but they're visually oriented. My original description that Anne quoted is long, because it also explains control options like how to set up OCR for different languages. For English, all you have to do after taking the picture and double tapping Use is to keep double tapping the Next button in the top right corner until you want to mail or copy the results. Also, you don't have to use the Light Detector app. I just take it out and pan across the page to check the volume level before I use Prizmo. That's it. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 19, 2012, at 10:55 AM, Jenny Keller wrote: That sounds way too complicated for me. Is there an easier program? Also is there a bar code reader ap and what info does it tell you? Jenny and my goofy guide Brooks On Mar 19, 2012, at 2:07 PM, Anne Robertson a...@anarchie.org.uk wrote: Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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
Re: Questions about Prismo
Jenny it doesn't sound complicated if you persist with it. Christopher H On 19/03/2012 20:55, Jenny Keller wrote: That sounds way too complicated for me. Is there an easier program? Also is there a bar code reader ap and what info does it tell you? Jenny and my goofy guide Brooks On Mar 19, 2012, at 2:07 PM, Anne Robertsona...@anarchie.org.uk wrote: Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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 ge t 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
Re: Questions about Prismo
Thanks. Jenny and my goofy guide Brooks On Mar 19, 2012, at 5:05 PM, Esther mori...@mac.com wrote: Hi Jenny, In practice the Prizmo program is not complicated to use. The actual sequence of gestures are: 1) Open the app and flick right to Text, which is the first listed source type, and double tap 2) On the next page, flick right to the Camera button and double tap 3) If you want to use the new iOS 5 feature of taking a picture by pressing the volume up button, you don't need to do any set up, and when you're on the Camera screen you only need to center the iPhone's camera on the page -- which means putting the top right corner in the center -- and lift the iPhone about seven inches from the page, listening for when you hear autofocused. If you don't turn on the speech control, you'll hear everything at normal volume. 4) When you've lifted the iPhone to a height around 7 inches above a standard letter sheet, press the volume up button on the side, taking care to hold the iPhone as steady as possible while you hear the shutter click. This is the stage at which using the speech control can improve results, because in most instances tapping buttons on the screen introduces a slight motion and blurring when the picture is taken. It's a bit easier to do this without motion shake using the volume control to take a picture under iOS 5. The other way to do this and minimize motion shake without using speech control by saying Take Picture is to put one finger on the Take Picture button just above the Home button on the Camera screen just before you lift the iPhone. Try to hold things steady when you've lifted the phone to seven inches, and gently tap another finger on the screen to activate this button with a split tap gesture. 5) Flick to the Use button or just touch it in the bottom right corner of the screen and double tap. This is also the last element on the screen, so you can alternatively use a four finger tap on the bottom of the screen to navigate to this button. 6) Flick to the Next button (top right corner) and double tap 7) Wait for the Processing message to finish, and for Edit screen to be announced. You can read the OCR results from this screen. If you want to edit to make corrections, double tap in the text area and make changes. Double tap the Done button at the top right corner, which will turn in to a Next button. Then double tap the Next button (top right corner). 8) At the bottom of the Text screen are option buttons to Copy or Mail among other things. Flick to the one you want and double tap. I usually don't bother to save the results within the Prizmo app, but you can do so by double tapping the Save button at the top right corner. Notice that most of the length in these instructions involve explanations of different options (in step 4) and what other buttons do. Prizmo actually gives full instructions at their web site, but they're visually oriented. My original description that Anne quoted is long, because it also explains control options like how to set up OCR for different languages. For English, all you have to do after taking the picture and double tapping Use is to keep double tapping the Next button in the top right corner until you want to mail or copy the results. Also, you don't have to use the Light Detector app. I just take it out and pan across the page to check the volume level before I use Prizmo. That's it. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 19, 2012, at 10:55 AM, Jenny Keller wrote: That sounds way too complicated for me. Is there an easier program? Also is there a bar code reader ap and what info does it tell you? Jenny and my goofy guide Brooks On Mar 19, 2012, at 2:07 PM, Anne Robertson a...@anarchie.org.uk wrote: Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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
Re: Questions about Prismo
Hi Jenny. I found the Look Tell Recognizer to be the easiest bar code app for me. It doesn't seem to be as much of a pain as the other one I had which you had to b sighted or lucky to use. Regards, Gigi Eugenia Firth gigifi...@sbcglobal.net On Mar 19, 2012, at 3:55 PM, Jenny Keller wrote: That sounds way too complicated for me. Is there an easier program? Also is there a bar code reader ap and what info does it tell you? Jenny and my goofy guide Brooks On Mar 19, 2012, at 2:07 PM, Anne Robertson a...@anarchie.org.uk wrote: Hello Paul, The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. 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
