Hooray! Where do I get in line to buy it? Thanks,
Erik Burggraaf Follow my series of articles about setting up a small business through the ontario disability support program at http://www.erik-burggraaf.com/blog Ebony Consulting toll-free: 1-888-255-5194 or on the web at http://www.erik-burggraaf.com On 2013-01-27, at 9:05 AM, Sandratomkins <sandratomk...@googlemail.com> wrote: > OK, for those of you interested in a more user friendly interface when using > the OCR Apps available to us, may I introduce the ScanBox! > > 1. What is it? ScanBox is, as you might guess, a box designed to enable > scanning. It is a box which collapses flat, to the size of a sheet of > foolscap/A4 size (the tuypical size of a printed letter) It is the work of > seconds to assemble it and it weighs a couple of ounces. It costs somewhere > in the region of 25 Euros/Dollars (a very loose conversion there!) It comes > equipped with a LED light, but you have to connect a battery to this. > Once assembled, the foot print is A4 sized and the height is about 16 inches. > I have only had a chance to play with a prototype which is made of cardboard, > but understand that the finished product is plastic. > > 2. What does ScanBox do for us? On the top of the box there is a hole, over > which you must position the camera of the phone. With the help of my partner, > I have placed four tactile markers corresponding with the corners of the > iPhone when in the exact position. The box is open on one side, so it is > simplicity itself to slide a sheet of text into the box. In this way, the > phone is perfectly placed for the shot, the paper is perfectly aligned and > the distance is perfect for prizmo to do its stuff! I mention Prizmo because > I have only tried SayText and Prizmo with this box and have to report that > Saytext will not work with it for reasons I could explain, but will leave for > now in the interest of brevity. Probably other OCR packages will work with > the ScanBox, but Prizmo has its advantages for us, so I will stick with it > for now. > > As you can imagine, 2 of the variables which make the use of the camera > difficult for us VIPs have been dealt with, I.E. the perfect positioning of > the phone in relation to the text, involving no skill at all, especially, > once these corner markers have been attached. So, totally hands-free I can > tell Prizmo to "take picture" and it is done! The only other variable which > causes difficulty for us is good lighting. Because the ScanBox comes with a > LED light set into the top, there should be no problem re ambient lighting, > shadows etc. However, with this prototype version, I have to admit that the > light is woefully inadequate and I have stuck, onto the underside of the lid > of the box, 2 LED lights of my own. I should say that a friend of mine in > Australia (the home of the ScanBox) has the final version and reports that > the lights that come with the box work well for her. So, fingers crossed on > that one! > > In the past, on this list, I have described my own experimentation using a > cardboard box with a hole cut into the top and have reported reasonable > results with same, but who wants to live with a big, ugly, box in their > lovely home environment? Plus, who wants to carry something like that in the > off chance that they might need to OCR a restaurant menu? So, ScanBox does > the same thing while being very portable, foldable and light! It costs more > than your cardboard box and when you first see it, you do think "Hmmm, seems > like a lot for a flat-pack box" but if it does the business well... > > I have found it to be excellent using prizmo on single sheets of text, but > below please find an example taken from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (a huge, > hard-back book, which is very difficult to flatten!) The page in question > contains 2 columns of text, no pictures, I think, and it does go a little > awry toward the very bottom, but I didn't hold the page flat, merely holding > the other side of the book virtically to allow the page I was scanning to lay > as flat as possible. The iPhone 4s was sitting happily by itself on the top > of the box comfortably between the four corner markers, my LED ;ogjts were on > and I only had to say "Take Picture!" > > So, here is is! Sorry if it is a bit long, but I wanted to demonstrate a > scan which would have taxed me, using my Prizmo skills and which I could not > have achieved without using this ScanBox because scanning from the > Encyclopaedia Britannica ahs always been my yardstick when practising with > the various OCR Apps. > > Finally, I must say that not everyone who has tried this box has been > immediately enchanted, but as I now have it set up, I can only say that > because I use it totally hands-free and I apply no skill of judgement at all, > it must be possible for all of us to work it to an acceptable degree of > success. > > Here's the scan, Enjoy, > Sandy. > > kitchen of a lonely farmhouse; as the doomed man's head is held in an oven, > and his hands (the only thing in the picture) convulsively twitch, the sound > of hissing gas dominates the scene. The introduction of sound also made it > possible to use silence with a dramatic effect that is more telling than > either words or music. > Like images, sounds can be used to represent subjective thoughts, indicating > not what the character is saying but what is in his mind. For example, in > Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929), the first English sound film, the words "knife, > knife, knife" are repeated in the thoughts of a frightened gift who thinks > that she has committed a murder. > In terms of montage, sound, dialogue, and music are used in combination not > only with one another but also with the visual image. They can overlap and > vary in intensity in a flexible and €omplex pattern. The finished sound track > may involve mixing together tracks of dialogue, background noises, and music > recorded at different times; the tracks must be matched to one another and to > the visual film. Though the audience may hear it simply as an accompaniment > to what they see, the sound may be the most expensive and difficult part of a > motion picture. > Music. The live music that accompanied silent films varied from a full > orchestra to a honky-tonk piano, according to the size of the cinema. Music > was effectively used on the film set to improve an actor's performance. > With sound, music became an integral part of the picture on the screen. Early > mood music was so expressive that often it now seems overblown. Conscientious > filmmakcrs soon learned the virtue of restraint, using music less frequently > but with more effect. Since the 1960s, electronic music, as in Close > Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), has come to be commonly used. > Music often has an important function in emotional climaxes of motion > pictures. It can be used effectively to relieve or sublimate intolerable > intensity--of grief, pain, or ecstasy. The Gospel According to St. Matthew > (1964) by the Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini reveals how expressive > periods of silence can be, and how great music can ennoble scenes like those > of Christ's persecution and agony on the cross. Music may also be used > symbolically. > In Lton Morin, pr~tre (Leon Morin, Priest, 1961), for example, a sequence of > harsh chords represents the German occupation forces, and a dancing bugle > motif represents the Italian troops. Organ music is used in scenes showing > the heroine with the priest in church, and piano music when they are in his > flat. Hurdy-gurdy music represents two gossiping spinsters, and in a > climactic scene louder and louder electronic music represents the heroine's > obsessive sexual feeling for the priest, until she reaches out to take his > hand. > Sound engineering. It is the function of the sound engineer to select and > modify sound as the cameraman selects visual images. Since the noise of > crockery, cutlery, or paper or the chirping of crickets would be intolerable > transferred in full volume to the screen, the sound engineer must tone them > down. Treble and bass must be balanced. In other cases, in order to get the > effect needed, sound has to be built up and orchestrated as if it were music. > Again, sound need not correspond exactly with the visual images. Artistic use > can be made of asynchronism; that is, contrasting the sound to the visual > image. Motionpicture sound is capable of remarkable delicacy, richness, and > variety. Sound libraries put most conceivable sounds readily at the disposal > of filmmakers. Instruments and voices can be modified, overlapped, echoed, or > given a resonance and volume that transform them. Dialogue can be crystal > clear, bringing the audience far closer to an actor than in the theatre, or > it may deliberately reproduce the careless enunciation of everyday speech. > The script. Although conventions vary from one coun. > try to another, the script usually develops over a number of distinct stages, > from a synopsis of the original idea, through a "treatment" that contains an > outline and considerably more detail, to a shooting script. Although the > terms are used ambiguously, script, or screenplay, usually refers to the > dialogue and the annotations necessary to understand the action; a script > reads much like other printed forms of more OIt~ll z,t~ .... . > extensive technical details regarding the setnng, me camera work, and other > factors. Moreover, a shooting script may have the scenes arranged in the > order in which they will be shot, a radically different arrangement from that > of the film itself since, for economy, ,all of the scenes involving the same > actors and sets are ordinarily shot at the same time. Some scripts are > subsequently modified into novels and distributed in book form, such as the > U.S. best-seller Love Story (1970) by Erich Segal, and, in the instance of > Dylan Thomas' The Doctor and the Devils (1953), a script became a literary > work without ever having been made into a motion picture. Generally, more > elaborate productions require more elaborate shooting scripts, while more > personal films may be made without any form of written script. The script's > importance can vary greatly, however, depending on the director. Griflith and > other early directors, for example, often worked virtually without a script, > while directors such as Hitchcock planned the script thoroughly and designed > pictorial outlines, or storyboards, depicting specific scenes or shots before > shooting any film. > Adaptation from other art forms must take into account Fi differences of > complexity and scale in film. A film often must omit characters and incidents > in the novel from of which it is adapted, for example, and the pace usually w > must be accelerated. Ordinarily, only a fraction of a novel's dialogue can be > included. In an adaptation of a play, the curtailment is less severe, but > much dialogue still must be cut or expressed visually. > Well over half of all fiction films made since 1920 have been adapted from > plays or novels, and it is understandable that certain formulas have been > tacitly accepted to facilitate the remaking of literature into moving > pictures. > Adaptation has been thought of as an aesthetically inferior exercise, because > most such films merely illustrate the classics or reshape a literary text > until it conforms to stanchard cinematic practice. The particular qualities > that made the original interesting are often lost in such a process. > Certain films and filmmakers, however, have achieved an aesthetic premium by > accepting the literariness of the original and then confronting this with the > technology and methods of the cinema. Since the 1970s numerous directors have > explored literature in an almost documentary manner. The artifice of the > French director Eric Rohmer's Die Marquise yon O. (1976), for example, aptly > expresses the literary sensibility of Heinrich yon Kleist's romantic, ironic > work. On the other hand, less adventurous, big. > budget adaptations continue to reshape the literary works they are based on > into conventional "Hollywood" movies, as some critics complained about Sidney > Pollack's Out of Africa (1985). The delicate and changing sensibility of the > main character, evident in the prose of the original, was not reflected in > the film's traditional, albeit grand, presentation. > Although many eminent literary authors, including F. > Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner, have worked on film scripts, the > ability to write a good original script, especially under strict studio > conditions, frequently belongs to lesser-known scenarists with a strong > visual sense. Some writers, particularly in France, have tried to narrow the > gap between the written and cinematic modes of expression. > Marguerite Duras and Aiain Robbe-Grillet became leaders of a new kind of > author who is able and willing to "write" directly on film. Both have > directed their own films, which they see as equivalent to their novels and > plays. > M°tion'l~icture acting, Of all the artists involved in films, the actors and > actresses are closest to the audience. > The public more often goes to see a motion picture for its stars than for any > Other single reason. The divergent techniques of stage and film " > tl~ed there are man,. ! .... > acting are well understood, cauing prayers who excel in both. Bat greatest > film stars have a talent Peculiar to the screen alone. This talent often > seems to be related not to how well they act, but to the so > Film actim, r,,-,,;--- rt of Person they appear to be. > the advice ,~,~..~,,-es restraint "Don't at1 -tl~ink" was I]eingf ~-rue > emin~,,. ,-- " . .............. one,At ~,,, merman director F.W. Murnau. > dramatic literature, while "shooting script" or "scenario" .While stage > actors may be praised for a performance that ~ahmghllYerr°~ugh', film stars > usualN m,~ be • . ~-lose-u,.- a ......... > t appear to • "~ ~:centuate the more intimate rel > > Sent from my iPhone > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en.
