I have written these instructions in the past, so suspect they are available in the archives.
Open Prizmo and prepare to take a photo of the page. Before taking the picture, ensure that the room is well-lit, but direct sunlight is not shining on the page. In other words, too little light shades the page such that the print cannot be detected. Too much light causes the white of the page to enhance and the print to disappear. Also, if your body, or the phone or arm is between the light source and the page, the shadow of your body or the phone can cause a dark area on the page that can make the print in that area disappear. Next, the phone must be as flat to the plain of the page as possible. If the phone is tilted in any way, the print characters are changed visually. The closer letters become short and thick whilst the more distant characters become small and thin. In other words, OCR may not be able to recognise the text, or parts of the text. The phone must be as straightly aligned to the edges of the paper as possible. The more skew (rotation) added to the image, the lower the ability of OCR to recognise the text. Though Prizmo is the most forgiving OCR app in this regard, it still requires less than about 5 degrees of skew, and the best recognition occurs when skew is 0. When the picture is taken, the camera / phone must be completely still. Any movement of the camera causes the text to blur. This is known as jidder. Note: when sighted people take pictures of text for OCR, they automatically compensate for all of the above. Even then, however, a light box works better. I personally use, and very highly recommend, the StandScan Pro from www.standscan.com to correct for all of the above issues and get almost perfect OCR conversions every time. When not using the StandScan Pro: Lay the phone flat on the paper with the camera in the middle of the page. Note: the camera is in the upper right corner of the back of the iPhone when the iPhone display is facing you and the home button is at the bottom of the display. Make sure the four sides of the phone are aligned with the four edges of the paper. There are four ways to take the image: double-tap on the take picture button, split-tap on the take picture button, press the volume up button, or press the volume up button on the headset if the headset is plugged in. It is very strongly advisable that the method which creates the least amount of jidder is used. Double-tap the take picture button, therefore, should never be done. This method will always create movement, no matter how lightly one brushes the screen. Even with the delay Prizmo has now added to help us blind folk, this method is still the least accurate for image capture / OCR. Pressing the volume up button, though seemingly should be the best method, gives mixed results. This is because force must be applied on the side of the phone which alters the phone's position in relation to the page. Being blind, we cannot correct for this when it happens. I do not use the headset, so cannot comment on its accuracy or how to stabilise the phone whilst using the headset volume-up button. Therefore, the best method for the most consistent results is using the split-tap. This is because, split-tap actually activates when the tapping finger is released from the display. The split-tap command actually holds until the second finger is removed, no matter how long it takes (as long as neither finger moves enough to trigger a movement-based command such as the rotor. Without moving the phone on the page, lift the phone enough to place the ring fingers of both hands under the phone along the long edges. Do not block the camera lens with the right hand's finger. It is necessary that both hands are used because, it is not possible to feel drifting while lifting the phone with just one hand. With both hands, one still drifts a little, but it is easier to detect it. Press the middle fingers of both hands against the sides of the phone. These fingers pressing on both sides stabilises the phone to the hands. Press the thumbs to the bottom of the phone with less pressure than the middle fingers. When the phone is secure on the platform created by the fingers, Locate the take picture button with one of your index fingers. The take picture button is above the home button. When the fingertip locates the take picture button, it remains still on the button. Now, the other index finger lightly touches the active display near the edge. This sets VO up for the split-tap command. Slowly start lifting the phone as straight up from the page as possible. Listen for VO to say, auto focus. Most times, when this is said, the entire page is in focus. Occasionally, there is a block of text, or an image, in the middle of the page that the camera has focused on. If this is the case, keep lifting slowly until the second time VO says, auto focus. After one has taken many OCR images, one develops a feel for the approximate proper distance. In the beginning, take the picture at the first auto focus point to start getting that feel. If one goes up too high, start over on the page. By the time you start descending again, you will have drifted too far from the middle of the page for a complete page image. When auto focus is announced, stop movement. wait a couple seconds to ensure you are no longer moving the phone. Slowly lift the second finger from the touchscreen to activate the take picture button, or if at the edge of the touchscreen, merely slide the finger away from the active area of the screen (this is what I do as it introduces the least amount of movement). Now, Prizmo will monitor the image until it detects no movement. It will then take the picture. Also, Prizmo now has tones to help guide the image. Use very slow movements when attempting to utilise these guidances. Note: because of the way we blind people tend to use sweeping movements, move like you are almost not moving; just like the way one explores the touchscreen display. When I start a free-scanning session, it usually takes me two or three pictures before I get a good image. After I have been scanning for a little while, I often get good images with my first picture per page. After the image is captured, follow the prompts for recognition. David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA Email: dchitten...@gmail.com Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 Sent from my iPhone > On 27 Oct 2013, at 4:08, "rubyalphonse" <rubyalpho...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hello All, I need some one’s help regarding the App Prizmo. How does it work, > How to scan and get it read? I was taking picture thinking it will read, but > it says the text is not detected. I will still phygit with it, till I learn, > but I need help please. I will be much obliged to you. Thanks in advance Ruby > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > > Post a new message to VIPhone by emailing viphone@googlegroups.com. > > Search and view the VIPhone archives by visiting > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. > > Reach the VIPhone owner and moderators by emailing > viphone+ow...@googlegroups.com. > > Unsubscribe and leave VIPhone by emailing > viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > More VIPhone group options can be found by visiting > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. Post a new message to VIPhone by emailing viphone@googlegroups.com. Search and view the VIPhone archives by visiting http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. Reach the VIPhone owner and moderators by emailing viphone+ow...@googlegroups.com. Unsubscribe and leave VIPhone by emailing viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. More VIPhone group options can be found by visiting http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
