Re: Learning Game Menus On Xbox
I don't believe one is. Streaming the Xbox to your computer requires a lot of bandwidth, so that most likely won't work in all situations. Try menu memorization. That works for me.
The app works across your local network, bandwidth is never a factor. There is a slight lag, but for menu OCR this is not a factor. When OCR doesn't work the thing that's blocking it is UI design; e.g. small fiddly fonts, over the top of low contrast complex or animated backgrounds.
If that's hard to visualise, think of it in terms of a word being embossed into surface, and trying to recognise what the letters are by feeling it. That's pretty much identical what the OCR is trying to do, trying to figure out where the outlines are and what letters they seem most similar to.
Now picture you're trying to do the same, trying to read the words by feeling your way around the edges of the embossed letters, but with the letters being small and ornate and different shapes to what you expect them to be - that's the impact of small fiddly fonts.
Now picture trying to do it when the embossing is shallow, only extending a very short distance from the surface. Like the embossing you sometimes get on greetings cards. That's the impact of low contrast.
Now picture trying to do it when the surface the letters are embossed on is itself bumpy and textured. That's the impact of being over the top of a busy background, i.e. an image behind the text.
Now picture trying to do with when the surface is not only bumpy and textured but those bumps and textures are constantly moving and changing. That's the impact of having the text over animated or video background.
Now picture trying to do that when two or more of the above things are combined...
Hopefully that helps to explain why OCR has limits. The above things are problematic for other reasons too, for example if you have an attention related condition it can be hard to focus on the text when there's animation of video behind it grabbing your attention, if you have low vision it can be hard to see low contrast text, and if you're dyslexic you might find it difficult to read complex non-standard fonts, or have a hard time reading text that has its outlines messed with by imagery being behind it.
So UI design can often be problematic for accessibility in general, but those problems aren't going away any time soon unfortunately.
But at least some degree of text to speech for some areas of some games' UI is coming soon. Once that door has been opened I hope it will spread... Ideally lots of companies having to spend time on implementing the same thing over and over will create demand for standardised middleware solutions, which would in turn increase the amount of provision, especially if implemented at engine level.
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