On a lighter note, the software knows what Shredded Wheat is (shame it did not know the size of box etc though) On 10 Jul 2010, at 18:53, Bryan Smart wrote:
> Scott, my opinion is based on a product, not my opinion of a person. If it > takes $20,000 to plan, develop, test, document, market, and sell a program, I > charge $30 for it, and sell 700 copies, I've recovered my costs. Those 700 > people have already bought the program, so won't be buying it again. If it > will cost me $5,000 to upgrade or modify the app, but I'll basically be > giving those upgrades away for free, then I'm now $5,000 in the hole. I don't > go in to business to lose money. > > So, saying that there is no incentive to improve a program after everyone has > already bought it means that there is no financial incentive to upgrade a > program, and that is a matter of fact. You can argue that all day based on > emotional feelings about the matter, but no business will lose large sums of > money to please customers that have already bought the product. If they're an > individual, their family will complain loudly about the hardship. If they're > a private corporation, the bank will have words with them. If they're a > public corporation, their stock holders will vote them off the board of > directors. It doesn't matter what they say. That's how it is. > > Anyway, I'll add my vote for laser scanners support on the phone, not the web > site. If I wanted to use the web site, there is UPCDatabase, and many others. > I suppose that they're doing as best as can be accomplished with a camera, > but a camera is just not designed to work the way with bar codes that blind > people need to work. Please give us the option of a laser scanner. Some of us > aren't cheap. We just want the software to work well. > > Bryan > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Scott Howell > Sent: Friday, July 09, 2010 5:45 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: A warning about Digit-Eyes > > Nancy, > > I neglected to comment on this statement, but I agree and that statement was > rather insulting. I have to say that as much participation as you and others > have demonstrated on these e-mail lists, shows a level of commitment. > I see lots of potential in this application and although I do not have one of > those bluetooth laser barcode readers, I have thought about it. Like I said, > for me it would just speed up the process, but then I suffer from lack of > patients. :) Although now that I have gotten better with scanning barcodes > with the camera, I have shorten the time it takes. However, I see the > bluetooth scanner as a way to potentially make it easier for vendor operators > to take inventory, possibly blind people to work in retail doing a number of > different tasks, and so forth. I see the scanner as a natural extension to > DigitEyes. Of course I sent you that article that I still see possibilities > with. I'm so full of ideas, but then some say I'm just full of it. :) > > On Jul 9, 2010, at 12:25 AM, Nancy Miracle wrote: > > > Actually, I'd disagree with that last statement. We have a lot of > incentive to improve it because we want our customers to be happy and if you > are not happy, we are not happy either. > > Nancy Miracle > Digital Miracles, L.L.C. > > > > > On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 10:10 PM, Bryan Smart > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Yes; I'd be happy if they allowed us to use a Bluetooth laser > scanner. Even though a separate device would be required for the higher > quality scans, there are small scanners available. Beyond that, the important > fact is that the CPU portion (the iPhone), is very mobile. We can, today, use > a computer with a scanner to identify objects. Carrying a computer around the > house isn't handy. Carrying an iPhone to do the processing, though, isn't > that difficult. So, for me, there would still be value. > > I suggest that they retain the functionality with the built-in > camera, but allow Bluetooth scanning for those that can purchase a scanner. > > I'm not sure that I'm going to pursue a refund, but I'd > encourage others to withhold their money until the scanning quality has been > addressed. If you just buy the program as-is, they have little incentive to > improve it. > > Bryan > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Scott Howell > Sent: Thursday, July 08, 2010 8:31 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: A warning about Digit-Eyes > > > Bryan, > > I have used this application successfully with several types of > packages. I have found cans to be particularly tricky. I can tell you that my > greatest success seem to be starting out with my 3GS against the item, and > once I started the scan, slowly back the phone away from the item. Again, > this worked for me on several items. I have not run all over the house > grabbing everything with a barcode, so I can't say that I have encountered > every possible packaging type and this refers to shiny packaging, different > color combinations, etc. I don't even know for sure if these are factors. I > agree it would be nice if an external laser barcode reader could be used > because this would seriously speed up the process of scanning items in a > store etc. I put that suggestion out there and not sure if it will be > considered or not. I realize carrying such a device does defeat some of the > purpose perhaps, but it does allow for additional opportunities, such as > someone who maintains inventory etc. Perhaps you have and if not, share your > experiences and suggestion. > On Jul 8, 2010, at 6:03 PM, Bryan Smart wrote: > > > I'm writing to share my experiences with Digit-Eyes. > > > > I tried it on my iPhone 4, with several bar codes, and it > didn't recognize even one of them. I don't mean that the code was located, > but not recognized. I mean that the code was not even detected as being in > the image. I'd tap the scan button, and the constant clicking would begin to > let me know that scanning was in progress. I was scanning in a brightly lit > room, and the screen curtain was not on. Rotating the containers in front of > the iPhone camera, with it held about a foot away from them, produced no > results. I had a sighted friend deliberately place the bar code in view, > something that I would have not been able to do on my own, and it wasn't > recognized, either. We just kept trying different angles, and rotating, but > all we got was more clicking from the Digit-Eyes scanner. > > > > I had some experience with creating a system like this > several years ago. At that time, CCD cameras were not as accurate. Even so, > for best results, we determined that a 3D laser scanner would be required in > order for bar codes to be detected in the way that a blind person is likely > to present them to the scanner: at angles, in shadow, etc. This is the > technique used by other commercial systems like the ID Mate. I was lead to > understand that this wasn't a concern with Digit-Eyes, due to the higher > quality camera in the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. However, based on my results, > I'd say that this isn't so. > > > > Perhaps Digit-Eyes works better with dedicated labels, but, > if I were > > to make dedicated labels, I'd just create Braille labels. I > realize > > that everyone doesn't read Braille, and so audio labels still > might be > > of use to some people. However, the advertised function of > being able > > to read bar codes seems to not work, or else, it might work, > but > > requires a level of alignment precision that I've not been > able to > > achieve. I'm usually quite capable when it comes to reasoning > through > > these types of situations, so my conclusion is that I've > either > > overlooked something profound, or else the level of alignment > that is > > required for a good scan is grater than most blind people will > > independently obtain without assistance. If you need > assistance, you > > might as well ask the sighted person what is on the label. > *shrug* > > > > I'd like to hear the experiences of others. However, I can't > personally suggest that anyone spend the $30 that is charged for this app if > they expect to use it as a bar code scanner. > > > > Bryan > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the > Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. > > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > <mailto:macvisionaries%[email protected]> . > > 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 > [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > <mailto:macvisionaries%[email protected]> . > 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 > [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > <mailto:macvisionaries%[email protected]> . > 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 [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > 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 [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > 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 [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > 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. 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