Hello Craig,
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 bottom left corner of the
screen.
1) From the main Prizmo screen, double tap "Text"
2) On the Photo screen, flick right to the "Camera" button that is the first of
the 3 "Get text from picture" source options, near the bottom of the screen,
and double tap
3) On the iPhone 4 Camera screen (no heading), there are three buttons at the
top: one for the "Flash" at the top left and one for "Camera Chooser" at the
top right. In between is an unlabeled "Button" that toggles on and off the
speech control function when the switch for that option is turned on under the
"General Settings" submenu of the "Settings" menu. If the switch for the speech
control option is not turned on in "Settings", this unlabeled button will not
appear on the screen. If, when you enter the Camera screen, your phone does
not vibrate, and VoiceOver's volume through the speaker does not immediately
drop, then the ability to use speech control to take a picture by saying "Take
Picture" on this screen has not been toggled on, and you will have to double
tap that unlabeled button to the left of the "Camera Chooser" button to
activate this function. Once you toggle on the speech control function, your
iPhone should vibrate, and the volume of VoiceOver through the speaker should
immediately drop. I believe that the first time you access the Camera screen,
speech control is toggled off (i.e., you can do a two finger flick down to
"Read All" the controls on the screen and hear everything announced through the
speaker). If you double tap the unlabeled button at the top of the screen to
turn on voice control of the camera shutter, then whenever you enter the Camera
screen your speaker volume will automatically be lowered, requiring use of
headphones. Presumably this is to get a good trigger when you say, "Take
Picture". Your speaker volume will remain lowered until you leave the Camera
screen (either by double tapping the "Use" button in the bottom right corner
after taking a photo, or by double tapping the "Cancel" button in the bottom
left corner to leave the screen without taking a picture), or until you
toggle the speech control feature off by double tapping the unlabeled button at
the top of the screen again. (Note, if you become very confident and
proficient in the layout of the camera screen, so you can double tap the "Use"
button in the bottom left corner without a VoiceOver prompt, you can run this
without headphones. Alternatively, if you're at home in a quiet setting you
may still be able to hear VoiceOver through the lowered speaker volume and also
work without headphones. Also, if you're fast at getting the iPhone to the
correct height and level before you hear the buzz, and then say "Take Picture",
you can work without headphones. But in general, be prepared to use headphones
when you use voice control for the camera shutter.)
4) Revisiting step 3. Assuming you set your speech control on, and exited the
Camera screen (e.g. by double tapping the "Cancel" button in the bottom left
corner), you can start the process again, with your headphones connected.
After double tapping the "Text" button (Step 1) and before double tapping the
"Camera" button (Step 2), place your iPhone on the page you want to OCR using
the edges of the paper to align the sides of the device. Center the iPhone so
that the camera lens (top right corner as you normally hold the device) is
approximately in the center of the page. (If you use a case, make sure that
the back of the case does not block the camera lens). Sandy has mentioned
suggestions like lightly folding the page in half length-wise and width-wise to
guide positioning and aligning the iPhone, in the case of practicing with a
sheet of letter paper. Make sure that you flatten the paper because failing to
keep either the page or the iPhone flat when you take the picture will cause
some of the letters to show up as tildes; this is typical if you scan a book
page and haven't flattened the section near the spine enough.
5) Double tap or split tap the "Camera" button, then, using two hands to make
sure you keep the iPhone level, raise it steadily up from the page to a height
of about 7 to 9 inches. (Nine inches is roughly twice the length of the
iPhone.) You'll feel the iPhone vibrate, and then VoiceOver will announce
"auto-focused". At this point you can say "Take Picture" and hear the shutter
close. (You'll probably start by lifting the iPhone too slowly to reach 7-9
inches before you feel the vibration and hear "auto focused". Say "Take
Picture" anyway -- your image is more likely to be in focus. The actual
distance you lift depends on the size of the page. Small billings only require
about 6 or 7 inches. I practice lifting and then check the distance I've
lifted an iPhone against the handspan of one hand, which for me is 7 inches,
but I have small hands.
6) Double tap the "Use" button in the bottom right corner of the screen.
This is the last element on the screen, so you can also just use a four finger
tap on the bottom of the screen and then double tap. (I preferred the four
finger swipe down, but this is the current gesture for moving tot he end of the
screen.)
7) On the next screen flick right the "Next" button in the top right corner and
double tap. You'll move to a screen labeled "Processing"
8) The results of the OCR will show up in an "Edit" screen which will let you
review and edit your results.
9) Double tap the "Next" button in the top right corner when done. You can
Save your results, or copy them, mail or upload them. Options such as copy or
email are listed as buttons along the bottom of the screen. Do a three finger
flick left to hear the second page of options, which include MobileMe, DropBox,
etc.
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