Hello Paul, I use the light detector app from Everyware Technologies (the developers of TypeInBraille) to check lighting conditions before using Prizmo: * Light Detector ($0.99) by Everyware Technologies: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/light-detector/id420929143?mt=8
As Anne said, the app plays a tone which rises with increasing light level in the direction you point your iPhone camera. There's a Vision Australia podcast by David Woodbridge about using Light Detector to check whether lights are on, whether blinds need to be pulled, etc. If you haven't subscribed to David's "Apple and other Accessible Technology" podcast, you can download it from either his podbean web site or feed: http://davidwoodbr.podbean.com/ feed://davidwoodbr.podbean.com/feed/ Look for "Using Light Detector app with VoiceOver on the iPhone". Other list members use this app to check for which lights are on for washers or driers, or to monitor the modem cable box lights. You can even use this app to get a rough idea of how high above the page you need to hold your iPhone for using OCR apps like Prizmo or TextGrabber. If you want to try this, place the paper on a flat surface, launch the Light Detector app, and place your iPhone so that the camera lens (upper right corner) is approximately centered in the page you want to scan, and the sides of your iPhone are aligned parallel to the edges of the paper. Then lift your iPhone directly up, so that it is parallel to the table. You should hear the tone get louder as you lift, reaching a maximum between about seven to nine inches above a standard letter or A4 page -- roughly twice the long dimension of the iPhone. This is only very approximate, by the way, and while you'll probably want to use two hands to lift your iPhone for the OCR pictures, you can do this experiment with the Light Detector app with one hand. You should also be able to move the iPhone towards you or away from you, or in circles at the height where the tone is loudest when you lift directly centered on the page, and hear the difference in sound. And if I can't hear an audible difference in the sound level when I hold my iPhone above the page I want to OCR, and when I move the iPhone from left to right using the Light Detector app, while holding it at about height I'd use to take a picture (about twice the height of the iPhone above the page -- doesn't have to be at all precise), then I know that either there's not enough light for taking a good picture, or else the light source might be blocked by something -- e.g., if I'm standing between the window and the page. I don't go through all this every time I use the Light Detector, but it may help a first-time user to gain confidence in estimating how high the iPhone should be held. It also works to help you figure out how to adjust the height you use for a smaller or larger piece of paper. A lot of this is about getting close enough to the optimal settings to start getting usable results. Once you're in the ballpark, you can experiment with how you use the Prizmo app to fine tune your efforts. The instructions Anne posted were from last year -- pre-iOS 5. Those people who don't want to use headsets when using Prizmo with voice activation can disable this and follow David Chittenden's instructions about either manually placing his finger on the camera button and trying to take the picture with a split tap with minimum shake, or using the new iOS 5 feature of pressing the volume button on the side to take a picture. You should also be able to press the volume adjust button on the iPhone headset to take a picture under iOS 5. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 19, 2012, at 9:07 AM, Anne Robertson wrote: > Hello Paul, > > The Light Detector app is just called Light Detector and you just launch it > and it plays a tone which rises with the light level. > > > 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. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
