Thanks to Esther for putting together the original version of this. I've
modified it slightly in light of changes to the app.
Cheers,
Anne
Prizmo guide
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 or press the volume
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". 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 and 4S, 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 and 4S 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 the "Start voice enabled capture" 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
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 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 "Start voice
enabled capture" 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 "Start voice
enabled capture" 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.
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.
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 "VIPhone" Google
Group.
To search the VIPhone public archive, visit
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/.
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/viphone?hl=en.
