I have never used Open Book so I would not say that I know, but I believe that the Pearl only works with Open Book.
In Kurzweil 13 they announce "New features in Kurzweil 1000 Version 13 include: . Camera support for HoverCam, in addition to ABiSee's Zoom-Ex and Eye-Pal." There is no mention of the Pearl Camera and I am pretty shore that they would have mentioned this alongside the others if it was supported. You will see from http://abletech.ca/products/blind/talking-ocr/scanning-software/ That they say the Pearl "requires" Open Book. So it looks like you have to get Open Book to drive the Camera from this info. In fact it seems to me that the Camera is only provided with Open Book. This logically precludes Mac usage I guess. However provided the Pearl and Open book create images, as it probably does from the scans you could use either Kurzweil or Abbey Fine reader to provide an alternative OCR which may be superior. I have heard people who are disgruntled by Open book OCR functionality. If you have Abbey finereader on the Mac this part of the OCR solution could be done on the Mac side. This is essentially how I use the Eyepal except I use Finereader on Windows. David Griffith -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith Sent: 16 March 2013 21:50 To: Windows Access; Share Your Enthusiasm! Subject: Re: K1000 and Freedom Scientific Pearl Hello David I don't suppose you know, or do you, whether the Pearl will work with K1000 or maybe anything on the Mac? Gordon is getting one and we hope to have it by this time next week. But of course, Freedom Scientific do not mention whether it can be used with other software companions. I also remember reading somewhere, but don't see it in the Pearl quick start guide, that the unit can handle an SD card for portable storage and use. Do you know if that is correcT? Lynne On 15 Mar 2013, at 21:44, David Griffith <[email protected]> wrote: The EyePal is one of the first generation digital camera scanning solutions which were established to give blind people independence with rapid scanning. It is also supported on the mac through the use of the X11 utility or the opens source version of X11 on Mountain Lion. Whilst the eyePal was revolutionary in its day it is probably a bit aged now and certainly over priced compared to other products. For me personally it was an important break through as essentially it provided a very rapid portable scanning solution. It is very light and I used it in libraries with a light weight netbook. The application is self voicing but NVDA was also bundled with the software to provide an alternative way of accessing the menus. The are competitors around now. The Pearl and Open book solution is an example. This was not available when I first got my EyePal. Like later products it has a tripod with a camera which takes pages of an open book. The British Library were very supported of its use as it is completely non invasive book scanning solution. They dislike flat bed scanning due to the possible wear and tear on books and binding s through the pressing on to the flat bed of the scanner. The downside to the eyePal was the software interface which was lazy and in some places unacceptably buggy for such an expensive product. The documentation was also downright amateurish as well as lazy with some parts copied completely from the Zoom Office Manual , a similar product with software to aid low vision users. The Eyepal has served me well over the years, particularly now that I can use either Fine Reader or Kurzweil for OCR conversion of images which decreases my reliance on the EyePal buggy software. I would definitely now however investigate other products despite its important historic role in providing me with access to books which I would not otherwise have realistically got, particularly with the co-operation of the British Library. David From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith Sent: 15 March 2013 19:57 To: Windows Access; Share Your Enthusiasm! Subject: Re: K1000 and Freedom Scientific Pearl Hello David I have seen references to the "EuePal" Can you give me a brief summary as to what this product is? 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