NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/handicap/8488

Internet Message Format | 1992-12-30 | 3.0 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!olivea!bunker!sheldev.shel.isc-br.com!wtm
From: [e-mail] (Tim Pennick)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Info wanted on OCR systems
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 30 Dec 92 15:25:40 GMT
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Reply-To: [e-mail] (Tim Pennick)
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Index Number: 26903

[Forwarded from the Blind-L mailing list]

With apologies to people who have seen this on other
lists/newsgroups.  I've not had much of a response so far.

I just had a demo of the new Arkenstone product "An Open Book".  I
was really very impressed with this product, and it handled lots of
things better than my aging Kurzweil.  However, I was horrified to
learn that there is no continuous scan and speak mode, i.e. you
can't have the scanner running while you are listening to the
output of the speech synth.  I found this vey difficult to believe,
as it seemed to almost completely torpedo all the other advantages
offered by the product.

To explain further in case my ramblings so far aren't very clear:
With the Kurzweil, I can decide to read a document, locate the
pages I want to read (by means of an Optacon), place the first
sheet on the scanner, press the button and wait for it to start
speaking.

Assuming the print quality is reasonable, I can continue to feed
pages into the scanner while the synth reads to me, and with good
print, I can read uninterrupted at about 300 words per min.

Using the Arkenstone product, it seeems that you either scan all
the pages you want to read before you start to listen to them
(using the batch modes) or use "quick-speech" to access the info as
quickly as possible.  If you do the latter, you have to wait until
you have finished listening to the page before you can start to
scan the next one.

As far as I can see, this means that a Kurzweil must always be
faster if you are aiming for immediate speech since you can be
listening to one page while you scan the next.

Please someone, tell me I'm wrong, or that there is another way of
using the system which will get round the problem?  I find this
really annoying, because as far as I can tell from a short demo,
the system is in most other cases just what I'm after, and at a
very reasonable price.  The user interface is excellent, the speech
is good, the system is compact, the portability of files produced
on the floppy drive of the machine is fantastic ... what more can I
say?

Tim Pennick
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|    Tim Pennick        BT Development & Procurement,                        |
|                       Software Technology Division, Maintenance Section,   |
|                       Room G44,  SSTF Building,  BT Laboratories,          |
|                       Martlesham Heath, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP5 7RE, UK.     |
| Tel: [phone]   Fax: [phone]   Email: [e-mail] |
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