Re: p2rd
- From: "Don Bishop" <w6smb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 15:19:02 -0800
Phil,
Thanks for your very good description of this machine. All in all, I think
I'll stick with my Optacon and put up with possible difficulties in obtaining
any repairs.
Also, I will stick with my Kurzweil k1000 when I do need scanning.
The machine sounds like a major reinvention of the wheel to me, but maybe I'm
just not progressive enough to appreciate modern technology.
I've heard of this thing, but it really helps to have a description from
someone who's actually seen it demonstrated.
Don
On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 17:31:35 -0500, philwh@xxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi.
I was able to catch up with Oleg Tretikaoff at the ATIA conference
in Orlando fl on Friday.
I got about an hour demo from oleg with the p2rd.
first, I will attempt to give a discription of the hardware.
the computer was a small laptop or notebook.
it had a full laptop type of keyboard, with a mouse pad
in front of hte keys.
it had 2 usb ports, and a 30 gb hard drive, and sound.
oleg plugged in an external speaker for the demo.
the camera was about 6 inches long, and
a few inches wide.
you can get the exact specs from the catechnologies.net web site.
the camera can be either attached to a book holder,
mounted on four removeable legs, or attached
to a tripod.
the book holder comes in 2 models.
the one oleg had was the single page model, costing about
$600.
the 2 page model costs about twice as much, $1200.
now, i will attempt to describe the book holder
and how it works.
the book holder is about 8 inches wide, and about
11 inches tall. it is triangular in shape.
it comes to a fairly thin point on top, or rahter
a rather sharp edge on top, slopping down
on either side to a base.
you place the book over hte top,
with the binding on the top edge,
witht he 2 sides of the book handing down on either side
or the book holder.
the holder is supposed to handle a book 8 and one half by
11 inches.
the camera is somehow attached to the front side or face of the book holder
near the base, int he middle.
the lens of the camera faces the surface of the book holder.
at first i couldn't figure how the image fromt he book
got to the camera, but oleg explained in some detail
how it works.
the front face of the book holder is transparent.
the image of the page gets bounced down to a mirror ont he bottom of the
book holder. then it gets bounced to the back surface or face,
and then into the lens of the camera.
the 2 mirrors are at right angles to one another.
in the 2 page model, there is an additional mirror
to get the image of the back page to the camera.
this process is not automatic, the user has
to move a lever to put the third mirror in position.
all commands to the software are given using a menu system
with all choices being done wthe number row of hte computer.
when the software starts up, it gives some
dyonastic messages, and then
gives the first menu choice. you must press 1
if you want to use a camera, or 0 if not.
all commands are terminated with the enter key.
after choosing the camera, the software gives some more
messages concerning hte detection of the camera.
now, the user must make a number of choices to set
up the camera. I forget all the choices,
but there must have been 6 or 7.
one setting is the zoom. another is
the choice between white on black or black on white.
still another was the whiteness of the page.
I don't remember all of them as I say,
but it seemed very unuser friendly.
next, the user must supply a name for the file
where the image of the page will be stored.
each page is stored in a separate file,
which the user must name.
next, the user presses a key to actually take a snap shot
of the page which only takes a few seconds.
you can hear the camera take the picture.
after this, the user waits for a while,
probably 30 seconds for the software to
acknoledge that it got the image.
the image is then manulipated by olegs software,
and then passed to the ocr software.
after recognization, the machine starts to read the text.
at this point, the user has a number of commands
to control reading.
pressing 1, starts and stops reading.
it does not sop reading immediately, it took
perhaps 4 seconds for the device to shut up.
pressing 1 again, starts reading again.
pressing 5, puts the device into read by word mode.
pressing 1, moves forward one word
and speaks it.
pressing 3, spells the word. pressing 4, moves back
one word and reads it.
pressing 5, puts you into a mode
where you can type a number which skips that
many words.
i didn't see how to skip backwards a number of words.
pressing 0, get out of word mode.
I you are now back in
a mode where you can move back or forward by
sentence.
I forget which number to press, perhaps 4,
then you can type a number to which will skip
that many sentences.
when scanning a book, each page is stored separately,
and at present there is no way to concatinate the pages
to read the whole book at one time.
now, if you need to read a single paper,
you detach the camera fromt he book holder, and screw the legs into the camera.
you can change the length of the legs, and oleg is working a
modification to change the angle of the legs.
I wasn't able to test this mode, he said he only
had on mounting ring with him.
i am not sure what that exactly meant.
the p2rd can also be used to recognize colors.
if you want to read a computer monitor, you would mount he
camera on a tripod.oleg said that it would be possible to
developt a holder for the lack of a better name
so the p2rd could read a round object, by using a series of mirrors
that would surround the round object which would
reflect the entire image to the camera.
as for the display, he is still working on one.
he said he is now into phase 2 of the development.
oleg did say something very interesting concerning the p2rd.
he said that it would be possible to use the p2rd to read
something at a distance, such as writing on a blackboard
or wall. the problem is to point the camera in the right direction
and to align it.
he is working on a solution for this problem.
all in all, i think the p2rd has
some potential, but the user interface needs a lot of work.
and as I pointed out to oleg, it still
doesn't come close to replacing the optacon. he agreed with this.
he did say however, that there was another company
that tried to come up with an optacon like device here
in the u.s. in the past few years, but failed completely.
he would not give me the name though.
oleg is trying to get the manufacturer of the camera
to give him some info so he can load the
software into the camera directly and eliminate the computer.
the computer does run windows xp by the way,
and could be used for general purpose work.
i hope this gives some sense of hte p2rd.
phil
To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
quotes) in the message subject.
Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes)
in the message subject.
To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
quotes) in the message subject.
Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes)
in the message subject.
Other related posts:
