Hi Phil, Thanks for the detailed report. Silly me, I'm disappointed...I was hoping for something better. Shari ----- Original Message ----- From: <philwh@xxxxxxxx> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005 4:31 PM Subject: p2rd > 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.