Image Capture and OCR Apps for the iPhone

This is part of a series of blogs our Director, Alan Knue, has composed to help people increase their reading and writing efficiency

In this day and age when many current journals, magazines, newspapers, and books are available in electronic formats, the need for scanning and applying optical character recognition (OCR) to print material is becoming less and less. However, many older texts and references in libraries are still only available in printed form. Scanning pages from bound books is always problematic. It is difficult to get pages completely flat and when scanned and the text nearest to the binding is usually distorted. 

I hate having to bring my laptop and scanner with me to the library to scan pages from books, so I decided to test three popular and highly recommended image capture and/or OCR apps for the iPhone. These apps are generally designed to get a quick electronic version of printed materials, including hand written notes, but I thought they might be useful for scanning pages from books. The programs varied in intuitive design but all were generally easy to use after a short time.

General Observations

Flat pages worked well using all of the apps, but since I was interested in how these programs handled bound pages, I chose a page from a thick bound book printed in a serif font (similar to Times) and containing a variety of text styles including italicized text. As a comparison, I also scanned the same page using a flatbed scanner and used ClaroRead for its OCR capabilities to convert the page to an electronic document. The document produced using this method had nearly 99% accuracy. All of these apps were affected by lighting and caused some gradation of shadow across a page due to the lay of the open book. Sometimes the flash on the iPhone 4 helped and other times it created a tunnel effect with the text in the center being quite bright and crisp and the surrounding text gradually less distinct. The best results were accomplished when I could get a light in front of me to shine right on the page. But even in the best case scenario, the resulting jpg images, PDFs, and OCR-captured documents generated by these apps varied greatly.

App Review

Genius Scan (available in a free version and a $2.99 ad-free version with the option to upload files to Dropbox, EverNote, and GoogleDocs.). This app is only for scanning documents (no OCR) and was easy to use. Since it does not have an OCR, you need to have one available should you want to convert the image to electronic text. I used the program to scan a page from a book and email myself a jpeg and PDF version of the page. I then used ClaroRead on the 2 files to see how well it could recognize the text. I was never able to get a good enough image scan of a bound page for accurate OCR using this app and text recognition was always quite poor (at times nearly 0%).

Perfect OCR ($3.99). The app is easy and intuitive and there is good functionality for eliminating uneven lighting and shadows, improving the contrast, and reducing the effect of movement or jitter while using the camera. This app on its own produced electronic documents that were about 80% accurate in text recognition.

SayText (Free) actually got the best results of all at 90%+ accuracy. SayText utilizes the iPhone’s built in VoiceOver, so you can instantly have the OCR captured document read out loud. But SayText has no option for saving the documents on your iPhone which is a bit annoying but you can email the OCR captured text document to yourself. All of the other apps, have some document management for storing documents for access at a later date.

Of course, these 3 apps aren’t the only scanning apps one can find. There are several other options with similar functionality and more are added to the app library all the time. Most just take a picture of the document and convert it to a jpeg or PDF (like Genius Scan) whereas a few others include OCR for converting the picture of the document to electronic text (like Perfect OCR or SayText). All tested to date have produced similar results to the 3 described in this post. If you discover or know of a scanning app that you find does the trick, let me know!

Until that perfect scanning app comes along, I would use the free SayText to grab text and have it read out loud or to email it to myself for reference later. But for efficiency and accuracy, I won’t be abandoning my trusty scanner and ClaroRead anytime soon.

To try on these apps and others on an iPod or iPhone contact our AT Specialists for a demonstration of the available options.

Don’t Know What to Wear Today? There’s an App for That

iDress for Weather Screenshot

Knowing what to wear can be difficult in the hourly changing climate of the Pacific Northwest and as someone without a television or the inclination to listen to the radio in the morning I’m often caught out in the rain, or more accurately the drizzle, without a raincoat. iDress for Weather is an app for iOS (that’s Apple’s operating system for those of us who aren’t overly techy) which can help people determine what attire is weather appropriate by tapping into the local weather reports. You can either take pictures of your own wardrobe or use the cartoon style clip art closet of clothing. For people who benefit from prompting about appropriate clothing but may not have supports to provide that prompting in the morning, or just aren’t morning people who  want to be told what is appropriate to wear, this app has the potential to increase a person’s independence, giving  them the opportunity to make informed and independent choices about their wardrobe. For two dollars this apps can give you peace of mind that you are dressed appropriately for the day, that is, if you trust weathermen. To borrow iDress for Weather, or other prompting apps, on an iPod or iPad visit the WATAP Lending Library.  

Smartphone Accessibility Comparison

Join us on Wednesday, June 8th from 10:30am-12:00pm for a consumer focused webinar on selecting a smartphone! This webinar will focus on the increasing accessibility of smartphone technologies, specifically the built-in accessibility features and some readily available apps that make using a smartphone accessible. Register today.

LookTel Money Reader App

Here is an article from the New York Times about an inexpensive App that accurately identifies the denominations of United States paper currency from $1 to $100 dollars. The Application is currently available for the iPhone and the iPod Touch with built in camera and according to the developer’s website, “Recognition will happen in real-time and without delay – there's no need to hold the device still or take a photo and wait for a result.” This reduces the need for blind people to rely on sighted folks to help them identify what is in their wallet.

The accompanying video shows a user launching the LookTel Money Reader Application on their iPhone 4, the user then hovers the iPhone over a table with various bills placed about in a grid like pattern; as the iPhone passes over a bill a voice announces the denomination of each bill. In the second part of the video clip, the user holds the iPhone in one hand and a wad of folded bills in the other; after the user launches the LookTel Money Reader App he (or she) hovers the iPhone over the wad of bills and flips through them while a voice announces the denomination of each exposed bill.

More Android Accessibility Features

Earlier this month the IDEAL Group subsidiary, Apps4Android, announced the release of Accessibility Application Installers® and Best Voices for Android®. What does this mean? This means that consumers who have purchased an Android smart device have the ability to download and install additional third-party accessibility applications that could improve your experience with the devices' built in accessibility features.

Accessibility Application Installers® allow you to easily adjust the existing accessibility settings and add additional accessibility applications such as a talking email client, video magnifier, accessible music player and GPS navigation aids. For use with text-to-speech applications, Best Voices for Android® allows you to easily comparison shop for SVOX Pico voices with a variety of language choices.

These applications are tailored per carrier and per version of the Android Operating System, so consequently not all options will be available depending upon the your phone's configuration. Despite this, the installer will walk you through the process of downloading and installing the Accessibility Application and will assist in setting up the device with the most useful accessibility applications available for the Android device.

Fastest “Hands Free” Typist

Hank Torres, a C4-5 quad, challenged the rest of the world last month as the fastest hands free typist. Using SWYPE on-screen keyboard, Sip-N-Puff mouth switch, and TrackerPro head mouse, Hank demonstrated his mad keyboarding skillz to the folks at Guinness World Records and officially set the record as the fastest hands free typist. No small feat, considering the phrase he was required to compose. Congratulations to Hank for showing us how it’s done!

Accessible Gaming

Stress relieving apps should never be taken for granted particularly in today’s hectic world. Angry Birds was suggested as a favorite app for stress relief and if virtually throwing angry birds at smug pigs is calming to you, this might serve you well. Although Angry Birds is a fun and simple game it does require visual acuity and fine motor skills to play. If you are blind, low vision or just seeking an audio game you can try Papa Sangre. This app is available in the Apple iTunes Apps Store for $6.99. It’s a must have if you play adventure games. The iPhone is noted for supporting audio gaming, and this is top of the line.
You must work your way to the palace of Papa Sangre. Along the way you’ll meet evil hogs who will eat you, a maiden in distress, items to collect and bring along, and a host of adventures. You’ll travel on snow and ice, rough surfaces, over water and others. Oh and you’ll do it in the dark. But you’ll have a wealth of voice coaching and illustrative sounds to assist you.

5 Cool App Suggestions

• Gaby de Jongh said...
  My favorite app is Angry Birds by Rovio. It's free from the Android market and is also available for the iPhone and Palm. Angry Birds is a mobile game that utilizes both skill and logic to break the fortresses of the pigs who have kidnapped the birds eggs. I'm not sure about it's accessibility, but it does provide hours of fun and perhaps some stress relief.
  
• Bill Y said...
  One really cool appp is VoCal (vocal reminders). This app makes it super quick and easy to turn voice notes into calendar events. This is a great app for people with problems reading or writing - or people who need an easy way to remind themselves of stuff they need to do. Cheap too, less than five bucks for the full version. Check it out: http://youtu.be/HPmuQczkVpA
  
• Bill Y said...
  Here's another app I think is great, but I have not tried it yet: Wake Me Up (GPS Alarm Clock). Have you ever dozed off (or zoned out)on the bus and missed your stop? Well with this app you set the location and doze away. When you reach your spot, your iPhone starts buzzing and ringing to wake you - just in time to pull the cord and stop the bus!
  
• Washington Assistive Technology Act Program said...
  Plain Text & Dropbox: free in the Apple App Store
  This is self-explanatory. It’s a text editor for the I devices. Create documents to be synced with your dropbox account (also free in the App Store.) Both are accessible. Take notes on your device and have them show up immediately in your Dropbox without having to email them or otherwise direct them. It’s a must have pair of apps.
  From: Deb Cook
  
• Washington Assistive Technology Act Program said...
  Dragon Dictate: Free in the Apple itunes Store
  This app alternates between being very accessible and extremely inaccessible so be careful if this matters.
  Voice recognition is done in the cloud so there’s a slight delay, but accuracy is generally very good even with reasonable background noise. Edit your text in Notes or in an editor such as Plain Text. You can then email it, tweet or post to Facebook. Very handy app if you do not have a keyboard, need to or just prefer to dictate.
  From: Deb Cook, WATAP Director

What apps do you use? We will be doing a follow up on the accessibility of these apps and suggesting some alternatives or companion apps.

We Want to Know: What's Your Favorite App?

There are a lot of apps out there that are fun or interesting for a brief period of time but don’t make it into the permanent collection. However, there are some among the throw away apps that can have great benefits, including just being fun, and they aren’t always the most expensive ones. We want to know about your favorite app. Where did it come from? How much did it cost? What purpose does it serve? Do you know about its accessibility? We will review responses and do some digging of our own to find out more about the apps that you are using. Keep posted for our follow up blog discussing some of these apps more in depth.

AT in Unexpected Apps

Assistive Technology is defined as any product used to maintain or improve the functional capabilities of a person with a disability. Products can include specifically designed items in addition to those that are adapted or modified. Applications for mobile devices are no different. There are some great apps designed specifically to function as AT, however, professionals are finding apps that were created just for fun may have functionality for people with disabilities as well. During an iPad Showcase at Provail, Donna Cole Wilson, SLP, described how apps are used by Speech Language Pathologists to address various client needs. The SmackTalk! app in which electronic animals repeat back what is captured on the iPad's microphone in a faster, squeakier voice wasn’t designed to assist in learning and development, however, this is how it is being used. I began to wonder how this happened and Donna agreed to answer the following questions to clear things up:

How did you first discover this app?
I obtained my iPad and first wanted to find app's that were inexpensive or free. This app was 99 cents. I downloaded it and found how responsive the program was to any voice and any sound. As a Speech Language Pathologist I am very aware of the need and the motivation for having feedback while speaking.

In what situation might this app be used and how do you use it?
I had a little girl who I work with come into my session. She had a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. She was considered "nonverbal" I demonstrated this app for her and told her she could make a noise and it would talk back to her. At first she did not understand what I wanted her to do. But soon after, she spontaneously vocalized and watched as the puppy vocalized back. She did it again and after a few vocalizations, she looked like she had that "aha" moment: if I make loud sounds, the puppy makes loud sounds. She began vocalization more than she had ever vocalized before. She realized she had more control over her voice. I knew this type of app would motivate all different types of clients with speech disabilities. I have since used this app for children and adults. I find that the instant feedback helps people make changes to their voice/speech patterns. It slows their speech since they want to be able to hear themselves right away. Slowing speech production is essential for a person diagnosed with various types of dysarthria.

In your observation what functional benefits have your clients experienced from using this application?I have seen an increase in syllable differentiation, improvement in vocal prosody, increased intentional vocalizations, and reduced rate which consequently increases a person's intelligibility. I also see an increased interest in working on speech.