Maybe we are all thinking a bit too old school. Two weeks ago Humanware demonstrated document readers to me which used a camera instead. The camera was portable as it was on a fold up tripod type thing. The software was on a Windows machine which drove the camera, words were also displayed on screen as the document was read out. The camera took a picture of the document and a second or so later the document was read out to me. You could take pictures of multiple pages too. tHe speech quality was amazing, even better then Alex I have to be honest. I thought hmmmm I would buy this if I could use it on my Mac too. I wish Humanware would develop software for the Mac to drive hardware like this.
I decided on the iPal Solo so I did not have to use a windows machine to read documents, as the iPal solo works completely without a computer. Who knows in about 2 years time we will all probably be reading printed material via the camera on the iPhone 6 or whatever. I can just picture a nifty stand you slide your iPhone or iPod Touch into to neatly take a picture of the document below. I want it now!!! On 18 Jun 2010, at 16:43, Mary Otten wrote: > Hi allison, > While I have not used abbyy for the Mac, based on what I've heard people say, > no, it is nowhere near like K1000, which I have used for probably a decade. > Yes, you can hook up a usb scanner, and if you get one that FR recognized, > such as the hp 8300 pro or epson 200 or 300, I forget the full model > designation, you can apparently scan directly without the need for a second > app to do the scanning part and then transferring the file to abby for > processing. But, as I understand it, you cannot scan and read simultaneously; > you can't scan multiple pages into the same file. You can't scan and > immediately read to check out setting accuracy. You have to let abbyy save > the page to a file and then read it there. Lots more steps. Maybe ok for the > occasional page. but totally not so for serious scanning. If my understanding > of the limitation of fr express is incorrect, I hope somebody will correct > me. I asked a guy I know who uses FR with the hp8300 and who has used k1000 > if fr express could do the things I outlined above and he flatly said no. to > be sure, there is a huge cost difference. But having an excellent efficient > scanning solution is one reason I have no intention of giving up Windows for > now. Using two applications where one will do, having to save to a file > prior to reading and not being able have multiple pages in the same file, > have it open and reading while I'm scanning, or even scanning one thing and > reading another are all reasons why I can't see dumping windows for > scanning/ocr purposes. If abbyy would come out with a full version of fine > reader, that might be a different story. > > mary > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
