I went to a small college, between the years of 2004-2008. Thank God they were accredited before I finished, because they have sense closed. The school didn’t have a disibilities department, and I don’t think I could get the books in Braille. The first semester was long days, into long nights, after purchasing the books from the small campus book store, and scanning each night until 3AM on a flatbed scanner into Openbook software. I remember on a couple of ocasions when Openbook crashed while processing, after 5-8 hours of scanning. I got more common sense, I guess, after that first semester and purchased the books for the next semesters, before Christmas break, which of course, made for a fun break. I know so many of us have similar stories. I hadn’t touched a flatbed, really sense, until this last week.
It’s holiday time, and, Christmas gifts are being purchased. I found a hardback book for a friend. We have an all in one Brother print/scan etc. I found that there is an IPhone app that will print and scan, spisifically for the newer all in ones. I know Applevis already has posts regarding the I-Print&Scan app. This app is completely accessible on the scanning side, and you can scan multi page documents. First off, to have the all in one machine, in front of me where the computer would sit in college was nice, I didn’t have to reach over to my side. Second, the scanning time was at least two times quicker for each scan than my old thin Cannon model. I scanned 40-60 pages at a time, and then converted to PDF. I honestly didn’t know how much the app could handle. I believe it scans into PNG files natiely, and each scan is around 5 MB. The app didnt’ choke though at all, and I believe I could have scanned the 160 page document all at once. I then through the 4 pdfs on my NAS, and used JAWS OCR to Word. Holy goodness it was quick! I used to let Openbook process 40 to 50 pages for at least an hour.
It’s amazing to see how the OCR technology has come along too,as the scanns have much less error in the OCR than they used to, and that’s, a book in the flatbed, not cut apart, as I used to have the bindings cut off my school books to scan.
I’m just a little overwowwed, amazed that this is possible on an IPhone, and yes, given the proper OCR scan/convert app you could do this complete process on the phone I’m sure.
Comments
Thank you for this post
I, too, had spent many, countless hours, scanning books in for my college days. My college days date much further back than yours, even. It is very nice to know that there is a much better way to get books onto the iPhone. Thanks for mentioning this app, as I was unaware.
I feel old...
Ya, it's come a long way... I remember, back in the day, there was this extremely expensive, beast of a reading machine made by Kurzweil, and you could send it's data through an RS232 smart cable to an Apple IIe or GS computer, then save the file with Braille Edit Express to a floppy disk, or send it to a VersaBraille computer II--or if the tech resource teacher was mad at you, the VersaBraille I that used cassettes, rather than floppy disks. Other than the cassettes and some of the later-style floppy disks, you weren't carrying any of that in your pocket.
image capture
I do the same thing using image capture on the Mac. Still haven't gotten a good OCR solution, although I heard envision is coming to the Mac so maybe that'll work.
@OldBear I remember that scanner.
Or at least something like it, with a braille input keyboard, it took forever to scan the pages and used DeckTalk. Now we can use seeing AI and it's awesome!
RE: I feeled old
🤣 you are definitely not alone my friend. If this gives you any idea, my computer programming classes were dated clear back in 1987.
Just to share a Hokie story here. When I was going to college back then, I had a luggage cart, with a briefcase bungee corded onto it, that I drug along behind me, on campus, while working with my guide dog from class to class. Within the confines of this Briefcase, you would find my beloved synthesizer, with serial cable, along with everything else I needed for the day. As I went from computer lab to computer lab, I would open this briefcase up, drag out my equipment, hook it into the current computer system, and continue on with my work of the day. I don't know if you guys will remember a program called Word talk? This is what I used, in order to get my projects turned in. I thought I was really styling. But, upon reflection, I think I was the hokiest looking person on campus. I can hear them all saying, "oh look, here comes that blind girl and her dog, and look, she's got a briefcase with her on that card today." What a sight I must have been. It just was what it was back then. As far as a nice, classy backpack like we have today? Heck no! They didn't even exist. All I did have for a backpack was an army style, canvas-based backpack, with basically no functionality. Actually, it was nothing more than just a bag with straps. Lol anyway, thought I would share my trip down memory lane. I hope you got a big chuckle out of it, as I certainly have. I can't believe what I did back then. how I love my iPhone. it definitely does so much more than I could ever do back then.
Oh wow, I can remember…
Oh wow, I can remember checking material for a course out of the library and having to use coins to make a copy of each page with a copy machine. :_(
It is amazing what we can do now with our phone. A scanner app I like is Scanner Pro. I just gave it a quick run with VoiceOver and it seems good, but I am not a regular VoiceOver user so take that with a grain of salt.
totally old
haha, I also remember the old curs wile machines, and "open book" what a blast from the past. Although it can just piss off and stay there, lol, open book and jaws was such an arduous process.