Dear Penny
I've looked into this problem several times and there doesn't seem to
be any workable, commercially available solution. OCR Scanning
software seems to read line by line, complex equations and formulae use
several lines simultaneously, hence the failure. One method is to use
something like Omnipage and set the equations as a figure or
illustration rather than text characters. In reality, this is how
Equation 3 in Word or Mathtype work. This will succeed up to a point,
but it increases the time it takes to scan material, it can't be made
automatic and, if successful, the equation can't be managed by any of
the standard speech engines. I know there have been a number of
research projects into developing IT tools for blind and partially
sighted maths students, but none of them seem to have produced
deliverables (as they say in project-application speak). I would be
really glad to hear that I've missed some common piece of software or
of other ways of working, especially methods that students can manage
independently.
Regards, Bernard
On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 15:18:25 +0100 Penny Roper
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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Bernard Doherty
Student Adviser
ACCESS Centre
Anglia Polytechnic University
Tel: 01223 363271 x2534
Fax: 01223 417730
Minicom: 01223 576155
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