Dear Andy/John,
Hello. I hope no-one here took my comment as a slight on you or your professionalism. It was
certainly not intended as such; if you found it so I am very sorry. You and the RNIB have been
helpful and Paul, and I, are grateful for your support. I was merely trying to find some
information; it's a pity you did not email me directly.
There is a misunderstanding here: perhaps we are using the same words to mean different devices?
The "book scanners" I (and Paul) have come across a long time ago, and possibly not described
very clearly, were not stand-alone with speech built in, but rather edge-scanners which did not
damage the book's binding but allowed a book to be placed along a sort of triangular interface
which scanned both pages at the same time. They then OCR's the images and saved them to a
computer file. I too have been searching the internet and believe at least one person on this
list has also come across these machines, though again a long time ago.
I will not take up any more of the list's time with this; please email me at
[log in to unmask] if you have further comments.
Evelyn Toseland
;)
> Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 15:20:40 -0000
> From: John Milligan <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re. Evelyn Toselands recent e-mail about book scanners
>
> The note below is elf explanatory.
>
>
> As the RNIB assessor who has apparently, "..never heard of a book scanner,"
> I am posting this email to the list to set the record straight.
>
> All of the ATW assessment providers working for RNIB are fully aware of book
> scanners. Unfortunately, these are stand-alone devices with built-in speech
> output. What we were trying to ascertain was whether a similar device
> existed which could connect to a PC for use with software-based Optical
> Character Recognition such as Kurzweil or Omni-Page.
>
> After many hours of web searches, telephone calls and research into this
> subject (including postings to tech-dis and RNIB's internal access
> technology discussion groups) we were unable to locate such a device. This
> is a pity, since it could have offered a low-cost and practical solution for
> visually impaired people wishing to transcribe the contents of large bound
> volumes into an accessible format.
>
> Andy White
> Technology Officer
> RNIB Education & Employment Network (SW)
>
> John Rous Milligan
> Senior Education Officer: Post 16
> RNIB Education and Employment Network
> 10 Still House Lane
> Bristol
> BS3 4EB
>
> Tel: 0117 953 7750
> Fax: 0117 953 7751
> Eml: [log in to unmask]
>
> www.RNIB.org.uk
>
> -
<snip>
>Date: Wed, 6 Nov 2002 15:50:57 -0000
>From: Steven Metcalfe <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Re. Evelyn Toselands recent e-mail about book scanners
>The type of scanner you are talking about is a "Book Edge"
>scanner. It is my understanding that Xerox patented this type of
>scanner. The design was used in the Kurzwiel Reading Edge
>machines but as has been said they are very expensive. In the
>past it was possible to get a Xerox flat bed scanner with a book
>edge but that was a long time ago. I don't think anyone is currently
>manufacturing a similar scanner at this time.
<snip>
<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~
Do while Project<>Completed
if impossible = true then
rethink(approach)
set impossible = false
end if
loop
<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~<>~
Evelyn Toseland
Webmaster
Faculty of Applied Sciences
University of the West of England
Email: [log in to unmask]
|