Hi Ben, I'm still in search of a video capture card, as my ocr efforts have been an abismal failure. Will check Future Shop today, but may need to look online. Can you recommend a good, reliable, reputable, accessible online store I can order from? Thanks Cheers On 2012-06-27, at 6:41 PM, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:
Hi,
You can get cards that capture VGA directly, but they're pretty expensive. You can pick up a generic USB that does composite for next to nothing, so I chose that root since I wasn't sure if it was going to work at the time.
Cheers, Ben.
On 6/28/12, Don Urquhart <srtechy@gmail.com> wrote:
Hmm - Are there not cards that would take the vga directly as input, without having to use an extra device to convert to composite? ... Was discussing this with a local technician today, and he is saying that these capture cards are becomming less common as digital cameras have replaced them for most purposes.
On 2012-06-27, at 12:07 PM, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:
Hi,
No, the capture card has a composite input which you connect using a converter to the VGA out of the computer you're wanting to OCR. At the same time, you connect the capture card to a laptop and grab a screenshot of the other machine. You then run this through some sort of OCR program, I like finereader.
Cheers, Ben.
On 6/27/12, Don Urquhart <srtechy@gmail.com> wrote:
You mean, capture the video from the target system, then unplug the usb capture card and plug it into the laptop? Sounds like that could work much better than trying to aim a camera at a screen.
On 2012-06-27, at 9:19 AM, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:
Hi,
If by installed you mean plugging in an adaptor, then yes. You could probably do it with a USB capture card connected to a laptop; it just so happens that I'm using an old PCI card to do it because thats what I had at hand.
Cheers, Ben.
On 6/27/12, Don Urquhart <srtechy@gmail.com> wrote:
Sounds good, but, as you say, not really portable? Would need to be installed in each machine you wish to work on, right?
On 2012-06-27, at 1:38 AM, Ben Mustill-Rose wrote:
> Hi, > > I've been playing around with vga out > composite adaptor > cheap > video capture card > capture a still of the screen and import it into > finereader. Its not really as portable & streamlined as using a > iPhone, but it should produce much better results at a fraction of > the > cost. > > Cheers, > Ben. > > On 6/27/12, Don Urquhart <srtechy@gmail.com> wrote: >> Hi all, >> I am testing the concept of using camera-based ocr to scan a >> computer >> screen, which could be a good backup in cases where something weird >> happens >> and a process, such as boot or unattended install, gets stuck in an >> unexpected spot where no reading software is available. I have had >> some >> promising results with screens of basic text scanned with ZoomReader >> on >> my >> iPhone 4. I am thinking I may get more reliable and faster >> processing >> using >> my laptop in combination with a higher resolution camera, as the >> iPhone >> cam >> is only 5 MP. Have any of you had reliably usable results with >> either >> a >> phone or laptop-based setup to ocr an otherwise unreadable screen? I >> know >> there are a few very specialized devices that may serve this >> purpose, >> but >> I >> have only around $600.00 to spend, not a couple thousand, and with >> practicum >> starting in two weeks, waiting for agency funding is not a very >> satisfactory >> option. Thanks in advance for any suggestions. I'm running a MacBook >> Pro >> with Lion, and it runs Windows 7 in its bootcamp partition. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Blind-sysadmins mailing list >> Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org >> http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins >> > > _______________________________________________ > Blind-sysadmins mailing list > Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org > http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
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