Re: [Blind-sysadmins] OCR From Screen

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 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 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 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.

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