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.
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.
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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.
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Hello, I have an IIS 7.5 server here and it's full of rubbish. There's about 160GB of data and probably 159GB of that is stuff that isn't required any more. I know there are a lot of virtual directories that are no longer used but I cant just go deleting stuff without being very sure their not needed. I'm looking for something that will give me a simple report to get started. A list of all the virtual directories and a date last used. Of course, that would be too easy. but something that shows me the usage statistics for the server would be great. It doesn't have to be free. I am quite sure I'd get approval to buy something if it does the job. Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie
Hello, I have an IIS 7.5 server here and it's full of rubbish. There's about 160GB of data and probably 159GB of that is stuff that isn't required any more. I know there are a lot of virtual directories that are no longer used but I cant just go deleting stuff without being very sure their not needed. I'm looking for something that will give me a simple report to get started. A list of all the virtual directories and a date last used. Of course, that would be too easy. but something that shows me the usage statistics for the server would be great. It doesn't have to be free. I am quite sure I'd get approval to buy something if it does the job. Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie
Hi, Have you taken a look at Sawmill? I used this on an older IIS server to get information about specific older websites and parts of an older intranet that I wanted to do some housekeeping on. http://www.sawmill.co.uk/ Thanks. Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Darragh OHeiligh [Darragh.OHeiligh@Oireachtas.ie] Sent: 27 June 2012 09:51 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] IIS usage reports. Hello, I have an IIS 7.5 server here and it's full of rubbish. There's about 160GB of data and probably 159GB of that is stuff that isn't required any more. I know there are a lot of virtual directories that are no longer used but I cant just go deleting stuff without being very sure their not needed. I'm looking for something that will give me a simple report to get started. A list of all the virtual directories and a date last used. Of course, that would be too easy. but something that shows me the usage statistics for the server would be great. It doesn't have to be free. I am quite sure I'd get approval to buy something if it does the job. Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
Hi, Have you taken a look at Sawmill? I used this on an older IIS server to get information about specific older websites and parts of an older intranet that I wanted to do some housekeeping on. http://www.sawmill.co.uk/ Thanks. Andrew. ________________________________________ From: Blind-sysadmins [blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] on behalf of Darragh OHeiligh [Darragh.OHeiligh@Oireachtas.ie] Sent: 27 June 2012 09:51 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] IIS usage reports. Hello, I have an IIS 7.5 server here and it's full of rubbish. There's about 160GB of data and probably 159GB of that is stuff that isn't required any more. I know there are a lot of virtual directories that are no longer used but I cant just go deleting stuff without being very sure their not needed. I'm looking for something that will give me a simple report to get started. A list of all the virtual directories and a date last used. Of course, that would be too easy. but something that shows me the usage statistics for the server would be great. It doesn't have to be free. I am quite sure I'd get approval to buy something if it does the job. Regards Darragh Ó Héiligh Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org http://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
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.
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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.
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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.
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Dear users and system administrators, I Am reading Yours discussion related to performing reliable OCR from screen. The existing solution, which can not be universal but can help is to use special NVDA addon, which is using Tesseract OCR engine. It is necessary to use NVDA object navigation keys to point The object pointer to The object, which You would want to perform OCR on it. Press INSERT+R. You must firstly install this addon. http://files.nvaccess.org/nvda-addons/ocr_0.20120529.01.nvda-addon The ideal solution would be, if somewhere would be AN universal video driver, which would be able to force all available video bioses on The world to use The resolution 300 X 300 pixels, but this is very probably not real and Windows GUI would start to be unusable, because build in Mathematical formulas would stop to enable users to click on somethink reliably. But fortunately, it is still possible to switch The on screen resolution to The 640 x480 points, 8 Bits colour. When Window is maximized, user can really read some texts from The screen. If somebody will make tesseract for some mobile phone platform, it would be may be universal OCR on screen solution. The instructions how to use NVDA addons are here. http://www.nvda-project.org/wiki/AddOns The ideal solution would be, if somebody, who is deeply familiar with mathematic formulas and algorithms would be able to develope new revolutionar algorithm, which would be able to convert image with high resolution to 300 DPI resolution and only after this image processing, this image would be send to Tesseract OCR or other OCR engine. By The way, does somebody of us know free image editor, which would convert image file with high resolution to user specified lov resolution, not only on The screen inside working graphical editor, but The changes would really had to build in to The resulted image file. I do not know this tool, and it is very sad.
Thanks for that, but this solution requires software. I'm trying to ocr the screen of a system which is at a stuck point at which it can't run any reading software; hence trying a camera-based solution, or perhapse a video capture usb device. On 2012-06-27, at 11:45 AM, Mgr. Janusz Chmiel wrote:
Dear users and system administrators, I Am reading Yours discussion related to performing reliable OCR from screen. The existing solution, which can not be universal but can help is to use special NVDA addon, which is using Tesseract OCR engine.
It is necessary to use NVDA object navigation keys to point The object pointer to The object, which You would want to perform OCR on it.
Press INSERT+R. You must firstly install this addon.
http://files.nvaccess.org/nvda-addons/ocr_0.20120529.01.nvda-addon
The ideal solution would be, if somewhere would be AN universal video driver, which would be able to force all available video bioses on The world to use The resolution 300 X 300 pixels, but this is very probably not real and Windows GUI would start to be unusable, because build in Mathematical formulas would stop to enable users to click on somethink reliably.
But fortunately, it is still possible to switch The on screen resolution to The 640 x480 points, 8 Bits colour.
When Window is maximized, user can really read some texts from The screen.
If somebody will make tesseract for some mobile phone platform, it would be may be universal OCR on screen solution. The instructions how to use NVDA addons are here.
http://www.nvda-project.org/wiki/AddOns
The ideal solution would be, if somebody, who is deeply familiar with mathematic formulas and algorithms would be able to develope new revolutionar algorithm, which would be able to convert image with high resolution to 300 DPI resolution and only after this image processing, this image would be send to Tesseract OCR or other OCR engine.
By The way, does somebody of us know free image editor, which would convert image file with high resolution to user specified lov resolution, not only on The screen inside working graphical editor, but The changes would really had to build in to The resulted image file. I do not know this tool, and it is very sad.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 >
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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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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 >
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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.
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participants (5)
-
Andrew Hodgson -
Ben Mustill-Rose -
Darragh OHeiligh -
Don Urquhart -
Mgr. Janusz Chmiel