OCR on the iPod Touch

[flameproof]

Just a little feedback for those who consider using OCR on their iPod Touch 4G

The iPod Touch camera has way less resolution (0.7MPx) compare to the iPhone (5MPx), so you get a less clear image. An even bigger issue IMHO is the lack of autofocus for the iPod.

What's good is that you can try it for free, in which case OCR will scan and display the characters, but won't give a translation. That it perfectly OK to test it out. I haven't used it really extensively, one feedback I like to give is that I find the scanning a bit fast when the OCR can not decide on a character and you can something like 5 characters a Second and can't pause on the right one.

Since it somehow works I don't regret it (I don't want to mention that I find the price too low anyway), it's really an amazing function. But I look forward to the day I get my iPhone 4 and can transfer the OCR to it.

Two other users feedback:

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2432&start=240#p20500
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2432&start=225#p20476

 

[kun4]

The iPod Touch camera has way less resolution (0.7MPx) compare to the iPhone (5MPx), so you get a less clear image.

That's not as big an issue as you'd think. OCR on iPod with "Shrink big images" switched OFF has about the same resolution as OCR on iPhone with "Shrink big images" switched ON. It's slower, though.

An even bigger issue IMHO is the lack of autofocus for the iPod.

There's no way around that, even with a macro lens. Despite all these limitations, I'm quite happy with OCR on my iPod touch.
But I understand the reasoning behind not offering OCR as a fully supported feature on iPod Touch.

 

[mikelove]

I haven't used it really extensively, one feedback I like to give is that I find the scanning a bit fast when the OCR can not decide on a character and you can something like 5 characters a Second and can't pause on the right one.

Yeah, that's our #1 fix for 2.2.2; we can't actually make it recognize characters clearly in a lot of those cases - if the system doesn't see a character clearly then that's that - but we can at least slow down the updates, so you can pause if it does happen to hit on the right one, and try to provide some sort of indicator that something's amok.

That's not as big an issue as you'd think. OCR on iPod with "Shrink big images" switched OFF has about the same resolution as OCR on iPhone with "Shrink big images" switched ON. It's slower, though.

Actually, I believe they have about the same pixel resolution in each mode; both cameras shoot video at the same 720p, though the iPod's sensor might be noisier and its effective resolution might be lower due to the crappy lens. For still photos (soon to be more prominently featured in our OCR system) the iPhone eats the iPod's lunch, but for video the iPod's really only seriously handicapped by the lens as far as we can tell.

 

[MikeB]

So I just bought the bundle tonight but was looking to get this as well, but at the menu is said it wasn't supported. I'm using the new Ipod 4G btw. Just thought I would throw that out there. I'll try again tomorrow and update, but it's cool that, from these posts, anyway that it does work.

 

[mikelove]

It's officially unsupported, so you have to register your device at:

http://www.pleco.com/ipafoverride.html

to be able to download / purchase it.

 

[flameproof]

I don't know if this also applies to the iPhone 4, but an issue with the iPod Touch is the 'shaking'. Seems quite hard to get a clear shot on characters and not shaking over the edges. Or is there any trick/feature that I missed?

 

[mikelove]

I don't know if this also applies to the iPhone 4, but an issue with the iPod Touch is the 'shaking'. Seems quite hard to get a clear shot on characters and not shaking over the edges. Or is there any trick/feature that I missed?

We're working (very hard!) on some improvements for that (something to basically freeze the recognizer once the device has mostly stopped moving and wait for a clear non-shaking movement to start running it again), but in the meantime the best bet is to hold the device as close as possible to the text to reduce the impact of shaking. You can also make liberal use of the pause button at the bottom of the screen. Also, as long as characters are aligned with the top of the box it's perfectly OK if there's some extra text at the bottom, so try making the box a bit bigger and only lining up the top. You can also go into Settings / OCR / Lookup Words and increase the "word detect samples" count, that will lock in text a little better as-is. Or turn on the experimental still image capture option also in Settings / OCR / Lookup Words (though I'm not sure how well that'll work with a low-res iPod camera).

 

[umibozuuu]

Hello,
I've ordered an Ipod Touch 4G (gnashing my teeth all the while as a patent Applephobe) solely in order to run Pleco.
I see some nice feedback so far on this thread, but would like to ask the people who might have gone and bought a stick-on external macro lens what kind of an improvement they thought it made?