OCR!

[Entropy]

Saving captured text

One MORE reason to add text saving to the selected text popup:

If there's a way to save captured text (all of it, not just what Pleco thinks is a word) to a flashcard, I can’t find it. I can save it to the filesystem, but that's not what I want. I can select it all, so I should be able to save it.

 

[mikelove]

It helps if the iPod rests on something: if you hold the iPod in your hand the image can be jittery, especially at small point sizes. But in the end, there is only so much one can do. iPod Touch camera performance is profoundly unexciting.

Summarizing: if you have an iPod OCR can be made to work, but the user experience is not as intuitive as with an iPhone.

Thanks for the feedback - certainly helps justify our caution about supporting OCR on iPods. Though we have made some good progress on the jitter-reduction front for 2.2.2 (along with expanding the still image capture options).

If there's a way to save captured text (all of it, not just what Pleco thinks is a word) to a flashcard, I can’t find it. I can save it to the filesystem, but that's not what I want. I can select it all, so I should be able to save it.

Can't you just copy-and-paste it into a new custom flashcard? Also, in the automatic flashcard capture mode it'll automatically create a custom card for the entire block of text if you set Settings / OCR / Capture Flashcards / Unknown words to "Create Custom."

 

[Entropy]

Can't you just copy-and-paste it into a new custom flashcard?

I could copy and paste it. But that's tiresome compared to *just* tapping one button.

 

[mikelove]

I could copy and paste it. But that's tiresome compared to *just* tapping one button.

What about the Capture Flashcards screen with the option I suggested? That should be almost no work at all.

 

[tanyahart]

I could copy and paste it. But that's tiresome compared to *just* tapping one button.

What about the Capture Flashcards screen with the option I suggested? That should be almost no work at all.

Good question. I had the same question rattling around in the back of my mind.

I tried that. It works a treat. And you can add more words later - say if the sentence ran on & you couldn't capture it all in one go. Either with writing or cut n paste. You have to DIY pinyin and definition, but that's fine.

Niiice. Nice nice. Thanks.

 

[Entropy]

I could copy and paste it. But that's tiresome compared to *just* tapping one button.

What about the Capture Flashcards screen with the option I suggested? That should be almost no work at all.

If I'm already in capture text mode, it might be a struggle to re-recognize the text correctly. It's already hard enough to hit the button when the recognizer momentarily settles on the right character. Furthermore, I may want to capture a block of text and make several flashcards, without the added steps of saving it to the filesystem and re-opening it.

 

[mikelove]

I tried that. It works a treat. And you can add more words later - say if the sentence ran on & you couldn't capture it all in one go. Either with writing or cut n paste. You have to DIY pinyin and definition, but that's fine.

Niiice. Nice nice. Thanks.

Thank you! I'm glad that's proving useful.

If I'm already in capture text mode, it might be a struggle to re-recognize the text correctly. It's already hard enough to hit the button when the recognizer momentarily settles on the right character. Furthermore, I may want to capture a block of text and make several flashcards, without the added steps of saving it to the filesystem and re-opening it.

There'll be an option to invoke that same screen from Capture Text in 2.2.2, don't know why we didn't make it work that way with the + button originally but we're fixing it.

 

[pleco10]

I finally purchased the OCR module.

A suggestion:
How about implementing an additional button to pronounce the chars directly, on the main screen, without requiring to go into the "details" section. (In the Lookup Words section.)

Perhaps the left "flashcard" button (WHEN PAUSED) can be toggled with the audio pronunciation button (have this option in the detailed settings I presume), as not everyone will need to create a flashcard from recognised text; there is already a OCR section dedicated to creating flashcards.

 

[mikelove]

How about implementing an additional button to pronounce the chars directly, on the main screen, without requiring to go into the "details" section. (In the Lookup Words section.)

Perhaps the left "flashcard" button (WHEN PAUSED) can be toggled with the audio pronunciation button (have this option in the detailed settings I presume), as not everyone will need to create a flashcard from recognised text; there is already a OCR section dedicated to creating flashcards.

Good idea - we've also had someone suggest adding an option that automatically plays audio after you point to a word for a second or so, like the Capture Flashcards mode now; would that cover your needs too or would you prefer that this be manually triggered?

 

[pleco10]

Good idea - we've also had someone suggest adding an option that automatically plays audio after you point to a word for a second or so, like the Capture Flashcards mode now; would that cover your needs too or would you prefer that this be manually triggered?

Personally I would prefer it if the audio was manually triggered as I might not need the pronunciation all the time; preferably an option to select manual or auto pronunciation can be implemented in the settings (i.e. after a delay of x number of seconds). If only auto pronunciation were to be implemented, I would be quite happy too.

(BTW, I can't seem to get the automatic pronunciation working in the Capture Flashcards mode, it just beeps when the card is added. I can't find an option to enable the auto audio in the settings... did you say this is in the current version of Pleco OCR or coming soon?)

 

[mikelove]

Personally I would prefer it if the audio was manually triggered as I might not need the pronunciation all the time; preferably an option to select manual or auto pronunciation can be implemented in the settings (i.e. after a delay of x number of seconds). If only auto pronunciation were to be implemented, I would be quite happy too.

Makes sense, some people certainly might prefer it for occasional-but-frequent-enough-to-make-the->-button-inconvenient use.

(BTW, I can't seem to get the automatic pronunciation working in the Capture Flashcards mode, it just beeps when the card is added. I can't find an option to enable the auto audio in the settings... did you say this is in the current version of Pleco OCR or coming soon?)

No, I meant that it would be a timed trigger like adding a flashcard in flashcards - sorry for the confusing wording.

 

[pleco10]

Makes sense, some people certainly might prefer it for occasional-but-frequent-enough-to-make-the->-button-inconvenient use.

Oh... if you put it that way, then it does sound like an auto pronunciation implementation would be better :? . I'm just saying if manual, I would prefer a nice big button to pronounce the word I'm applying OCR to, instead of having to go into the > Details section .

No, I meant that it would be a timed trigger like adding a flashcard in flashcards - sorry for the confusing wording.

Yeh, I like the idea of a timed trigger; it would be an ideal implementation for automatic pronunciation of words.

 

[pleco10]

Is there any chance of having an English OCR?? So Pleco can have both English->Chinese and Chinese->English OCR.

If yes, please include it in a free update! It would put the current Pleco OCR price on par with the Word Lens app which does English->Spanish and Spanish->English ($6 each way).

Just a suggestion for more value-adding I guess ... I most definitely will be only needing Chinese->English OCR.

 

[Entropy]

we've also had someone suggest adding an option that automatically plays audio after you point to a word for a second or so, like the Capture Flashcards mode now; would that cover your needs too or would you prefer that this be manually triggered?

A shake gesture could be programmed to do this. Personally I can't stand shake-to-undo.

 

[mikelove]

Oh... if you put it that way, then it does sound like an auto pronunciation implementation would be better . I'm just saying if manual, I would prefer a nice big button to pronounce the word I'm applying OCR to, instead of having to go into the > Details section .

Makes sense, and I think we would want to add that as an option too even if automatic audio would be more useful for a lot of people.

Is there any chance of having an English OCR?? So Pleco can have both English->Chinese and Chinese->English OCR.

If yes, please include it in a free update! It would put the current Pleco OCR price on par with the Word Lens app which does English->Spanish and Spanish->English ($6 each way).

Just a suggestion for more value-adding I guess ... I most definitely will be only needing Chinese->English OCR.

Not sure if it's really worth the time - with Word Lens's success there have to be a couple of dozen other companies working on this sort of app now, and at least one of them will inevitably make their app free-but-ad-supported. E-C OCR is going to appeal to entirely different people than C-E and it's unlikely very many will want both, and making our E-C OCR competitive would actually be quite a lot of work - for example, we'd need to go from our current resizable box to a simple crosshairs, since in English there's no excuse for not identifying word boundaries yourself.

Price-comparison-wise, Word Lens is supposedly increasing their prices to $10 per language on January 1st, on top of which there's ample precedent for Chinese OCR costing more than Roman-alphabet: even among iPhone business card scanner apps (the oldest popular OCR category, I think) you see that, it's a harder problem and the price should be higher.

A shake gesture could be programmed to do this. Personally I can't stand shake-to-undo.

I suppose, but I can't really stand shake-to-anything myself, and there are reasons why this particular gesture won't work well with OCR as of our next update.

 

[tabitha]

I have a pretty basic question. I just purchased a 3G iPhone in order to run Pleco including OCR, only to, of course, find out that in that generation only the 3GS is equipped with an autofocus camera. I'm pretty disappointed (as well as impressed by my own stupidity), but I'd still at least like to try the demo version. I downloaded it, but whenever I push the green "Try OCR Now" button, Pleco just quits and I return back to the main dock. How should I access the demo version? I read the manual, but can't figure it out.

 

[mikelove]

I have a pretty basic question. I just purchased a 3G iPhone in order to run Pleco including OCR, only to, of course, find out that in that generation only the 3GS is equipped with an autofocus camera. I'm pretty disappointed (as well as impressed by my own stupidity), but I'd still at least like to try the demo version. I downloaded it, but whenever I push the green "Try OCR Now" button, Pleco just quits and I return back to the main dock. How should I access the demo version? I read the manual, but can't figure it out.

Did you register your iPhone at http://www.pleco.com/ipafoverride.html first? The 3G might be problematic even after that because it has so little RAM - half as much as the 3GS and 1/4 as much as the 4; could you send me your crash log?

Sync your iPhone with your computer, then go into:

Mac OS X : /Users/(your username)/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/MobileDevice/(your device name)
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\(your username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\(your device name)
Windows Vista / 7: C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\Logs\CrashReporter\MobileDevice\(your device name)

and locate the appropriate log file or files (should have names starting with "Pleco" and the file extension .crash). Send that file to mikelove@pleco.com and we'll get to work on it.

 

[Mingdemen]

Hi. I have just purchased the ocr add-on. Wondering if it can be used while reading text on the iphone itself, and your ocr us on the same iphone? Thanks.

 

[mikelove]

Hi. I have just purchased the ocr add-on. Wondering if it can be used while reading text on the iphone itself, and your ocr us on the same iphone? Thanks.

You could use the still image recognition function to recognize text in a screenshot you'd captured / added to your photo library, but there's no way for us to directly recognize text in another application while it's running - Apple goes to great effort to keep apps from snooping on each other's data.

 

[character]

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/cont ... -hands-on/

"We got a chance to spend a little time with Contour's upcoming Live Viewfinder for the ContourGPS, an app that finally lets us know for sure which way our little cameras are pointing. The app makes a Bluetooth connection to the camera and pulls down footage in real-time [...]"

http://contour.com/camera/contour_gps

Not clear if they will open up the API.