{"id":1787,"date":"2013-05-14T13:32:07","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T17:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.equipmentlink.org\/blog\/?p=1787"},"modified":"2013-05-14T13:32:07","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T17:32:07","slug":"prizmo-rides-again-51413","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.equipmentlink.org\/blog\/?p=1787","title":{"rendered":"Prizmo Rides Again, 5\/14\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prizmo Rides Again<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Contributed by Joel Zimba, Technology Outreach Specialist, MDTAP<\/em><\/p>\n

A few weeks ago, I discussed the Prizmo OCR application for the Mac.\u00a0 In the last few days, there has been a significant update to the Prizmo app for iOS.\u00a0 Prizmo sports a new look and feel.\u00a0 It\u2019s simpler to use and is extremely accessible.<\/p>\n

There are also some accessibility specific features which make Prizmo particularly handy.\u00a0 Level detection has been implemented.\u00a0 After clicking the \u201ctake picture\u201d button, a series of two tones plays.\u00a0 These correspond to the left and right tilt of the camera.\u00a0 By bringing these two tones into tune, the camera becomes level.\u00a0 When Prizmo decided I was finally level, the shutter click noise played, which I was not expecting.<\/p>\n

Also, the \u201cpage detection\u201d feature is particularly useful to blind users.\u00a0 Spoken directions are given which help to bring the full page into view.\u00a0 When the page is more or less in the camera\u2019s field, Prizmo says it is ready to take the picture.<\/p>\n

One last feature of Prizmo is the \u201cquick View.\u201d\u00a0 Rather than creating a document every time something is scanned, the Quick View will not store the results unless you want to save them.\u00a0 I found this especially handy when figuring out how best to scan a specific page or sorting through documents I had no interest in scanning but wanted to identify.<\/p>\n

Just as with other hand-held OCR devices, Prizmo will require practice.\u00a0 In a few short minutes, I was able to identify documents and extract much useful information.\u00a0 If anything could be improved, it would be the addition of a system for bringing the page more into focus. An example of this would the something akin to the KNFB Mobile method of speaking how much of the field of view is filled with the page.<\/p>\n

The makers of Prizmo have done a great job, and I commend them on their dedication to making their product accessible and more useful generally to the blind community.\u00a0 There are many other great features in Prizmo.\u00a0 To date, it is the most powerful iPhone-based OCR application I have used.<\/p>\n

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