Accessibility at NSW CLIC

(reviewed by Andrew Downie, February 2011)

Introduction

To put this article into context, also see the review of Eye-Pal, which is a similar product. Also see the Eye-Pal and OpenBook with Pearl comparison.

OpenBook is optical character recognition (OCR) and reading software specifically intended for use by people who have limited vision or visual reading difficulties for other reasons. The product, which runs on the Windows platform, was acquired by Freedom Scientific some years ago and continues to evolve. Until recently, hardcopy material was processed by OpenBook via a conventional scanner connected to the computer. This option is still available, but Freedom has recently released the Pearl, a camera that communicates with the software via the computer’s USB port. This allows considerably faster processing of material and, when coupled with a notebook computer, makes a very portable scanning and reading package.

Installation

Under best circumstances, installation of the software is straight forward. It is important to do this before connecting the Pearl to the computer and this is clearly indicated in the accompanying documentation. The only problem encountered during testing involved activating OpenBook. While activation can be done over the internet, the Department’s firewall prevents this. An alternative involves sending specific information to Freedom Scientific via the distributor and receiving an activation code. After three weeks of swapping emails and entering codes and receiving error messages, this process was abandoned. A physical dongle was then used and this was successful on the second attempt. Without activation, OpenBook runs in demonstration mode, requiring a computer restart every 40 minutes.

Highly versatile software

The OpenBook software is much more than an easy-to-use OCR package (that process will be discussed below). Facilities include:

• Synthetic speech that can be turned on or off to suit individual needs
• Material can be displayed in a wide variety of sizes and colours
• A scanned document can be saved in OpenBook’s proprietory format and also exported to text, Word (.doc), RTF and HTML formats
• Material can be sent to a Braille printer and also saved as an audio file xx
• An OpenBook file can be read in either “text” (a simplified view) or “exact” view, depending on needs and circumstances
• Once scanned, a document can be easily edited

It is easy to use basic features of the software without reading the accompanying documentation. This, however, is likely to result in the user missing out on many valuable features. Documentation, while perhaps being a little verbose, is well written and organised. It can be accessed from within OpenBook and is also provided in text and RTF formats.

The Pearl camera

When folded, the Pearl can be housed in the supplied neoprene case. The case offers very good protection and includes a shoulder strap. Both the camera and a notebook computer will comfortably fit into a small backpack or similarly sized luggage.

Setting up the camera is quick and easy. The arm holding the camera hinges to a roughly horizontal position and locks into place. A small button at the pivot point is pressed to release it for folding. The Pearl is powered from the computer’s USB port. A light on the camera can be toggled on and off by pressing ctrl-l, but testing did not include an environment with dim light.

Scanning

OpenBook automatically recognises scanners that are connected to the computer, including the Pearl camera. If more than one scanner is connected, the user chooses between them.

By default, scanning is commenced by pressing the spacebar. If the Pearl is being used, it takes only a few seconds to capture and process a page. In “acquire and read” mode, a fresh scan is performed with each press of the spacebar and new material is placed on a separate page. In “multipage automatic” mode, the Pearl recognises when movement of the document has ceased and captures the next page. If a book is small enough, it can be turned sideways to allow both pages to be scanned simultaneously. On bulky books however, presumably due to pages curving near the binding, this mode was highly inaccurate during testing. Another option is to scan all odd pages, then even pages and then have them collated.

Three scan qualities are available. The user can choose from fastest, mixed and most accurate. Over a reasonably wide variety of material during testing, however, the “most accurate” mode, while taking a little longer, usually yielded less accuracy than the mixed mode. As with other facets of the software, a large number of scanning settings can be adjusted. While providing considerable flexibility, an inexperienced or less technically oriented user is likely to find the array of options daunting. As already mentioned, reading the documentation will help. Fortunately, default settings are well chosen for many situations.

OpenBook as a reading tool

With its in-built synthetic speech and highly flexible visual display options, it is very effective as a reading tool for people who have little or no vision and will also suit some who have visual reading difficulties. A scanned document retains information from each page discretely, which can be important in study situations. Bookmarks and comments can be placed in the document and the dictionary and thesaurus can be used to check the meaning of the current word.

Specifications