[BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading

Wed Jul 26 15:27:05 UTC 2017

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04, and Duxbury's `PerkyDuck` tool works well under
Wine emulation.  I also run the full DBT system on Win10, running under
emulation in VirtualBox.

`PerkyDuck` is freely available, and saves in DXB, BRF and BRU formats.  It
is available from the following URL.

http://www.duxburysystems.com/product2.asp?product=Perky%20Duck&level=free&action=pur

HTH,

_don

On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 8:49 AM, John G Heim via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> I think what somebody else said was right -- the instructor is used to
> people taking photos with their phone and submitting that. But the whole
> reason I'm doing this is to find the best tools. I think I am going to see
> if I can find a linux text editor that allows me to generate brf files.
> That ducksbury tool sounds interesting to me but right now, I must have
> linux.
>
>
>
> On 07/26/2017 08:52 AM, Steve Jacobson via BlindMath wrote:
>
>> John,
>>
>> I can see where increasing the DPI might help since the braille dot is
>> smaller than most characters.  Another thing to experiment with is whether
>> your scanner is getting the image in black and white or color.  I frankly
>> don't know which will work the best because such things seem variable.  I
>> have had cases, though, where low contrast differences on a page came out
>> better in black and white because of the binary nature, but it seems
>> likely
>> that approach might cause some dots to not show at all falling below a
>> threshold.  Obviously, the brightness sensitivity can also matter.  I
>> would
>> think that an instructor in such a course would have very specific
>> recommendations, though, or perhaps Hadley itself.  This does not seem
>> like
>> it would be an unusual problem.
>>
>> I, for one, would be interested to hear what you find out.  I don't
>> remember, are you an Optacon user?
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Steve Jacobson
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John
>> G.
>> Heim via BlindMath
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 7:12 AM
>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: John G. Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading
>>
>> My instructor is sighted. She can sight-read the braille if the dots
>> come up clearly enough in the scanned document. I guess I wouldn't be
>> taking the course if I could see but if I could, all I'd have to do is
>> to keep tweaking the scanner settings until it worked. I think the first
>> thing I am going to do is increase the DPI. There is a lot of info out
>> there that says 300 DPI is best for OCR and my own experiments have
>> confirmed that.  But a higher DPI might be better just to get braille
>> dots to show up on a scanner.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 07/26/2017 04:43 AM, George Bell wrote:
>>
>>> Hi John,
>>>
>>> Scanning embossed braille is not an easy task.  Indeed there was once a
>>> program called "OBR" (Optical Braille Recognition).  But even that
>>>
>> required
>>
>>> that specific makes and models of scanner be used, which allowed control
>>>
>> of
>>
>>> lighting during the scan.
>>>
>>> You instructor should know this.
>>>
>>> Do I get the impression you are using a Perkins type braille writer as
>>> opposed to say 6 key entry into PC braille software such as Duxbury?
>>>
>>> George
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John
>>> G
>>> Heim via BlindMath
>>> Sent: 25 July 2017 15:02
>>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>>> Cc: John G Heim
>>> Subject: [BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading
>>>
>>> I'm taking a braille class through Hadley School for the Blind. I am
>>>
>> trying
>>
>>> to submit my homework assignments as scanned images of braille pages for
>>>
>> the
>>
>>> instructor to sight-read. The instructor asked me to scan them as photos
>>>
>> but
>>
>>> I don't know what that means. Does anybody have experience scanning in
>>> braille and can tell me the best format, mode, and dpi settings? I sent
>>> my
>>> instructor tif line-art at 300 dpi which works well for OCR but that
>>>
>> didn't
>>
>>> work for sight-reading braille.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> --
>>> John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org
>>>
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>>
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