[BlindMath] Digitising technical literature with the help of the smartphone

Mon Oct 12 18:19:20 UTC 2020

Hi Neils,

In your original email you mentioned having access to a "conventional scanner" -- if you have access to something like a flatbed scanner that often comes with a printer/copier these days, you will probably get a much better image going that route rather than using a smartphone camera. But, if all you have to work with is a camera, there are applications that can clean up the image to make it better for optical character recognition and hence better recognition with something like MathPix. But I really doubt you can get the kind of clarity needed by InftyReader with a smartphone.

That said...I don't know how easy to use or accessible some of the image cleanup software may be. I don't have much experience with them. I know there is a free open-source application called ImageMagick: https://imagemagick.org/index.php
There is also an application called ScanFix Xpress which has a free trial version that may be useful: https://www.accusoft.com/products/sdks/scanfix-xpress/

Hope that helps...

--Steve Noble
steve.noble at louisville.edu
502-969-3088

________________________________
From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> on behalf of Niels Luithardt via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, October 12, 2020 5:56 AM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Niels Luithardt <niels.luithardt at googlemail.com>
Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Digitising technical literature with the help of the smartphone

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of our organization. Do not click links, open attachments, or respond unless you recognize the sender's email address and know the contents are safe.

Hello Stephen,
I am blind, but my seeing assistant prepares documents for me using
Mathpix. However, I still have old photos of book pages, which I would
like to edit with Mathpix now, but some of them were obviously taken
in a too bad resolution. I could have the books photographed again
with Mathpix, but maybe there is also a possibility to edit the old
photos on the PC so that Mathpix or the InftyReader could deliver
results. Could you possibly use an image editing program like GIMP to
increase the resolution or improve the image quality in other ways.
Do you have any tips on how best to take photos with Mathpix?
With kind regards
Niels Luithardt

2020-10-07 14:23 GMT+02:00, Noble,Stephen L. <steve.noble at louisville.edu>:
> Assuming you are sighted, you can use the MathPix on your phone. There are
> both Android and iOS phone apps available. That might be a lot simpler and
> more accurate than trying to use InftyReader with a phone camera.
> https://nam03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmathpix.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Csteve.noble%40louisville.edu%7Cf337b59c6f1b4b77b81b08d86e956f47%7Cdd246e4a54344e158ae391ad9797b209%7C0%7C0%7C637380935384619387&sdata=ggf2qPbBGUi%2BCy%2FI5HFKXcB982tKyivxP8w5%2B%2BKVBx0%3D&reserved=0
>
> --Steve Noble
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> on behalf of Niels Luithardt
> via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 7, 2020 7:36 AM
> To: blindmath at nfbnet.org <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Niels Luithardt <niels.luithardt at googlemail.com>
> Subject: [BlindMath] Digitising technical literature with the help of the
> smartphone
>
> CAUTION: This email originated from outside of our organization. Do not
> click links, open attachments, or respond unless you recognize the sender's
> email address and know the contents are safe.
>
> Hello,
> I have a seemingly simple question:
> How can I take pictures with the camera of a smartphone such as an
> Android smartphone or an iPhone with the highest possible resolution?
> The following background:
> I would like to photograph pages from old maths and physics books in
> order to digitise them. Unfortunately, there are many books that do
> not yet exist in a digital version.
> Professional book scanners are unfortunately not available to me.
> Therefore I only have conventional scanners or the smartphone for
> digitising.
> In order to be able to use programs like the Infty Reader effectively,
> I need pictures with a resolution of at least 400 to 600 dpi.
> Is it possible to achieve such resolutions with a smartphone camera
> and if so, how? Do you eventually have some tips for me?
> I would be very happy about any tips and hints!
> Many thanks and best wishes
> Niels
>
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