[Blindtlk] A Useful App that may have been Forgotten

Sun Aug 23 08:17:17 UTC 2015

Thank you for the talking goggles update.  Does anyone know how it works on
the iPhone campaired to the KNFB?

-----Original Message-----
From: blindtlk [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Sherri via
blindtlk
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2015 4:14 AM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Sherri <flmom2006 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] A Useful App that may have been Forgotten

I really didn't understand how to use Talking Goggles. So it wlil
automatically read the text? You don't have to take a picture? That's cool! 
I'll try it again. Thanks.

Sherri
----- Original Message -----
From: "Szostak, Christine via blindtlk" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
To: <acb-l at acblists.org>; "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: "Szostak, Christine" <szostak.1 at buckeyemail.osu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, August 23, 2015 1:57 AM
Subject: [Blindtlk] A Useful App that may have been Forgotten

Hi All,
  I know that when the KNFB Reader app came out, for those with devices, 
this was fantastic. Prior to this, many of us used things like Text 
Detective... which were not optimal options for the blind as you needed to 
be really good with the camera and knowing where the text was located.

  One app that also came out before the reader was that of Talking Goggles. 
When I got the Reader, this app sort of went off of my radar as likely, it 
did for many of you.

  However, of late, I have found myself getting a little frustrated with the

Reader, especially as I use it on an iPod instead of an iPhone and thus it 
is slower and can mess up a bit more.

  Recently, I went back to the Talking Goggles app to test out its 
versatility.

  For those who do not know this app, it is  a text-to-speech app, but it 
differs from the Reader in that it uses live video to read things (also it 
is  quite cheep compared to the Reader, I do not remember the cost but 
significantly less). IN other words, as soon  as the camera focuses on 
something that has text, the app will begin reading it. As you move the item

the app automatically updates. Note that you can take pictures and 
presumably  send them to the cloud or email (though not really sure as I do 
not use it in this way) so you do not need to use the live video part.

  The reason I bring this app up is that I have found it to be quite good at

locating and reading the text of things like small spice jars, clocks, and 
other such things without having to take a pic and wait for it to be 
processed. For example, Yesterday I was able to use it to accurately 
distinguish between all of the spice jars I have only using this app and 
likely in less time than I would have needed had I been using the Reader 
app. Had I used the Reader app, for each jar, I would have likely had to 
take a pic, wait for it to process, take another if it did not recognize the

text, read the results,  and if the part of the label I scan was not the 
part with the needed information, I would have had to repeat this process 
over and over until finding the right location on the label. IN contrast, 
with the Talking Goggles app, I simply placed the jar on the counter, held 
the camera over it (you could use a Scan Stand... for this), waited a moment

for the camera to focus, and then simply continued to slowly turn the jar 
until I heard the needed information. Sometimes the app would continuously 
read as the jar was moved, sometimes I needed to wait about .5-3 sec for it 
to focus again. This process was much easier and faster in my opinion (and a

lot less time consuming:)).

  Note that the app can be a little slow if you are using a 5th Gen iPod but

I think this is just because the camera takes more time to focus. It has a 
fair number of languages and the speech is quite clear. It is not Samantha 
though like the Reader.

  I just thought I would mention this app since I think it got lumped  in 
with all of the other TTS apps sadly when the Reader came out. Note that it 
has just been updated and it seems much more stable and accurate than it use

to be.

  Note that this is just my own personal opinion based on my personal 
experience with the Reader app (so I will understand if others disagree with

this view as this is just what I have found works well for me personally). 
When the Reader app first came out, I had a lot better luck with it than I 
seem to have had after newer updates came out (likely just me:)).
Happy Sunday!
Chris

Dr. Christine M. Szostak
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Department of Social Sciences
Shorter University
Rome, Georgia
szostak.1 at osu.edu<mailto:szostak.1 at osu.edu>
cszostak at shorter.edu

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