[Nfb-krafters-korner] Friday's question 2 days late

[tribble]

Hi -- there are 4 color recognizers that I know of:
* the color test -- the expensive one (about $700--phew!!!) which is a 
little gadget with an opening at one end that you place directly on the 
thing you want to colorize
* the colorino -- about a third the price of the color test that works about 
the same way (see below for comparison)
* MCR or mobile color recognizer, software for a symbian based cell phone 
developed by www.codefactory.es, which snaps a picture of what you want to 
colorize and speaks what it finds, and
* VOIC -- software something like MCR

Ok. I have used the first 3 of these and have the following comparison.  I 
should say that I use the color test, which I coughed up the money for as my 
trials at convention showed that it identified colors better than the 
colorino -- in particular, the dark navy blue that I can't tell from back 
was identified as black by the colorino and dark blue by the color test. 
Since the dark colors were the colors I most needed help with, I chose color 
test.

The color test not only speaks a color name when you snap the picture, it 
also can be queried for a full color analysis, which is interesting but 
perhaps not as usable as it sounds. It tells the brightness and intensity 
and percentages of red/green/blue as well as position on a color wheel.
The color test also has other options on it that I seldom use -- such as 
time/date announcement, appointment book, stopwatch and timer, and games, 
and a spoken battery level -- although the rechargeable bettery goes for 
months without needing a charge.
The only drawback is that awful price -- but if you need it, you make a way. 
(I figure if I were sighted I'd be spending all this money on a car.)

The colorino is basically a copy of the color test wiwith a slightly less 
accurate color identifier -- I think someone said it did 200 color shades. I 
don't know about the color test.  I didn't purchase it and don't know what 
other features it has.

The MCR is quite different in its approach -- I actually bought this -- cost 
around $30 when I bought it -- and ended up buying the color test anyway, 
which shows how well it works...  Basically the MCR uses the cell phone 
camera to snap a photo of what you want colorized, and analyzes the digital 
image for color(s) in the picture, including (if you want it) the colors at 
various positions of the picture, such as upper right corner, etc.  It like 
all the other  color identifiers can be used as a light sensor in a room. 
The MCR is more useful in one sense: it isn't limited to colorizing just one 
small point, like the color test and colorino.    It also can use the zoom 
feature of the camera to focus in one direction.  But it has the very 
serious drawback: it needs to be calibrated before taking a picture. This is 
done by carrying around a piece of paper that is known to be white, pointing 
the camera at it  and holding down a calibration button until it is 
finished.  If you don't get this step right, it will give you quite 
amazingly wrong readings -- colors not remotely true.    This is obviously a 
serious problem for someone who can't see. The calibration needs to be done 
every time the lighting in the surroundings changes -- but here again, how 
would a totally blind person be aware of this change?
So after playing around with it for a while I gave up and ditched it.

The VOIC is similar to the MCR. I don't know if it requires the calibration.

I hope this summary is of use.
Happy crafting.
--le


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Blindhands at aol.com>
To: <nfb-krafters-korner at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2008 4:47 PM
Subject: [Nfb-krafters-korner] Friday's question 2 days late


Please tell us which color identifier  would you recommend?  Tell  us the
name and price of it.  Then tell us why you think this one is the  best.

Joyce
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