Surrey Association for Visual Impairment. Making a visible difference in Surrey.
Equipment reviews
Equipment Reviews from the SAVI Equipment Group
This section of the website is where we review equipment and items that might be useful for vision impaired people. The group is made up of vision impaired people and members of SAVI’s Community Support Team including Andy Cook, our vastly experienced Resource Centre Manager.
The reviews are meant to give a flavour and a little information on the products tested. We would advise you to try them for yourself if you can, by contacting the manufacturers or suppliers as we are very aware that everyone has different needs and may find one piece works very well for them. If SAVI is stocking the items you can call for an appointment or enquire and buy online as usual.
We hope you find the reviews useful and are very happy to listen to suggestions for new equipment to test. We can’t promise we will be able to but we will try.
Reading Documents using a Mobile Phone
There are currently at least three O.C.R. (Optical Character Recognition) programmes available to be installed on a mobile phone using the Symbian 3 operating system, usually a Nokia Camera Phone. They all work in a similar way, you take a photo of a document and it is converted into a text file which is read to you.
The SAVI Equipment group have written reviews of some of the products which we hope you find useful.
Beyo CBS reader:
This is the most basic of the three products. It has an audio tool which is meant to help you line up the camera on the document to be read. It was easier to place the camera, lens down, on the centre of the document and raise the camera about a foot, then press the shutter release. There is then a period of silence while the software is converting the picture to text. Unfortunately there is nothing to tell you how long this will take. However if there was text on the paper it will be read in clear voice. Once read you can repeat the reading but there is no facility to save the text on your phone or to a computer.
Price £75
Download a 7 day free trial from www.beyocbs.com
You will also find a list of compatible phones using this link.
Text Scout:
This uses the internet to process the picture, so do not consider this one unless you have a data plan with your mobile service provider. Works as above, including an alignment tool. The same process as described for the Beyo was adopted for taking the picture. After the picture is taken it is automatically sent to the Text Scout web site where it is converted and sent back as a text file. While this is going on you get regular voice prompts about progress. In the settings folder there options allowing you to set reading mode, voice, colour, contrast and magnification. These latter features are useful if you have some sight. The reading modes allow optimisation for reading rows, columns or packaging.
The programme sells in Germany for approx 900 Euros. More details from www.textscout.eu
KNFB Reader:
Very similar to the Text Scout, but all the processing is done within the phone. It has reading modes for rows and columns and range of text sizes. Once a document has been converted into text, it can be saved on the phone or sent to your computer.
Costs approx. £700. More details from www.knfbreader.com
Conclusion:
The Text Scout was very good at recognising the text, but did need a fast data connection to work. The KNFB Reader was very similar in price and performance. Whilst the Beyo reader had the least functions it read the documents clearly, was only a fraction of the cost and for many blind users could be a useful portable solution.
For all of the above products you will need a suitable mobile phone equipped with Talks, which together could cost around £450. Everybody has different needs with their phones and OCR software so this information is for guidance only. Please do check with your supplier for more details.
Kapten from Kapsys:
The SAVI equipment group have also trialled the above multi function tool. It is a navigation tool and MP3 player with FM radio with a 3 gigabyte capacity. It is also a voice recorder and can be linked to a mobile phone via Bluetooth. We thought it might be a useful navigation tool for visually impaired people so we tried it out.
It was not designed solely for use by VI people and the size of the unit and shape and design of controls may pose some difficulties. It did have a number of functional options and seemed fairly versatile. It comes with audio instructions and it also has instructions built in to the unit itself.
The group found that the battery life was a little short and they struggled with the voice recognition. They found that for VI users it was not suitable as it did not point out obstacles such as junctions and they had to concentrate hard on the voice whilst navigating thus detracting from concentration on the audible environment considerably.
The cost of the Kapten is about £170. More information can be found at: http://www.kapsys.com/modules/movie/scenes/home/
Azabat games and crosswords for computer use:
One of the members of our equipment steering group, Val Clarke, recently trialled these crosswords for us to find out how useable and enjoyable they were.
“I did a trial of the Azabat crossword as it was something I could do on my own, as when I had sight. I found, after using the F1 and F12 function keys, and reading the instructions, they were reasonably easy to navigate and like so many things, the more they are used the easier it becomes. This is the first time I have tried a crossword for VI computer users and I think they are something I would enjoy and will certainly purchase”.
The games and crosswords are available in several different formats – crosswords, number games, and so on. For more information or to place and order, speak to Andy or Maralyn in the Resource Centre.
Your shopping basket is empty
The Difference Made Visible
Sight Loss
Learn about the most common eye conditions that can cause visual impairment.
