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From: delaunay@irisa.fr (Christophe Delaunay)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Arkenstone VS. Iris (information wanted)!
Keywords: Info wanted about OCRs
Message-ID: <17365@bunker.UUCP>
Date: 1 Feb 91 05:49:53 GMT
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Reply-To: delaunay@irisa.fr (Christophe Delaunay)
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Index Number: 13349

Hi!

Yesterday, I went to a demo about a very impressive text-reader called
"IRIS".  IRIS is a piece of software that helps a blind person to read a
printed document.  They told me it's based on an OCR called "truescan".
The salesman said me that IRIS is a french version of the Arkenstone
Reader but he was not sure.  May anyone confirm this to me?

During the demo, I noticed the software could read text without
learning.  However, I was told in this echo that the Arkenstone reader
needs some learning to have a better recognition.  What about
recognition of mathematical symbols?  May a text reader like the
Arkenstone reader learn mathematical symbols and then, recognize them
easily?  Can the Arkenstone reader be used with a Braille device?  The
salesperson I met yesterday said me that IRIS may only be used with a
speech synthesizer!

Are those product as useful in the real world as they seem to be in
demonstration?

Any comment/expreience/review would be very much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance!

Christophe Delaunay.  e-mail : "delaunay@irisa.irisa.fr" or
"delaunay@irisa.uucp" or "...!uunet!{mcsun,inria}!irisa!delaunay"