Pearl Camera and OpenBook OCR Software

Product Description

Making Graphics-based Text Accessible to the Visually Impaired.

The PEARL brings blind and low vision users instant portable access to printed material with an array of human-sounding voices. Combined with OpenBook, this user-friendly software program converts printed documents or graphic-based text into an electonic format on your PC, using quality speech and the latest in optical character recognition (OCR) technology.

OpenBook utilizes both Nuance OmniPage® and ABBYY FineReader® OCR engines to bring you the most accurate text recognition available. You also can choose between two leading text-to-speech software synthesizers: RealSpeak® Solo (natural, human-sounding voices) or Eloquence (efficient synthesized speech that often is preferred for editing and document skimming).

Lightning Fast OCR

The PEARL folding camera deploys in seconds to connect to your PC and snap a picture of your reading material. Press a keystroke to snap a picture, and hear your book read back to you with Eloquence or one of the human-sounding voices from RealSpeak Solo Direct®. You control the reading rate and voice.

With lightning fast page acquisition and no page scan mistakes, OpenBook captures up to 20 pages per minute. Its built-in motion detection prevents snapping a picture until a page is turned and is perfectly still.

Automatic Page Capture

In automatic mode, the PEARL senses motion, so it knows to snap an image whenever you turn a page. Place your paperback novel sideways, and the PEARL will snap two pages at a time and maintain the pagination. For larger books, you can capture even pages first, and then flip the book over to capture the odd pages. You can keep turning pages and capturing images while OpenBook reads to you.

Read All Kinds of Documents

Use the PEARL to read books, magazines, and bills. OpenBook identifies columns and places them inlogical reading order. Change the language setting to read foreign language documents with native speaker voices.

Reformat Text for Easier Reading

Once your page has been captured, you have multiple options for viewing the information. You can display the text so that it wraps on the screen, enlarge the font, change the font style, and change the foreground and background colors. Have the individual words spotlighted as they are spoken.

Customize Your Viewing.

With so many low vision features, you can tailor the appearance of text on your screen (font style, size, character spacing, and color), view with split-screen and compare your original document and OCR conversion results, use Masking and Word Spotlighting to help you follow text as it is read, and more.

Mark Up Your Documents.

Use the Highlight feature to mark important passages of a document for later reference and to quickly navigate within your document. You also can insert comments in a document and have those comments remain hidden or be announced during document review. You can even export Highlights and Comments to new documents.

Maximize Your Productivity

Launch Manager lets you easily export OpenBook documents to other applications like Microsoft ® Word or Notepad, so you can share with others.

Use as a Video Magnifier

Use the PEARL to show a live video image on your PC to fill out forms. Snap a picture to show the enlarged image on your PC, and navigate with the virtual XY table from the keyboard. The PEARL works in most room lighting. If the room is dark, simply turn on the built-in LED lighting.

Take It with You Anywhere

The PEARL is the ultimate in portable scanning and reading. It sets up in seconds to provide a stable platform for the camera with alignment features to ensure you capture a good image every time. It runs off a single USB port – no battery or external power supply required. When you are ready to move on, the PEARL folds up into a compact 14”x 3”x 2 1/8” package and zips into its protective neoprene case. Carry it by its shoulder strap or slip it into your briefcase or backpack.