Gary.Petraccaro@f90.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Gary Petraccaro) (08/12/90)
Index Number: 9779
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Saw this on BIX and thought you'd all be interested.
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handicapped/long.messages #36, from lazzaro, 5266 chars, Sat Jul 28 10:23:28
1990
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TITLE: ROBITRON OCR
This was provided to me by PFRASER who asked if this could be
placed here in LONG.MESSAGES. Enjoy!
Robotron Pty. Ltd., July 1990
Robotron has developed a unique technology which makes it
possible to produce Optical Character Recognition products
cost-effectively and offer them to our customers at much
lower prices than existing products of comparable or lesser
quality.
Robotron's proprietary Optical Character Recognition
technology is based on Robotron-developed intelligent
character recognition algorithms which enable the
recognition process to be, for practical purposes,
independent of character size and the type of font used.
While Robotron intends to further develop this technology in
future years, improving the recognition accuracy and speed,
as well as incorporating alphabets other than the Roman
alphabet, the first products of the range are about to be
launched.
The following descriptions summarize the features of the
introductory products in the Robotron OCR family. These
specifications are preliminary, and subject to change
without notice. The same applies to the pricing information,
which is believed to be correct at the time of writing.
Eureka HS Reader
The Eureka HS Reader is an add-on device for the Eureka A4
Personal Computer. Combined with the Eureka, this Reader
represents the smallest and least expensive stand-alone
Optical Character Reader on the market. The projected
release date is August 1990, and price around A$1,275.
The HS Reader consists of the following items:
Hand-held scanner, size 60 by 80 by 23 mm, with a connecting
cable which fits the Eureka Keyboard port;
Software on disk;
Adjustable tracking aid for the hand scanner to aid
hand-guided scanning over long lines and larger amounts of
text;
User's manual in print and on Eureka disk.
The HS reader is controlled from the Eureka keyboard and
allows the user to select from the following functions:
Page prescan:
Acoustic feedback makes it possible for the user to locate
lines on a page, to distinguish pictures or graphics from
text and to position the hand scanner at the beginning of a
line.
Text-to-speech conversion:
Text scanned is converted during a short pause, and spoken
immediately after conversion. The length of the pause
between scanning and speech is proportional to the length of
the text scanned, about one second per 25 characters.
Accurate movement of the scanner along the line is aided by
a combination of acoustic feedback and the use of the
mechanical tracking aid.
Text storage:
The converted text may be stored in a file for future
examination in the Eureka Word Processor.
Technical specifications of the Eureka HS Reader:
Accuracy: Depending on font, quality of print and user
tracking accuracy, will exceed 95% under optimum conditions.
Speed of translation: Greater than 25 characters per second,
depending on font and quality of print.
Recognized fonts: Typewritten, typeset, laser print, most
dot-matrix fonts.
Size of fonts: 6 to 24 point.
Type of fonts: monospaced or proportional, automatic
switching.
Width of image field: 8 mm.
Scanning resolution: 200 dots per inch.
Size of image buffer: 13,600 bytes, or 1700 vertical slices
of 64 bits each, corresponding to an area of 8 mm by 215 mm.
Text reader 320
This is a stand-alone Optical Character Reader which
contains its own image processor and speech synthesizer; its
operation is therefore independent of the host computer.
However, the Text reader may be connected to a computer,
such as the Eureka A4, the Apple family of computers, or the
IBM or PC-compatible family of computers, among others, to
provide storage of the translated text. The connection is
facilitated by an RS-232 interface supplied on the scanner.
The Text Reader is controlled via its own front panel, or
from the Eureka Communications function, or a suitable
Communications program running on other host computers.
The Text Reader resembles a small low-profile desk-top
photocopier and allows scanning of loose sheets of paper as
well as the pages of books.
It is estimated that the Text Reader 320 will be available
in October 1990, and will retail for around A$3,750. The
package will consist of the following items:
Desk-top document scanner with built-in intelligence;
User's manual in print and Eureka or DOS-format disk.
Technical specifications of Text Reader 320:
Accuracy: Depending on font and quality of print, will
exceed 99% on most commonly used fonts under optimum
conditions.
Speed of translation: Greater than 120 cps, depending on
font and quality of print.
Recognized fonts: Typewritten, typeset, laser print, most
dot-matrix fonts.
Size of fonts: 6 to 28 point.
Type of fonts: monospaced or proportional, automatic
switching.
Scanning resolution: 300 dots per inch.
Size of image buffer: 1,048,576 bytes, corresponding to a
page area of 8.5 by 13.5 inches.
Dimensions: 534 mm wide by 340 mm deep by 129 mm high.
Weight: 8.1 kg.
Scanning area: 8.5 by 11.5 inches.
For further information regarding the Robotron range of OCR
products, please contact your nearest Robotron
representative, or call Robotron North America at
1-800-735-1031.
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