We received a tip on what appears to be an upcoming press release from Serotek on their DocuScan Plus product. It will include modes to recognize pages using a tradditional scanner, USB camera, or a mobile device among others. An accessible PDF converter and reader will also be included. The entire release is after the jump.
Introducing DocuScan Plus
Affordable, portable and feature rich access to the printed word has long been a
challenge for blind consumers. The ideal solution is one which is easy to use, has
a number of compelling features, can be used at home or on the go, and doesn’t break
the bank. There has never been a single product which fits each of these criteria,
until now.
Serotek’s DocuScan Plus is an OCR solution which provides quick and accurate results
and can be used from anywhere with a wide variety of supported devices. You can
use a traditional plug and play scanner, an automatic document feeder, a duplex scanner,
an iPhone, or even a document camera to scan your materials. Best of all, you don’t
even have to be at your own computer to use the product. As a cloud-based solution,
docuScan Plus can be accessed from any computer, and as long as your scanning device
has native Windows drivers, no additional software need be installed on the machine.
Students and professionals need access to a wide variety of materials, ranging from
one-page handouts to bills and other mail, to textbooks and other lengthy documents.
DocuScan Plus has scanning modes to suit each of these needs. Simple scan allows
the user to quickly scan a small amount of material, review it, and either save
or discard it. Batch scan is perfect for materials like textbooks or product manuals.
A user can scan a large number of pages and OCR is performed in the background. The
recognized document can then be saved for later editing. The AutoRead mode is ideal
for those who want to review materials as they are being scanned. The document will
automatically begin reading the first recognized page, and the user can continue
scanning pages even as the material which has already been recognized is read. A
user can even create a profile with OCR settings which work best on a particular
type of document, and save this profile to use each time that document type is encountered.
Whether scanning a one-sided page with a single collumn, or a complex two-sided document
with multiple collumns, DocuScan Plus returns fast and accurate results. The use
of DocuScan Plus is not restricted to paper documents. The product also supports
the reading of PDF files, whether they are resident on a hard drive or accessed from
a browser. There’s no need to use Adobe Reader. Any of the material recognized
by DocuScan Plus can be saved to online storage, emailed to yourself or someone else,
and can even be converted to Daisy, MP3, or BRF format for reading from a portable
device.
In addition to supporting a wealth of Twwain-compliant scanners, DocuScan Plus can
also be used with a portable document camera. This camera interfaces with a computer
over USB, and it takes a snapshot of the material in focus. The camera can automatically
detect that a page has been turned and capture the next image, and can even be used
in Live Camera mode to magnify images on the page for low vision users. The camera
is lightweight and can easily be carried in a small backpack. For those who don’t
want to carry an extra device but still want to be able to read menus and the like,
DocuScan Plus can be used with a phone on the Android or iOS platforms. The user
simply snaps a picture from the phone, which is then sent to Serotek’s server to
be processed. The text results are sent back to the user’s phone within a matter
of seconds. As with other scanned material, the results can be stored online for
later viewing by the user, or discarded if no longer needed.
Given this impressive list of features, you might expect DocuScan Plus to cost upwards
of $2000 which would be competitively priced with existing AT products of this type,
but this is not the case. For just $299 for the DocuScan Plus software and $499
for the optional document camera, a student or professional can be equipped with
a powerful OCR solution that can be used absolutely anywhere. This means that if
a computer is available in a library, Internet café, classroom, boardroom, or anywhere
else, it is appropriate for use with DocuScan Plus. This product can be purchased
as a standalone, or in conjunction with other Serotek products. For more information
about DocuScan Plus and other Serotek products, please visit
www.serotek.com
, or call (866) 202-0520.
Interesting. I wonder if their camera will be twain or wia compliant so that I can use it with the OCR product of my choice? I'm not comfortable with everything I OCR getting sent to the cloud, I read my mail via OCR and those documents are often of a highly personal nature. I'd buy the camera though if it'd work with Omnipage, my preferred OCR solution.
Jeff.young Friday, 19-Nov-2010 3:53 PM ET:
So if I by the program can I use it on my mac as well as my iphone or would I have to by it twice? If I had to by it for separate devices that would be a huge deal breaker. I'm also wondering if you'll be able to rent the service like you can with their other fine products. If I could rent this for $10 a month it would be great for me as well as most blind folks on a low budget.
Liz Tuesday, 23-Nov-2010 10:21 AM ET:
I'm guessing that the $299 and $499 prices are separate and that the price tag for both is $699? Still, it's cheaper than anything else I think I've seen.
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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.
