Tagarno LiveReader
Introduction
The new LiveReader from Tagarno is a revolutionary new product that offers the user features that one would not have thought possible from a single unit. Users no longer have the problem of having to get to grips with confusing button configurations or clicking on things with a mouse pointer. For the first time on a CCTV, the unit is actually controlled via a touch screen, with intuitive icons that encourage exploration of the system and understanding.
Styles
To further enable quick acclimatisation to this new method of control, 6 different pre-defined styles are available to choose from. They are all designed to be high contrast and easily interpretable. The first two, shown on the right, are fresh and stylish, whilst remaining easy to use.
The red style leaves the document in full colour mode whilst the black and white mode enhances the brightness and contrast of the image to make it even clearer.
The two styles shown below are darker styles which offer a yellow text on blue background and white text on a black background and use buttons with a slightly different style.
Whatever your preference may be, the LiveReader offers a range of styles to personalise your CCTV in a way that suits you best.
Three Modes of Use
The LiveReader is extremely versatile in that it has three separate modes that can be enabled by the press of an icon on the touch-screen depending on the user's needs at that time.
Picture Mode
This is where the power of the LiveReader can really be seen. Using its built in, high resolution digital camera, when instructed the LiveReader takes a picture of what is underneath it. This picture is then sent to the systems high quality optical character recognition software (OCR) where the image is recognised and readied for the LiveReader's next ability - speech output. With the OCR command finished, the LiveReader will begin to read your document to you out loud whilst simultaneously displaying the captured image on screen and will follow the text on screen as it speaks.
The user can easily stop and start the speech output, as well as jump to anywhere on the page by simply pressing the desired word on screen. The LiveReader then reads from that point in the text.
At any stage, the user can use their hand to pan around the document by dragging their fingers across the screen to search for a relevant paragraph or piece of information in the document.
OCR Technology with Smart Rotate
The powerful OCR software even has the ability to accurately recognise newspapers - something that many scanning applications have great difficulty with.
This system is a vast improvement over existing reading machines in that the user does not have to struggle with placing the document onto the scanning platen and ensuring that it is in exactly the correct position before scanning can commence. Also, the fact the LiveReader uses a digital camera means that the time taken to capture the image is almost instantaneous - thus the overall time before reading can start is greatly reduced.
Historically, OCR software could only compensate for a small range of orientation error (normally up to 40º) but using Smart Rotate, the LiveReader has the ability to allow for full 360º rotation, meaning it does not matter how the document is placed under the camera.
File Management System
The LiveReader also has a unique file management system that automatically stores any photographed document by date. When the file system viewer is activated, users can see a history of all their documents on screen. This means that once a document has been placed on the LiveReader, you will never have to put it under the CCTV again, it can just be viewed with a touch of the screen and then the image can be treated like a normal document under the CCTV - you can pan around, zoom in and out, utilise the enhanced colour modes etc.
Live Mode
In Live Mode, the LiveReader operates in a similar way to a conventional CCTV magnifier. A high quality video camera is used to project the image onto the sharp TFT monitor. The user can then move the document around underneath the camera to pan around.
All the standard CCTV functions are available:
| Zoom | From 1/4x to 30x on 17" TFT screen (excellent for RP suffers) | |
| Foreground and Background Colours | Choice of: Black on White, Yellow on Blue, Yellow on Black, Green on Black, Red on Black and Positive / Negative of all combinations | |
| Natural Colours | Adjustable |
Computer Mode
As the LiveReader is controlled through a computer, it is possible to switch out of LiveReader mode and use the computer as normal. All screen reading and magnification software can be used as it would on any other PC when not in LiveReader mode.
Also, if using the recommended tablet PC or a laptop with the LiveReader, you can access your saved documents anywhere at anytime. Simply undock your computer and you can do everything you could do before, except capture new images. The file management system allows for fast retrieval of your archived documents and LiveReader software can still zoom, enhance and read these documents to you! This is extremely useful for looking at documents on the way to work on the train for example
Image Enhancement
The LiveReader has the capability to enhance text on screen using a process called binarizing. This enhances the brightness and contrast but can have the undesired effect of making the text look "chiselled". However, by applying further enhancement, the LiveReader can also smooth out the effects of binarizing to make the text clearer still.>
Using the image shown to the right as the original, the different improvements that the LiveReader can perform are detailed below:  |
1). Binarized Image - Here "chiselling" is very apparent although the word is still very clear. |
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2). Fast Picture Enhancement - The quality of the text has been greatly improved and the processing time required to perform this level of improvement is still very low. |
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3). Normal Picture Enhancement - The quality of the text is improved further and the processing time required is still very acceptable. |
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4). High Picture Enhancement - Here the quality of the text is superb but the time taken for the enhancement is more considerable. |
Depending on your preference, you can select which level of image enhancement you wish to be performed in the settings window of the LiveReader.
Keyboard and Remote Control
As an alternative, the LiveReader is also controllable via a keyboard and a remote control. This again gives you the choice of choosing the control method that suits you best.>
Graphical Settings
As many web-pages are designed to be viewed with a resolution of no lower than 1024x768 pixels and a very common resolution for computers is 1024x768 pixels, this is what the LiveReader is designed to be run at. At this true XVGA resolution it runs at a completely flicker free 85Hz by default (other frequencies are also selectable).
Download information on LiveReader in PDF formatPrice Tagarno LiveReader
