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07 Oct 09 - 06:44 AM (#2740281) Subject: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: Fred McCormick I've just seen an advert for a magnifying computer mouse in a Radio Times mail order supplement. According to the blurb you move the device over a piece of printed hard copy and it will show a magnified image on your computer screen. Has anyone tried one? I'd be interested to know how user friendly it is. Also, whether there's any way of saving the image as text once it appears on-screen. Many anticipatory heartfelts. |
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07 Oct 09 - 07:02 AM (#2740289) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: Mr Happy If so, it'd be a possible improvement to scanning in |
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07 Oct 09 - 07:47 AM (#2740302) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: GUEST,Ed I assume you mean something like this? I've never tried one, but can't see how it would improve on an optical magnifying glass. It'd only convert the image to text if you had some OCR software and it would seem a very cumbersome way of doing it. A flat bed scanner would me much better I'd have thought. But I'm no expert.... |
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07 Oct 09 - 08:50 AM (#2740332) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: Fred McCormick That's the very one. What I want to find out though is whether the software included with it would enable users to store the magnified images so that they could then be read by OCR software. |
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07 Oct 09 - 09:24 AM (#2740357) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: GUEST,Ed I'm not sure what you are trying to do, but why would you want to scan 'bit by bit' as you'd have to with a mouse? You have to 'sew' it together at the end and would have to rectify the inevitable shaky hands. I really can't see any advantages to the flatbed scanner (unless it's something to big to fit in a scanner) |
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07 Oct 09 - 09:59 AM (#2740375) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: Fred McCormick I am forever straining my eyes trying to read miniscule print. If, instead of straining to read and then scanning the bits I want to keep through a flat bed scanner, I could just magnify and then OCR, that would be time saving and eyesight saving. |
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07 Oct 09 - 11:49 AM (#2740458) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: JohnInKansas For the same price - or less - you can get any of many "multipurpose printer/scanner/fax" machines that will scan a full page in one pass. Many of these can be set up to scan directly to your "photo" program where you can zoom to any size you want. "Manual scanners" have been around at least since the Logitec unit we had before page scanners were affordable (ca. 1992?) and are probably much better now, but scanning in "scraps" makes for difficult OCR conversion. Accurate OCR generally requires accurate alignment with the "lines" of text being converted. Consistent alignment, and even just straight lines, are very difficult to obtain with a "manual drive" scanner. Most good OCR programs require that the image be saved before conversion, so this scanner wouldn't have much to offer, relative to a good page scanner, other than perhaps portability, if you're using one of the common OCR programs. There may be OCR programs that have "on the fly" capabilities - convert without saving first, but I haven't looked for that capability and it's not present in the OCR programs I've used. Anything displayed on the monitor can be "captured" in Windows using Alt-PrtScn or Ctl-PrtScn and pasting into a program capable of saving a picture, so it's not absolutely necessary that the "mouse scanner" be able to do that for you, although at high magnification each picture will contain fairly small bits of text. Instead of straining to read and then scanning the bits I want to keep through a flat bed scanner I'd suggest scanning directly to a photo program, zoom and read what you want, and close without saving if you don't want to keep it. Save the scan only if you want to keep it. Use OCR on the saved scan only if you need a "text version." John |
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07 Oct 09 - 08:03 PM (#2740847) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: The Fooles Troupe The 'magnify a bit of the xcreen with your mouse' trick was a standard part of Windows 95 and 98, and others - it was all done in software, and needed no special hw. A hw gadget that scanned small strips (had rollers to guide it) of documents was around since the days fo Win95 too... |
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08 Oct 09 - 07:09 PM (#2741567) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: Bill D Free magnifier for PCs. from 2X to 36X ...with other features also. http://www.iconico.com/magnifier/ |
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08 Oct 09 - 07:13 PM (#2741569) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: Bill D (They have several free item, but ColorPic also has a built-in magnifier and deals with color design & identification.) |
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10 Oct 09 - 07:26 PM (#2743155) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: GUEST,A nonny mouse You still get a standard screen magnifier with windows. Go to Start Menu, Programs, Accessories, Accessibility, Magnifier. this allows you to magnify a mouse controlled strip of the screen by a selectable magnification upto 9X |
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11 Oct 09 - 04:32 PM (#2743667) Subject: RE: Tech: Magnifying Computer Mice From: GUEST,*.ripov Vista has a magnifier built in - Control panel>ease of access>magnifier |