Shelley Posted January 31, 2014 at 09:31 PM Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 at 09:31 PM Has there been an update allowing the use of the OCR with non auto focus cameras? I am sure when I first tried the demo a year or so ago it gave me a message saying that as my camera was not auto focus this add on would not work on my device. I am sure if it had been compatible then I would have paid and used this excellent helper. I may have just misunderstood and it has been like this all along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koxinga Posted January 31, 2014 at 10:27 PM Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 at 10:27 PM That is not Pleco's problem, it's your device's issue. Actually the OCR works, just not very well. It's like being both farsighted and nearsighted at the same time, and not having bifocals to correct the issue. You can see things clearly (or do OCR properly) only at the right distance. If you get bifocals (a device with auto focus), you will be able to see (use Pleco's OCR function) much better than you did before, in a variety of distances. (maybe my analogy is not completely correct, but it's close enough) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
querido Posted January 31, 2014 at 10:41 PM Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 at 10:41 PM Shelley: No. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted January 31, 2014 at 11:03 PM Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 at 11:03 PM I think I have been misunderstood. I was not blaming the OCR or Pleco. Some time ago about 18 months or so ago, I put Pleco on my new phone. The OCR came as a demo, when I tried it I thought I remember it giving me a message saying that as my phone did not have auto focus that the OCR would not work on my device. Today whilst using Pleco I accidentally tapped the OCR and lo and behold it was working and had a focus choice, in fact it had a few more choices than I remembered. So I wondered if in the last big update that this may have changed or i am completely confused and am remembering something else. I am now considering buying the add on as I now can use it and this makes me wonder why if used to work why I didn't get earlier. I understand the basics of optics so I could see why it may have made a difference. Thanks Koxinga for the optics lesson Thanks for your clear and concise reply Querido, do you use this add on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
querido Posted January 31, 2014 at 11:45 PM Report Share Posted January 31, 2014 at 11:45 PM Shelley: I have autofocus. It works great. But you can take a photo and OCR that, and that probably works even better and I think it's easier too. (You take a photo and then ask Pleco to OCR the stored photo.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikelove Posted February 1, 2014 at 12:06 AM Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 at 12:06 AM What model of device is this, and what OS version is it running? It could be that there was some sort of camera driver issue that was preventing our software from detecting that your device had autofocus all along. (not many of them without it, actually - there's never been an iPhone that could run OCR and didn't have it, basically just the 4th-gen iPod Touch and the iPad 2 along with a couple of old Android devices) We haven't done anything to make Pleco work without autofocus - really no good software solution for that - though there are a couple of little macro lens attachments floating around for various devices that can help matters on that front by improving the optical focus at close range. (something like http://photojojo.com/store/awesomeness/macro-lens-band/ though I think that's actually a relabeled version of a generic thing I've seen elsewhere) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted February 1, 2014 at 10:32 AM Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 at 10:32 AM I am using a Huawei Blaze U8510. Running android 2.3.5. Its not really a problem cos it does work, it was more just out of interest. I will save up my pennies and add this to my phone asap Thank you all for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shelley Posted February 1, 2014 at 11:10 AM Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2014 at 11:10 AM It all becomes clear now, I just checked what the OCR was like and when you click focus it does come up with a message saying this phone does not support auto focus try moving the phone further or closer to the text. (short version of the message) I must have misunderstood, thinking it wouldn't work at all. ( teach me not read long messages thoroughly ) So the upshot is: Pleco has not changed, just my understanding of the way it works with my camera. It also recommends taking a photo then OCRing that, not sure how to do it but I will give it a look. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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