DocScanner is an
OCR app for the iPhone,
iPad and iPod Touch. DocScanner allows you to take a picture of a document and save it as a PDF or JPEG file. To download DocScanner
click here. DocScanner also positions the document so it fills the entire screen. Another DocScanner feature converts the text of the document into electronic text that can be read aloud using
VoiceOver. This process is called OCR. To learn more about OCR
click here. If you would like to test out DocScanner's OCR capabilities download SayText which uses the same OCR engine as DocScanner. DocScanner allows users to scan many different types of documents including business cards, recipes, articles and even whiteboards. Once your document has been scanned you can save it to a server, Evernote or Dropbox.
Norfello Oy describes the apps scanning capabilities as follows."DocScanner has industry leading image processing algorithms which automatically turn the picture to look like you have scanned the document with a flatbed scanner."
DocScanner is a competitor to
ZoomReader which is another OCR app in the App Store.
ZoomReader costs $19.99 while DocScanner costs $4.99. DocScanner has more features including Evernote and Dropbox compatibility and the option to save documents as PDF or JPEG. DocScanner also allows users to scan multiple pages into one documents while ZoomReader only allows you to scan one. ZoomReaders OCR engine does work faster and more accurately in my tests.
Giveaway
The Assistive Technology Blog will be giving away six copies of the DocScanner app over the next week. Promo codes will be posted to the blog over the next week. The first person to enter the code into iTunes will win the app. Once one person enters the code it will no longer work. DocScanner is a $4.99 value in the App Store.
Click read more below to see more pictures of DocScanner.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) uses a camera or scanner to recognize printed text. Both Kurzweil and the Intel Reader use OCR in order to read documents. Using an Android phone or an iPhone you can take a picture of text and have an app recognize it. Two of these app are Page Scanner and DocScanner. DocScanner has an Android version as well. The apps sell for $5.99 and $4.99 respectively. DocScanner has a more polished user interface than Page Scanner. Both apps can create plain text files and PDFs from an image. Once the document is in plain text format, VoiceOver, which is built into the iPhone can read it back to you. DocScanner has the option to save your document in dropbox. Their are also many other OCR apps for iPhone and Android. These apps are great if you are on the go and need to read a document quickly. These app are available on iTunes and DocScanner is available on Android Market.