OBR - Optical Braille Recognition - is a Windows software that allows you to ”read” single and double sided Braille document at a standard A4 scanner.

The retrieved information can be used in all types of Windows applications or directly on an Index Braille Embosser.

The scanning process is simple and quick, you can process two sides of a Braille-sheet in a single scan. Pressing the SCAN icon, starts the process of scanning. After less than thirty seconds the information is presented at the screen. Continue to scan the next page or start to use the information.

The Braille information in a small letter or a complete Braille Book can be retrieved into computer form in the same easy way, even if you do not read Braille at all.

The recognition from a good quality Braille document is excellent. But even scanning an old worn-out Braille document, the fault frequency is surprisingly low. By using standard Windows functions your Braille handling system will be complete and effective.

Everyone that work with Blind people and do not read Braille will benefit from OBR. For example: teachers who do not read Braille, public organisations communicating with Blind individuals and Computerised Braille Libraries.

The scanning and decoding of an A4 page will normally take about one minute. You can select scan single or double sided, a single page or several pages and different Braille cell sizes. If the Braille document has been placed in a faulty direction at the scanner it can be corrected with a SWAP and ROTATE command without re-scanning the document.

OBR software consists of the original software diskette, manual in Braille and ink and a special yellow correction filter to be placed on the scanner surface.

It runs on a standard Pentium PC with Windows 95,  98 and Windows NT.

The recognition function of OBR is stable, even if the source Braille document is of low quality.

In combination with spell checking and other Windows functions, almost all Braille document can easily be retrieved into computer format.

The OBR Software can be used with any type of Index Braille Embosser for direct embossing of a scanned document. Independent of language or type of Braille code, the copy will be embossed without the involvement of any translation program.

A normal Braille page of 29 lines, 42 characters is too large for a A4 scanner. It, and even wider pages, can still be scanned by the MERGE function at the OBR.

Start with scanning of a part of the large page, continue with the rest of the page. The merge function will map this two
pictures and present the whole page as one document.

Computer: Required: PC with Pentium 90MHz or better, min 32MB RAM. Recommended: PC with Pentium 200 MHz or better, min 2MB RAM. 2MB of hard disk space.

Scanner: Scanner drivers supports ALL Hewlett-Packard models from ScanJet II. Check Index home page for new drivers.

Braille type: Single and double sided Braille 2.5, 2.2 and 3.2mm dot- distance within the cell.

Calibration: Automatic calibration using a calibration sheet included in the software.

Editor: A simple editor with standard features is included in software.

Rotate, swap: Functions to for correcting a page scanned in faulty direction. Auto Rotate function - the program can automatically find the correct rotation of the page.

Direct Embossing: Dot to Dot transparent embossing to Index brand of Embossers.

Braille: Single and double sided Braille 2.5 and 2.2 mm dot distance within the cell. Braille translation codes: 17 standard tables.

ASCII: The scanned information can be saved in an ASCII file for use by other applications.

Programmer: Developed by Neovision s.r.o. 

A Demo version of the OBR program is available. It is a limited version where you can scan Braille up to 6 Braille lines per page, use the different translation codes etc. for evaluation purposes.   The DEMO version can not be used for any "normal" use, as the save, print and all clipboard functions are disabled.

OBR Demo comes with two disk's, calibration sheet and yellow correction filter.