2018-01-20 16:06:22

Hi guys, i wanna purchase this app for my iphone, is it worth the price?
Thanks.

Hopefully, we'll get a fully accessible open world game someday.

2018-01-20 17:52:19

Hi,
I think it depends on what are you going to use the application for.
If you intend to use it for taking pictures of textbooks and have them converted to digital formats, that's not a viable option, no matter how professional is the quality of the OCR engine. For that purpose, choose a book scanner, especially from Plustek.
If you intend to use it for taking pictures of cards, brochures, manuals, receipts, certificates, or other documents, Seing AI can do it flawlessly.
All in all, I'd say no.

2018-01-20 18:44:22

I'm gonna have to say no. I got the enterprise version for free due to a promotion my carrier was running. When I attempt to use the app, and I do a field report, I have the vibrations on so that when it isn't vibrating, I know its level, I move up from the center of the page and continue to go out until field report shows all edges visible. I've tried with the auto picture profile and the manual, and all I get is ridiculous nonsense which is nothing but symbols, punctuation signs, and random garbled letters that do not make sense. I do the scan with seeing AI, a free app, and I get the results back even faster than KNFB, and with a minimal amount of errors. It really does work so much better. I can get good scans out of KNFB where it really really shines, and I'm like, now this is what it should be, then its awesome, if I could get scans like that all the time, then my answer would be a resounding yes, but I can't.  Had I purchased the app, I would have asked for a refund, because its worthless to me, the fact that I didn't is just good luck I guess.

Now, I know there are a lot of people who use it, and so maybe they have a secret I'm not in on, who knows, but I can't get anything out of the app most of the time, I'd say two out of every ten scans are phenomenal, the other 8 are garbage.

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2018-01-20 20:23:24

Seeing AI is unfortunately not available in South Africa, it seems. Correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t have too many other choices. I can’t get my parents to order me an electronic device and be able device and get it instantly, I have to get this for pages in my school textbook, maybe. I will have to get it for whatever I need it for. I don’t know exactly what that is. And I am not getting the android version.

Hopefully, we'll get a fully accessible open world game someday.

2018-01-20 20:55:08 (edited by jack 2018-01-20 20:56:43)

Brandon, it all depends on your camera. IPhone 8 and up, I hear, have good cameras. I've heard everything below are less than impressive. I, for one, have a nexus6p, and everyone loves the camera on that thing. They say it takes crystal clear photos and is really high quality. That's a good sign and thus it's no accident that Knfb Reader works wonderfully on it. Are there errors, sure. No ocr engine is ever perfect, especially when it's not a dedicated scanner. It is, admittedly all about precision. But that's what a portable stand is for. You also need to make sure you have the light on if you don't already, that does matter a bit. But experimentation is what the 25 attempt trial is for, though do keep in mind that while there has been a trial of knfb for android for a good while now, there will not be a trial version of the ios version until further notice, thanks to Apple's stance against trialware in their app-store. Besides, Google's got it in the bag for Knfb. They give financial boosts somewhat regularly which allows them to discount the app to $20 from time to time, and I believe Microsoft did something similar too to celebrate the launch of it on windows 10.

2018-01-20 21:31:18

@5 it may be worth checking again, they recently expanded it to 35 countries. @6 I could see that as a plausible reason if other products failed to produce results as well, however, seeing AI manages to continue to impress me with its high standard of accuracy and I am on an iPhone 7.

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2018-01-21 00:51:18 (edited by SirBadger 2018-01-21 00:59:11)

I use seeing AI on an IPhone SE and it works great. never tried KNFB so can't say if that would be the same but I don't intend to pay to find out when seeing AI does everything I need it to perfectly.

not sure if it's available in sout Africa yet but worth checking again because it wasn't available in the UK until a month or 2 back.

if you can't get seeing AI there yet, try envision AI which is similar and as far as I know available world wide. in a lot of ways it's just as good but doesn't have as many functions.

Who's that trip trapping over My bridge? Come find out.

2018-01-21 02:00:21 (edited by flackers 2018-01-21 10:52:52)

I have an iphone 7 and I can't get seeing AI to read documents properly at all. they're a mess. I try again and again holding as still as possible, and I've never got a readable letter yet. I always end up going back to jaws OCR with a pearl camera, which works very well and is quick too. just the usual problem with FS stuff in that its pricing  makes apple look like a bargain basement.
If you're in the UK though, the RNIB may give you a grant of up to something like 400 quid towards expensive technology like a pearl camera. I had to throw in the other 200 myself, but it was well worth it, as I can turn a 300 page paperback into a totally acceptable eBook in well under an hour using openbook's  multi-page scanning feature. Openbook costs a fortune too though, but I was lucky enough to be given a copy. Though these days, loads more books are available in ebook and audio than they were just ten years ago, so I mostly use the pearl system just for reading letters now.

2018-01-21 02:03:43

@Post 5, If you need to convert textbooks to digital formats like PDF or word, I recommend any scanner from Plustek, particularly Opticbook 3900, or Opticbook 3800. The former is a bit expensive; it is sold for 365 dollars, but the latter costs something like 220 dollars, plus you get the relevant software which is used to convert your documents to different formats.

On another note, I think it's not only the responsibility of the camera which matters; I have an iPhone 6, and when trying to OCR text with Seing AI, the results, at least in English are amazing. Also, doing the same with ABBYY Fine reader 12 produces very good results.

2018-01-21 02:25:53 (edited by SirBadger 2018-01-21 02:47:51)

actually I just installed the latest update to envision AI which is, or was a good alternative to seeing AI. but this version wants me to log in with my facebook ID, gmail account or email and I'm not sure why. i'll make a disposeable account on my web hoste thing later and find out. if it causes any issues I can just delete that address or never bother reading it again. i'll keep people posted.

Who's that trip trapping over My bridge? Come find out.

2018-01-21 02:49:27 (edited by SirBadger 2018-01-21 02:53:26)

ok, sorry double post but I emailed the nice people at envision and they said it's to create an account. at the moment the software is free but they may be looking at bringing in cheep payed plans eventually with extra features. make of that what you will. kind of puts me off a bit though.

they do say that they are moving away from internet and clowd useage though so I'm guessing it will be secure for those worried about scanning personal data. guess they must be putting their own OCR in with the software.

Who's that trip trapping over My bridge? Come find out.

2018-01-21 13:45:08

I can't imagine it's worth the price. Unless you have a lot of money to spend, but that app is extremely expensive. Seeing AI is not available in SA, but you can create an apple account and list your country as one where it is available, then sign into that account and download it, then go back to your account. The app will stay on your phone, although apparently you lose your downloaded apple music according to a friend who uses it.

2018-01-21 22:54:01

I consider myself to be decent enough with the camera on my phone.  I've not really had too many problems with KNFB, and would have said yes, it's worth it.  And then Seeing AI came out.  No.  IT's not.  Don't waste the $100.  If seeing AI isn't available in your area, unfortunately, that makes things a little different.

2018-01-22 06:00:02

I guess everyone has different experiences. I just have seeing AI working like a dream, while KNFB over there wants to give me jumbled up messes nearly every time I use it.

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2018-01-22 08:08:58

Hmm. I could never get KNFB reader to work well on documents with my IPhone 7, though I don't really scan that many printed documents and can't tell you how well either it or Seeing AI work on printed materials. I do know, though, that I've used KNFB Reader to scan PDF documents. I bought a synthesizer a while back and I couldn't find a text manual. The PDFs I found had no text in them because they were simply scans. KNFB reader was able, after some fighting, to scan it and export it as a text document. I'd be interested to see if Seeing AI could've done it better, but I don't think it can do that, and I had nothing on Windows that could either.

I do find myself using Seeing AI more often. I've used it more than once to figure out if computers are working. One time I used it to tell that for some reason my USB keyboard wasn't working (at first I thought it was the sound card but then realized keystrokes weren't changing screens). Another time I used it to find out that my sound card wasn't working (I at first thought it was the keyboard but realized screens would change as I pressed keys, there was just no speech). So yeah. I find it useful for those things. In other words I don't use it all the time but when I need it, it helps, and I am super self-conscious about asking people to help me, so having Seeing AI is a big plus in those situations. On occasion I'm able to get Seeing AI to read the screens of synthesizers I use, though that rarely is possible. Sometimes I can get lucky, though.

On the whole, I'm not really big into OCR apps yet because I just odn't ned to use them all that much. IMHO, KNFB reader isn't worth it at the $100 I think is standard price. But if it goes on sale, which it does fairly often, I'd say take advantage of that if you think you could use it. I ended up doing that and so I only paid $70 I think.

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2018-01-22 11:04:41

It may also depend on what sort of document you are trying to photograph. I have only used Seeing AI to try to read letters, and those are often formatted with blocks or columns of text. This may be why seeing AI makes a jumble of them when I try to use it to read my mail. It would need some sort of column recognition to correctly arrange text in a letter, and I don't know if it does. Doesn't appear to from the results I've been getting.

2018-01-22 16:29:20

KNFB is supposed to have column recognition, but it doesn't work. IF I scan a statement or bill, everything shows up in the wrong place amidst the sea of symbols.

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2018-01-22 17:05:48

Hello.


I bought KNFB reader when it first came out and honestly didn't use it much.


I didn't have much use for it and if someone asked me if they should buy it now; I'd have to say no.


I didn't have to read text books and don't think I'll have to do that in my life so can't really comment on that but now there are apps out there like tap tap see, prismo go and other apps like that KNFB reader just does not seem worth it.


for reading short text and colors and light detection this app is amazing.

The products part of the app could do with a bit of work but even that is quite cool when it works.


The best part about this app is the short text mode, I tried it today when my mum was watching tv and it read out the addverts website and when Jeramy Kile came on, it started reading the text on the screen.


The short text mode is the best mode for me but having an app that has multiple uses is so awesome and it will keep improving.


If you want to contact microsoft to ask them if seeing AI is in your country, contact them at the following email address; [email protected].

I'm gone for real :)

2018-01-22 19:36:10

Seeing AI all the way honestly. It tends to read things quite nicely. Knfb did as well, even on a cheap android handset, although to me, seeing AI is the better deal honestly, seeing it does way more than knfb does. I always keep seeing AI on the short text slide if I'm reading computer screens and trying to read product packaging. It almost always works, as long as there's light for the camera to see
the text, and there's not a glare.
The sceen preview is quite fun to play with, even if it isn't the most accurate thing, the results it produces are....amusing.
If you need help with getting it to read something, please do let me know, I'll put up a demo on my site if someone needs it.
Also, yes, it is possible to download a geo-restricted app, however the process is a bit interesting. Somebody already mentioned it, so thus I don't feel I need to speak of it more than the previous posters have. It's how I found out space is cold, rofl.
Hope this helps!

2018-01-22 20:50:38

I used KNFB Reader about 6-8 months ago to read the status during a windows update. I'd broken narrator (stupid SAPI voices breaking on updates/upgrades) and so used KNFB to read the status to me. It seemed to do fairly well, though there were a few symbols in there too. I don't use it very often, if at all, any more, since I now have windows 10 OcR And all that, but I might use it more heavily later on. Be my eyes seems like a good alternative to Seeing aI and KNFB though.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github

2018-02-01 10:48:20

i think it's not worth it cause once i used it with my girlfriend and all we got was a bunch of random weird stuf

don't wish to become like the oceans, the flowers, or the sun. oceans will dry out, flowers will die, and the sun will be extinguished. be yourself and nothing and no one else and hope for a better tomorrow.

2018-02-01 15:37:37

Yup. They need Seeing AI for Android because I prefer that platform and the cameras on this phone are good enough for decent scans possibly. I don't know why they just made it for iOS. KNFB Reader is probably worth $20 but not $100. I might have to look at finereader. Maybe a good scanner is the better option though, especially if OCR is good enough to read highly technical materials. I've not really had good luck with OCR on any platform, personally, but it's good that others are getting some success with it. If FineReader is not too expensive, and works well enough I might bother with it and a good scanner, possibly. Though a more portable solution would be better.

2018-02-01 17:21:38

actualy knfb reader is $100 worth, it's very expensive

don't wish to become like the oceans, the flowers, or the sun. oceans will dry out, flowers will die, and the sun will be extinguished. be yourself and nothing and no one else and hope for a better tomorrow.

2018-02-01 17:26:10

Finereader is an excellent piece of software.

Facts with Tom MacDonald, Adam Calhoun, and Dax
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2018-02-01 22:10:53

What, exactly, is finereader? I've never heard of it.

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!]: 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out ?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."    — Charles Babbage.
My Github