I read today that google is subsidizing the conversion of the contents of
major libraries by scanning to be available on the net. While it is too
much to think ocr will also be done, a simple choice of graphical format
for the scanned material would make it possible for blind folk to do the
ocr on the results. Almost all ocr software packages use at least the tif
graphical format to do conversions. When a scan is done it is first put
into a graphical file and then the ocr done on it. If google were to
choose this format and/or a simple way to convert into tif then we blind
folk would also have access to the huge amount of library material to be
done. This seems a worthy project for the national blind groups and/or nls
to take on to make sure google doesn't forget blind users.
xv
ic|xc
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html