Possible to read page held up to webcam?

[jimmie]

I would welcome some technical input. I'm trying to set up a
friend's PC to help him work with documents.

For instance, my friend might write the outline of a document in
longhand.

QUESTION: If my friend held his page up to a webcam then would a
suitably connected partner on the internet be able to read his
text?

He wants to talk the other person through his document while
pointing at parts of it, so emailing a scan of the page isn't going
to work.

QUESTION: If that can be done then could he point his webcam at his
desk and have the other person see a whole page so clearly that
they could read his handwritten text as he writes it?

What costs for such a webcam? (I'm in the UK.)

Thanks for any info.

jimmie

 

[Jaimie Vandenbergh]

I would welcome some technical input. I'm trying to set up a
friend's PC to help him work with documents.

For instance, my friend might write the outline of a document in
longhand.

QUESTION: If my friend held his page up to a webcam then would a
suitably connected partner on the internet be able to read his
text?

Almost certainly not, due to resolution problems. Webcams - all movie
cams - are low res unless you spend large quantities of money. High
res ones won't push data around quickly.

He wants to talk the other person through his document while
pointing at parts of it, so emailing a scan of the page isn't going
to work.

Yes it will - it'll allow the person at the far end to see where he's
pointing, and then actually read that bit at his end.

QUESTION: If that can be done then could he point his webcam at his
desk and have the other person see a whole page so clearly that
they could read his handwritten text as he writes it?

That's really the same question.

Look into chat clients with shared whiteboards - you can usually load
a scanned image into the whiteboard, and then point at it with a
shared cursor.

Cheers - Jaimie

 

[Andreas Schulze Bäing]

I would welcome some technical input.  I'm trying to set up a
friend's PC to help him work with documents.

For instance, my friend might write the outline of a document in
longhand.

QUESTION: If my friend held his page up to a webcam then would a
suitably connected partner on the internet be able to read his
text?

Yes, but a standard webcam might not be the best solution, except if
you diy a device that carries the webcam on top of the document.

He wants to talk the other person through his document while
pointing at parts of it, so emailing a scan of the page isn't going
to work.

QUESTION: If that can be done then could he point his webcam at his
desk and have the other person see a whole page so clearly that
they could read his handwritten text as he writes it?

With some testing that might work.

What costs for such a webcam?  (I'm in the UK.)

If you intend to use a standard webcam, make sure to get one with
sufficient resolution. I would say, at least 2 MB. So

The far better solution is a so-called document camera or digital
visualizer. Some of these can be used via USB2 as a webcam, so I guess
they would work with the standard video messengers. Prices for these
devices would start at about £240 for a simple portable model with low
resolution. Have a look at the AverMedia models CP130 or CP150. They
seem to be the cheapest models in the market.

Andreas

 

[Rob Morley]

I would welcome some technical input. I'm trying to set up a
friend's PC to help him work with documents.

For instance, my friend might write the outline of a document in
longhand.

QUESTION: If my friend held his page up to a webcam then would a
suitably connected partner on the internet be able to read his
text?

He wants to talk the other person through his document while
pointing at parts of it, so emailing a scan of the page isn't going
to work.

QUESTION: If that can be done then could he point his webcam at his
desk and have the other person see a whole page so clearly that
they could read his handwritten text as he writes it?

A simple approach would be to scan the document, open it in some
graphics app on his machine and share his desktop with VNC.
Annotations/additions could be made using a graphics tablet. You'd also
want to run a VoIP or similar app for voice, obviously.

 

[GT]

I would welcome some technical input. I'm trying to set up a
friend's PC to help him work with documents.

For instance, my friend might write the outline of a document in
longhand.

QUESTION: If my friend held his page up to a webcam then would a
suitably connected partner on the internet be able to read his
text?

He wants to talk the other person through his document while
pointing at parts of it, so emailing a scan of the page isn't going
to work.

QUESTION: If that can be done then could he point his webcam at his
desk and have the other person see a whole page so clearly that
they could read his handwritten text as he writes it?

What costs for such a webcam? (I'm in the UK.)

Thanks for any info.

jimmie

Colour code the document, email it, then talk through it referencing by
colour??
Any use?

 

[GT]

Colour code the document, email it, then talk through it referencing by
colour??
Any use?

Certainly the cheapest and quickest solution!

 

[Bill Bonde { Remember, Remember, to Vote on the 5t]

Yes you can set up a webcam capable of at least 800x600 or
higher resolution (true resolution, not interpolated
resolution, not "effective" megapixels... they use deceptive
specs in some cases) and see the text on a page providing
you do four things:

My experience with still digital cameras is that you need 4 or 5
megapixels and macro has to work right. This is enough to show
Latin script properly while you take a photo of an open book,
that's both the left and right page. I say Latin script because I
noticed problems with Chinese characters. These shots are
compressed with JPG to 1 meg or a bit less. I would test using
borrowed cameras to get an idea of the required capabilities.

Obviously using full motion video at a meg a shot is going to be a
problem on the current internet. It shouldn't be a problem if you
send a photo of the part of the page you want and talk about that
and then send another photo at a different angle or changed in some
way.

1) Keep the page and the webcam perfectly still, not
holding it in the air.

2) Good contrast - well lit room, but diffused lighting not
making the page shimmer, and dark ink.

It is harder to take these sorts of shots of glossy pages. You
pretty much can't use a flash. Of course if it's just text, it
probably won't be done on glossy paper.