By Joaquim Rocha. A11y in OCRFeeder. Even with all the existing alternatives nowadays a lot of information is still printed on paper. OCRFeeder is an application for the GNOME desktop that makes it easier to convert document images (scanned documents) into digital/editable formats (such as ODT) by using a segmentation algorithm and OCR engines. Because of this, OCRFeeder is also a useful tool for the visually impaired who can use it together with Orca to be able to convert and read printed documents. Even with all the existing alternatives nowadays a lot of information is still printed on paper. OCRFeeder is an application for the GNOME desktop that makes it easier to convert document images (scanned documents) into digital/editable formats (such as ODT) by using a segmentation algorithm and OCR engines. Because of this, OCRFeeder is also a useful tool for the visually impaired who can use it together with Orca to be able to convert and read printed documents. In the year 2010, the main focus of OCRFeeder's development was the improvement of its accessibility, from the basic UI correction (widgets' accessible names, mnemonics, keyboard shortcuts, etc.) to the development of new features related to the contents detection and processing. In this talk I will give an overview of OCRFeeder and present in more detail the accessibility work mentioned above. Links: - Blog on OCRFeeder: http://www.joaquimrocha.com/category/ocr/ - OCRFeeder's webpage: http://live.gnome.org/OCRFeeder - OCRFeeder screencast: http://vimeo.com/6937052 - OCRFeeder attempt in Maemo: http://vimeo.com/3760126 - OCRFeeder's git: http://git.gnome.org/browse/ocrfeeder - OCRFeeder's releases: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/ocrfeeder/

1. static void
_f_do_barnacle_install_properties(GObjectClass
*gobject_class)
{
GParamSpec *pspec;
Making the printed
world accessible:
A11y in OCRFeeder
/* Party code attribute */
pspec = g_param_spec_uint64
(F_DO_BARNACLE_CODE,
"Barnacle code.",
"Barnacle code",
0,
G_MAXUINT64,
G_MAXUINT64 /*
default value */,
G_PARAM_READABLE
| G_PARAM_WRITABLE |
G_PARAM_PRIVATE);
g_object_class_install_property (gobject_class,
F_DO_BARNACLE_PROP_CODE,
Joaquim Rocha
jrocha@igalia.com
FOSDEM 2011

2. What is it?
Document Analysis and Optical
Character Recognition
for GNOME
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

3. What it does?
* Detect contents
* Get their text using system-wide
OCR engines
* Classify the contents as graphics
or text
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

4. How it works?
* Detect contents
* Get their text using system-wide
OCR engines
* Classify the contents as graphics
or text
* Export the document in an editable
format
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

5. Because of this, OCRFeeder is
useful for visually impaired users
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

6. ... but there were some challenges
when making the UI more
accessible
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

7. Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

8. How to make it more accessible?
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

9. How to make it more accessible?
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

10. How to make it more accessible?
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

11. Direct ways:
* Check the focus with Orca
* Set the accessible object's name
to every “anonym” widget
* Set mnemonics and shortcuts
* Add a menu/kb shortcut for every
“mouse” action
* Add missing labels
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

12. Accessible objects' names
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

13. Add shortcut keys and tooltip
texts to every widget
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

14. Add missing labels (and don't
forget to assign their
mnemonic widget)
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

15. Add menu entries for actions
that could only be done with
the mouse
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

16. Indirect ways:
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

17. Add feedback for every major
time taking operation
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

18. Importation from scanner is
important... Many printed
material on paper
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

19. Improvement of columns detection
Without the
Improvement
With the
improvement
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

20. Deskew of images because they might be slightly
rotated when imported from a scanner
(using the Hough transform)
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

21. A way to diminish the content areas' margins was
added so it places the contents better in the
generated documents.
Other improvements:
Text cleaning: Correct false newline characters
and remove hyphenation from the text given by
OCR engines
Copy text to clipboard
Spellchecker support
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

22. Demo
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

23. Future work:
* Assistant dialog to guide from
image addition to document
generation
* Review focus changing
* Use only one status bar
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

24. Webpage:
http://live.gnome.org/OCRFeeder
git:
http://git.gnome.org/ocrfeeder
Bugzilla:
coming soon...
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010

25. Thank you!
Joaquim Rocha (Igalia) · OCRFeeder · FOSDEM 2010