Angelina Braille Reader

Quick start

What is the Angelina Braille Reader service
Allows you to quickly read handwritten or printed paper Braille text using a smartphone or computer:
  1. Take a photo, taking into account recommendations
    main page screenshot
    braille text image example
  2. Get the recognition results as:
    • recognized text in braille characters,
    • text in ordinary (flat-printed) letters,
    • images with the signed meaning of each braille character.
    main page screenshot
    braille text image example
    braille text image example
  3. Read, save or send the result to email.
By using the service, you agree to the User Agreement and Privacy Policy.
For whom it is intended
  • teachers working with blind students,
  • parents and relatives of blind people,
  • any people who communicate with the blind and who need to read the text in Braille.
Installation as an application on a smartphone
The service can be installed as an application on a smartphone.
application icon

Android:

installation_1
  • Find Angelina Braille Reader application on Google Play
  • Press the button "Install"

Android. Alternative way:

If Google Play is not installed on your device
  • Open Internet site Angelina Braille Reader: angelina-reader.com
  • Select "Add to Home Screen" option in Chrome browser menu
installation_2
installation_3

iPhone:

onoaiiaea ia iPhone
  • Open Internet site Angelina Braille Reader: angelina-reader.com
  • Press "share" button
  • In the list of options, select "Add to Home Screen"
  • In the form that appears, click "Add"
Why do I need to register
Although you can use the service without registration, registration is required to fully work with the service. It's free. Why is it needed?
  • First of all, you will be able to view previously uploaded texts. Since these are your personal texts, you have to protect them with a username and password;
  • You can do default settings, so as not to choose the operating mode every time;
  • You can revoke permission to publish previously uploaded materials after they have been uploaded and decrypted;
  • Unregistered users cannot prohibit the public distribution of uploaded texts.
When registering, you can specify any username you like. However, we recommend that you specify a real E-mail address so that you can recover your password if you forget it.

If necessary you will be able to cancel registration in the system and completely delete the information stored in your account.

What is public access and why do I need it?
In order for artificial intelligence-based systems to work, they need to be trained on a large number of examples. Initially, the neural network underlying Angelina Reader was trained on a set of Braille texts, published by Chinese researchers and on texts independently prepared by the developers of Angelina Reader. However, in order to make the quality of work better, additional training is needed on those images, which are uploaded by users of the service. In addition, since Angelina Reader owes its appearance to a data set, published in the public domain, we consider ourselves indebted to other researchers and would like to publish a publicly available data set.

If your text does not contain personal or confidential information, and you tick the "agree" box under the question of public access, You are contributing to the improvement of Braille recognition algorithms.

Of course, if you do not agree that the uploaded text should be seen by the developers, You can choose the "reject" option. In this case, no one will see the content of the text you uploaded.

How to take a photo in a proper way
To get a satisfactory result, you need to follow a few simple rules:
  1. the light should fall from the (upper) side of the sheet farthest from you and give a contrasting image of points with light and shadow.
  2. The sheet should be photographed from above.
  3. The image scale is such that the A4 sheet occupies almost the entire frame.
  4. Resolution of at least 1000 points vertically and horizontally (photos from most smartphones and cameras are suitable).
Correct
>
Wrong
(the light falls from above, from the side or from behind)
Wrong
(it is necessary to photograph from above)

User's Guide

Uploading images for recognition
The system for recognition can be loaded with:
  • when starting from a smartphone - a photo taken with the camera directly from the program;
  • a photo taken in advance (a file with an image of the type *.jpg, etc.);
  • file in Adobe Acrobat format (file type *.pdf, obtained, for example, from a scanner);
  • archive in *.zip format containing images. To get an archive in Windows, select several files or a folder with files, right-click and select "send to - compressed zip folder";
Text recognition modes
Before uploading an image, you are prompted to set the text processing parameters:
  • Consent to public access to the uploaded text or refusal from it.
  • The language of the text. Determines the flat text in which the recognized Braille text will be translated.
  • Auto-orientation. If this mode is enabled, the program itself determines how to rotate the sheet in the image correctly. The fact is that when you take a picture from top to bottom, the smartphone may choose the wrong orientation, the photo is turned upside down or turned on its side. The "auto-orientation" mode allows you to correctly recognize even inverted images. However, sometimes automatic orientation detection can fail. In this case, make sure that the photo is oriented correctly and disable the "auto-orientation" option. It is recommended to always select the "auto-orientation" option, except when using it gives incorrect results.
  • Both sides. This is a mode that, based on the image of only one side of a sheet with double-sided printing, allows you to get text from both sides at once: front and back. However, the quality of recognition of the reverse side will be worse, therefore, it is recommended to enable this mode only when you need to quickly recognize the text for informational purposes. For a better result, we recommend taking a separate photo of each side and recognizing it separately, leaving the "both sides" mode off.
Registered users can set default values for all listed parameters in in the "settings" section.
Working with the history of previously recognized texts
Registered users can access the history of previously uploaded texts. If you need to go back to the previous page, you don't have to recognize it again. It is enough to find it in the list of previous results.

The last 5 documents are visible on the main page. The full list is available in the "history" section or via the "show all" link at the end of the short list.

Each entry in the history contains:

  • date and time when the image (picture) was uploaded
  • name of the uploaded file
  • the first 3 lines of the uploaded text
  • icon that shows if public access
    is allowed unlock icon or not lock icon.

Clicking on a line in the history opens recognition results in the same form as after loading the image.

Clicking on the lock icon unlock icon allows you to change the decision about, is public access allowed to the image.

You can also navigate through the results from the history in the results form using the buttons left_arrow and left_arrow.

Recognition results
The recognition results are displayed on a separate page and include:
  • image with letters of flat text signed under braille characters;
  • recognized flat text;
  • recognized braille text.

It an archive is loaded, all files in the archive will be displayed sequentially.

If the "both sides" option is enabled, two pages with results will be shown for each uploaded image: the front and back side.

You can use the buttons left_arrow and left_arrow to navigate between previously recognized images.

Using the "Send to E-mail" button, the result can be sent to e-mail.

Sharing the recognition results
To share recognition results in messengers (Telegram, WhatsApp) and other programs, on the results page, click (share) button. In the form that appears, select which results you want to transfer: an image, flat text or Braille text. The default selection can be configured using the Settings form. After that, it will open the standard window for selecting the application with which you want to share. After selecting the application, you will redirected to this application, where the selected data will be transferred.

Keep in mind that different applications may react differently if you try to share different types of information at the same time.

Known features:

Telegram

If sending images is selected, only images will be sent. The text will not be sent.

WhatsApp

If there are several pages in one task (on the same page with the results) and sending is selected at the same time images and text, then each image will be sent as a separate message, and as a caption to each The text of all pages will be sent to the message. This way, the entire text will be sent multiple times.

All applications

If the recognition result contains many pages and sending images is selected, the sending function may not To work: The application selection form is not displayed. In this case, to send the results, use the mail sending function.

These features and limitations are determined by the applications used and the operating system of your device, We can't fix it.

Sending results by e-mail
To send to E-mail, click the (send to E-mail) button on the results page.

In the e-mail form you must enter the recipient's address.

You can specify the subject of the letter. If you leave this field empty, the subject of the email will be "Recognized braille name of the uploaded file"

You can also choose what to send: image, text or Braille text.

In addition, you can add a text comment that will be included in the letter.

If an error is detected, you can send an email or a copy of it to the developers by checking the appropriate box. In this case, you will need to fill in the "comment" field. There you need to describe the problem you want to report.

The system allows you to configure one or more recipient addresses for quick selection using the button to the right of the destination address field. The list of addresses to select is filled in in the "settings" section.

Also in the "settings" section, you can configure the default values for the sharing and mail sending modes.

Settings
The "Settings" section allows you to change
  • password
  • user's display name
  • default settings for recognition modes and mail sending modes
  • list of the most frequently used recipient addresses
Deliting your account
You can cancel registration in the system and completely delete the information stored in your account.

To do this, in the "Settings" section, click on the "Completely delete the account" hyperlink at the bottom of the form.

Keep in mind: This operation cannot be canceled!

To protect against accidental deletion of your data, you will be prompted to enter the phrase "delete [your e-mail]" in the appropriate field, substituting the e-mail address with which you registered instead of [your e-mail].

You can find your email address in the top line of the Settings window.

About the project

The "Angelina Braille Reader" by Ilya Ovodov is a non-profit project designed to simplify the reading of Braille texts by sighted people: teachers, relatives, friends of blind people. To read the text in Braille, just take a picture of it and upload it to the program. The project is being developed as free and open source software. If you are a programmer and want to help the project — join us