Decapod 0.3 Release

Introduction

The Decapod 0.3 release is intended to give an early preview of what is possible by the end of the project in April 2011.

On a properly configured machine, Decapod 0.3 will be able to:

1. Capture images from a pair of supported cameras.
2. Do some basic remastering of the captured images. (See Decapod FAQ for supported cameras).
3. Export the collected images as an image-based PDF document.

By the end of the project, you should be able to:

1. Perform stereo dewarping on images, effectively flattening book pages.
2. Export to PDF with support for font generation and searchable / OCR text.
3. Import images from disk, USB drive, or other media.
4. Save and resume multiple books.
5. More advanced book remastering tools.
6. Batch / deferred processing and exporting.

Being an early release, you should expect some lacking functionality, quirks, bugs, and other oddities.

While some of these issues may already be known and documented, some may not. Your feedback in using and testing this release will help us make improvements in future releases!

You can send us your comments, questions, and feedback by joining the Decapod Project mailing list or visiting the Fluid Project IRC room.

• Contact us using the Decapod Project Mailing List on Google Groups. (You will need a Google account to access this group).
• Fluid Project IRC channel: #fluid-work on irc.freenode.net (See this guide on getting connected)

Requirements

Required:

• Ubuntu 9.10 (32 bit or 64 bit)
• Firefox 3.6 or later
• Decapod application (including OCRopus and Fluid Infusion elements)
• Two supported cameras attached to system using USB cables. For a list of supported cameras, see: http://www.gphoto.org/doc/remote/

Recommended:

• A display capable of 1280x1024 pixels.

Optional Equipment:

• Book Liberator or two tripods for cameras.
• A printed book to digitize.

Alternatives
The following has been used for testing, but not supported by this project:

• Ubuntu 9.04
• Firefox 3.5
• Google Chrome

Get Decapod 0.3

• Download and Install Decapod 0.3.

Features & Functionality

Interface:

• A vertical thumbnail navigator listing images captured by the cameras.
• A larger preview area displaying the currently selected thumbnail in higher resolution.
• Keyboard navigation of image thumbnails.
• Reordering of image order by keyboard or mouse.
• Delete an image by using keyboard or mouse (appropriate warning dialog displayed).
• Display a status message confirming a successful deletion of image.

Capture:

• Capture images using two cameras that support remote capture.
• Activate capture process using mouse.
• Detect supported and unsupported cameras, and give an appropriate diagnosis to the user (Partially implemented).
• Display a status message confirming a successful capture.

Post-Capture Processing:

• Automatically join a pair of captured images to create a page spread equivalent.
• Generate a thumbnail of the page spread.

Exporting:

• Export the collection of images as a greyscale image PDF.

Demonstration Server

Limitations and Known Issues

• Please see the Decapod 0.3 User Guide for breakdown of issues and limitations according to function.

Planned Improvements

The following is a partial list of planned improvements to Decapod.

Possible Improvements for Next Release

While planning is just beginning on the next Decapod release, the following is a list of possible functionality:

• OCR text for PDF
• Token based compression for PDF
• Ability for the user to specify the content area of captured pages. This will improve:
  • OCR text results.
  • token based compression for PDF export.
  • thumbnails and preview images
• Axis orientation correction.
• Simultaneous capturing from cameras.
• Importing images from the local file system.
• Improved performance.
• Improved accessibility for keyboard modalities.
• Improved accessible user feedback.
• Bug fixes and improved stability.

Planned Improvements for Future Releases

Further down the road, we expect:

• 3D stereoscopic capture.
• 3D stereoscopic page dewarping when capturing using two cameras.
• Image threshold adjustment.
• Selection of camera setups:
  • Two cameras. Each camera capturing a single page.
  • Stereo cameras. Each camera capturing the page spread from slightly different angles.
• Camera calibration.

Feedback and Getting Involved

We welcome comments, questions, support requests, and feedback! Please contact us by joining the Decapod Project mailing list.

• Contact us using the Decapod Project Mailing List on Google Groups. (You will need a Google account to access this group).
• You can also join us in the Fluid Project IRC channel: #fluid-work on irc.freenode.net (See this guide on getting connected)

We also welcome help from members of the community. Here is are some areas where you can help out:

• Javascript and Python programming.
• HTML and CSS design, and web standards compliance.
• User testing, and user test administration.
• Evangelism and community outreach.

If you're interested in helping in this way, please contact Jess Mitchell.