Apr 20, 2011 | apps, BEP, review, technology
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing will announce today that they have developed EyeNote,™ an app for iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) that will help the assist the blind and visually impaired determine the value of the U.S. currency they are holding.
According to the press release received this morning, EyeNote uses image recognition technology to determine a note’s denomination. The mobile device’s camera requires 51 percent of a note’s scanned image, front or back, to process. In a matter of seconds, EyeNote can provide an audible or vibrating response, and can denominate all Federal Reserve notes issued since 1996. The app will be updated as new notes are issued.
“Research indicates that more than 100,000 blind and visually impaired individuals currently own an Apple iPhone,” according to the BEP.
The EyeNote app is one of a variety of measures the government is working to deploy to assist the visually impaired community to denominate currency, as proposed in a recent Federal Register notice. These measures include implementing a Currency Reader Program whereby a United States resident, who is blind or visually impaired, may obtain a coupon that can be applied toward the purchase of a device to denominate United States currency; continuing to add large high contrast numerals and different background colors to redesigned currency; and, raised tactile features may be added to redesigned currency, which would provide users with a means of identifying each denomination via touch.
The app is only available for iOS devices. According to a representative from the BEP, “Future phone offerings cannot be definitely specified at this time, but there are tentative thoughts to make EyeNote available on other phones from other vendors once the iOS effort is launched.”
REVIEW
After downloading the free app from the iTunes App Store, it was installed on my iPhone and I tried it. I had two notes nearby, a $20 note and a torn $1 note. When the app starts, there is a page with brief instructions. Interestingly, for an app that is supposed to help the visually impaired, the instruction text is a bit small that cannot be expanded using the iPhone pinch motion. For those who cannot read it, it says:
Tap to begin. After beep, steady note 6 to 8 inches in front of the camera. Tap; shutter clicks; await result. Double tap to replay. Swipe left of right for spoken or privacy mode. In Voice OVer, single tap is double; double tap is triple. Switch out of VoiceOver to change spoken of privacy…
It seems the BEP needs to fix the grammar a bit.
On my iPhone 4, the LED flash was turned on, I positioned a $20 note reverse in front of the camera, tapped the display, and the camera sound played as it took the picture. After a few seconds, a woman’s voice told me that it saw the back of the $20 note. I found a $10 and $50 note. Both were identified on both sides with no problems.
After passing those tests, I tried the only $1 note I had: one that was used as a chew toy by one of my dogs. No matter how I positioned the camera, the app could not identify the note. While the app is impressive it would have been amazing if the app could have identified my torn note!
It is very rare that an app’s first release is as impressive as EyeNote. However, it is not perfect. The opening screen needs to either have a voice over or larger text. The instruction text needs work and the controls need to be better explained. I grade this app MS68+*. Yes, it gets the plus rating for being excellent in what it does and the star because once you figure out the controls, it has great eye appeal. I am very impressed with the effort. I hope the BEP fixes the issues I found.
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Apr 19, 2011 | apps, books, review, technology
Speaking of apps, The Numismatic Bibliomania Society has created an app for its electronic newsletter, The E-Sylum.
For those who have not heard of The Numismatic Bibliomania Society, NBS promotes the use and collection of all types of numismatic literature. The E-Sylum is their weekly electronic newsletter sent to email subscribers interested in numismatic literature and other topics of interest. It can be best described as eclectic with news, reviews, interesting numismatic tidbits, and discussions from a broad range of numismatists, authors, and collectors. It is worth subscribing or reading the issues on line.
While catching up with reading back issues, I found the announcement and immediately downloaded the free app from iTunes App Store. After a quick sync, the application was on my iPhone and ready to use.
As with many apps, it opens with a splash screen with the NBS logo. After a few seconds, the app presents a list of articles from the most recent edition. So far so good as I tapped on the entry for the reader feedback on the app. I was then presented a page with the title of the article and a link that says “Read More.” I am not sure why the app does this. It should open the page with the text of the story. For me, this type of interface tends to become monotonous and turns me off to the app.
After pressing “Read More” I open up the web page from the NBS site with the story. The problem with this is that the article’s formatting is for a webpage to be read on the computer. This makes the text smaller and requires additional manual manipulation in order to read the article. I know it is possible for a website to tell what type of device is reading it. NBS should consider updating the style of the page to display better for the smaller phone screen when being read by the app.
Another element I found curious is that the upper-left corner of the reading pane has what looks like a Notepad icon. I was not sure what it did so I pressed it. The article pane slid over revealing a light blue page with “Back” and “Save” buttons at the top of the screen. I am not sure what this does, but the screen stays blue and the “Save” button does not seem to do anything. At least the “Back” button slides the reading pane back into view.
I asked The E-Sylum editor Wayne Homren for his comment about my review. Wayne said, “I had a company plug our feed into one of their standard app configurations and publish it. I agree that the navigation could be (greatly!) improved. My goal would be to have an app that works more like The New York Times app I use every day, with an easy way to flick from story to story with a swipe of your finger.” It has the feel of a first version (“1.0”) app.
I really wanted to like this app but these issues may prevent me from using it on a regular basis. I hope that these issues will be fixed in a future release. Right now, I would give the app a grade of AU-58, just short of being mint state because of that blue screen that does not seem to do anything. I hope that NBS fixes the app because I really want to like it!
Here are the screen images of the app I saved from my iPhone:
Apr 19, 2011 | apps, books, grading, technology
Coin World has announced the available of their app for the iPad. “The free app offers rich content such as the News and Marketplace features that are available at Coin World’s website.” The app is free and can be downloaded from Apple’s iTunes App Store.
As part of the release, Coin World announced that Coin Values and Making the Grade are available as an in-app purchase. Coin Values, sometimes referred to as “Trends,” is their comprehensive value guide of more than 65,000 U.S. coins. It will cost $4.99 to purchase in the app. At this time, it may be the only price guide for mobile platforms.
Making the Grade is the electronic version of their popular grading guide book. It provides color image grading for 50 of the most widely collected U.S. coin series. The app leverages the iPad capabilities to zoom in on the images and adds the information about wearing for a coin. The book lists for $39.99 but will sell for $9.99 as an in-app purchase.
The Coin World app is only available for the iPad leaving those of us with only an iPhone out. iPhone users can download the PCGS Photograde app for the iPhone. Hopefully, Coin World will port this app to be used by the iPhone.
I will review the app when I purchase an iPad.
Apr 15, 2011 | education, technology, web
As part of my posts earlier this year about creating more electronic access for numismatic publications and resources, I wrote how the ANA could do more. This post was the reprinted in Numismatic News (with my permission). Apparently, someone decided that one of my suggestions was a good idea.
This past weekend, I received an email from Numismatic News inviting me to a free live, web-based seminar Beginning Coin Collecting presented by Numismatic News editor Dave Harper. When I clicked the link in the email, I was sent to a registration page at GoToMeeting.com. The seminar will be on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 starting at 4:00 PM until 5:00 PM EDT.
Harper has an easy style and tremendous knowledge that should make the seminar worth attending. Although I would like to attend, I may have a conflict that will prevent me. However, I urge those working on the conventions and in the education department at the American Numismatic Association to login and see how Dave handles the seminar. I hope it gives the ANA ideas as to how they can transform their education program into something that can be presented online.
Once again, I urge the ANA to look into broadcasting open meetings, board meetings, and Numismatic Theater presentations for anyone who wants to log in at the time of the event. It will be a great promotion for the organization.
I am still willing to volunteer my services as an ANA member and a computing professional to help bring the ANA into the 21st century!
Apr 6, 2011 | apps, technology, web
Coin World magazine announced that it will be offering a free app for the Apple iPad in mid-April. The iPad app comes with the release of the new Coin World website with expanded information.
Although Coin World said the app will be free, the article talks about “paid apps” to include access to coin values of U.S. coins and a digital version of their Making the Grade book. It appears that this will be an in-app purchase where you can purchase app add-ons within the application.
It was not clear whether the new Coin World app will offer subscription services using Apple’s new subscription interface.
In addition to the information from the Coin World website, it will offer the ability to talk about your favorite article and other content on Facebook and Twitter.
Coin World is behind numismaster.com from Krause Publications for publishing its numismatic resources on the web. Numismaster.com has been offering subscriptions to the pricing information from the Standard Catalog series as well as the text of the articles from their publications like Numismatic News and Banknote Reporter. However, Amos Publishing, the parent company of Coin World will leap past Krause with the offering of a dedicated iPad app.
As an advocate of digital publishing and someone with an iPad on backorder, this is great news. It will be amongst my first downloads when my new iPad arrives. Hats off to Amos Publishing and Coin World for getting out in front of the rest of the numismatic publishing industry with digital publishing.
Mar 27, 2011 | technology
I am returning from a break for not only my medical reasons, but the health of my computer also failed. It started when the computer’s memory went bad and the system crashed in the middle of session, including backing up my files. As a result, not only did the internal hard drive fail, but the backup drive also failed. New memory and a drive repair program later, both the computer and I feel better.
Which brings me to today’s topic: BACKUPS! As a proponent of diving further into electronic publishing and electronic access for numismatics, one of the things we have to remember is to back up our data! Not only should you backup your data, but you must have a plan and execute that plan regularly and in a way that will ensure your data is safe.
Thinking about backups, you might want to consider using the “3-2-1 plan” to do your backups. The “3-2-1 plan” is three copies of your files on two different storage mediums and one backup off site. In my case, I have one copy on my computer that I use daily, one copy on an external hard disk, and the off site copy is using an online backup service where I consider “the cloud” as a different medium. Yes, you do want to back up a copy of your files away from your computer. If there is an unfortunate catastrophic event including theft, fire, or natural disasters (see what is going on in Japan), then the off-site backup becomes critical in saving your important data.
One of the tools I use to ensure I have critical information backed up is to use a service called Dropbox. Dropbox runs on just about any computer and will automatically backs up selected files. To use Dropbox, you create a free account that gives you 2 gigabytes of storage (you can buy more storage, but I use Dropbox for a few selected files), download the software, install it, and copy the files you want to save into your Dropbox folder. When the software detects new files or that the files have changed, the Dropbox software will securely transfer your files to their servers. I found this beneficial when the backup I made before my computer died did not back up the inventory of my collection. When I reinstalled Dropbox on my computer, the software automatically recovered the files from the server.
I do not know what I would do if I lost my inventory files. I could attempt to recreate those records, but I saved myself a lot of time and heartburn by storing it in my Dropbox. Also, by storing the files in my Dropbox, I can access these files using my iPhone. Dropbox also has apps for the iPad, Android phones, and Blackberry devices. Since I have access to these files using my iPhone, I can check my want list at any time without having to carry around paper.
During this crash, I did not lose any of the images I had taken of some of my coins and currency, some that has appeared on this blog. But had something happened, I use an online service called CrashPlan to backup my system. CrashPlan is good for people with more than one computer and can automatically backup your data to CrashPlan’s servers via the Internet. You can also have CrashPlan backup your files to someone else’s computer (with their permission, of course) or to another disk on your home network. It is a great service even for one computer but fantastic for multiple systems. With the unlimited data plan, all of my pictures are backed up off-site. So if something happened, I have an off-site backup with all of my files.
There are other services that work similarly to CrashPlan. For example, a friend uses Mozy on the laptop he uses for business. When he connects to a hotel’s network, his Mozy software will back up the day’s work. Another Mac friend uses Carbonite and gives it rave reviews. You can read a Comparison of Online Backup Services to determine which service may be right for you based on the features and almost all of them offer free trials.
I do recommend keeping your inventory on your computer—I will discuss software for this another time. But if you do have important data on your computer, including the inventory of your collection, then you should backup your data. You should have three copies of your inventory on two different types of backup media and one should be off-site or away from your computer. Do it now because you never know when something will happen.
Mar 3, 2011 | ANA, commentary, technology
While I unbury myself from “real work,” I have been fielding questions and comments over my postings on electronic publishing. The comments have run the gamut from skeptical to enthusiastic for more electronic publishing.
I bring this up now because as part of the introduction of Apple’s new iPad 2, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Radom House, Inc., the largest trade book publisher in the U.S., has made its catalog of 17,000 electronic books on Apple’s iBookstore.
Apple says that the iBookstore sells ebooks from more than 2,500 publishers and all six major trade publishers. This does not include specialty applications sold in the iTunes app store.
I wonder how difficult it would be to create an ebook version of The Numismatist? While the reader that the American Numismatic Association uses to display The Numismatist on the computer screen, the program uses Adobe Flash, which is not available on the iPad. It also requires that the computer be connected to the Internet reducing its portability.
I wonder of Apple or Amazon.com wants to help pioneer working with not-for-profit organizations by supporting subscription downloads. Amazon.com would be a good partner because they offer the Kindle reader and apps that can read Kindle formatted ebooks for many devices, including the Apple iPad. Imagine waking up one morning and the current version of The Numismatist on your favorite device. Pick up your device and just go!
Since I will not buy the first release of any product, it was difficult to wait for the iPod 2. The iPad 2 is faster, lighter, has new cameras, and more for the same price as the first generation product with a cool Smart Cover, it was worth the wait. Although I will not stand on line in front of an Apple Store when it will will go on sale at 5:00 P.M. on March 11, I will buy one before the end of the month.
Once I buy my iPad 2, I want content. Dear ANA: please sell me content!
Here I am telling the ANA that I will pay my dues for the content they provide in the form of The Numismatist in a form that would be cheaper to produce. I am not asking for something for nothing. In fact, I will pay the current paper version in order to be able to download The Numismatist to my iPad 2 so that I can consume this media how I want. So why isn’t the ANA looking outside of the box to figure out how to do this?
Feb 24, 2011 | ANA, commentary, technology
I received the March 1, 2011 edition of Numismatic News in today’s mail. In a front page, top right article, NN reported that American Numismatic Association membership is down to 28,500 members. This is the low end of the 20 year average of 28,000 to 32,000. It was reported that Kim Kiik, ANA Senior Administration Manager, told the board that an aggressive membership campaigned will be announced shortly.
In the February 2011, ANA President Cliff Mishler wrote in The Numismatist that ANA Governor Wendell Wolka wants to make the ANA library and museum more accessible to ANA members. Wolka wants the library to wants to make it easier for members to reserve books from the library by making the process electronic. He also wants to have rare and popular books digitized so that they may be electronically accessed by members.
On May 21, 2010, when I posted a follow up to my post “ANA versus Technology: The ANA is Losing!,” I wrote that the ANA is doing very little to make the association accessible to the potential 20-something and 30-something members. Then, during my January discussion of electronic publication, I wrote:
Numismatics is dominated by many people over 50. If there is a second age group, it is younger than 18. Missing in the demographic are those from 18-50 who might have been a Young Numismatist but dropped out in college and did not return until after their children have grown. This situation is unacceptable if the hobby is to survive!
The ANA can offer better outreach to this connected demographic by the appropriate use of technology. This does not have to cost a lot of money. It takes a little imagination to figure out where these potential members congregate online and deliver new content.
Based on the reporting of NN and the reporting in the February 2011 edition of The Numismatist, the ANA Board of Governors, the majority who are older than 50, are sticking their proverbial toes in the technology waters where rest of the world has lapped them several times in the race for the attention of the ANA’s lost demographic.
Rather than try to be democratic about providing advice, I am going to be very specific in my recommendations:
- While there is still time to plan, the open sessions at the World’s Fair of Money should be live streamed on a service like uStream. The ANA can start with Board Meetings and other open meetings involving the organization. How about broadcasting some of the Numismatic Theater talks on the Internet?
- What about using something like GoToWebinar to broadcast Numismatic Theater presentations with electronic slides and audio available to anyone who wants to log in at the time of the event. The online portion can be saved so that members can view later on demand.
- Borrow, lease, or buy any number of what is called “prosumer” video products that includes sound capture and tripod setup to record video, find a member with basic editing tools to add titles and do some minor editing, and upload the video to YouTube for anyone to watch. For a lesser expensive option, I have been very impressed with the Flip Ultra HD. For $199.99 (list price), with two hours of high definition video and other amenities, it is a fine camera to mount on a tripod in a room and create a video. Find someone with a Mac that has iLife preloaded (like your blog host, an ANA member), and you have the beginnings of a basic editing studio.
- Going further into the electronic video publishing environment, uStream can be used to set up pay-per-view, on-demand video. While I would love to attend the Summer Seminar, I have found that my work schedule has not been flexible enough to take the time to attend. However, if some of the courses were available online, I would pay to watch the videos. This is the ultimate money maker that can be used to support the video production environment. Create the video from the Summer Seminar and offer it online after the World’s Fair of Money at a price for one-third of the on-site course. For the price, the watcher gets the information but does not have the ability to interact with the instructor and other students.
- If you search Google Books, you can find some of the books that are in the ANA library in the electronic catalog. There are also a few copies of The Numismatist available. These are all books and journals that have been scanned by university libraries in conjunction with Google. Has someone contacted Google to scan books whose copyrights have expired or out of print books (available through their court settlement with authors and publishers that will allow them to scan “orphaned” books) making them available for the entire numismatic community? Google provides much of the resources to do this and may welcome a different source of content for their vast online library.
In order to convince the ANA Lost Demographic to maintaining their membership, the ANA should add more electronic resources and consider price breaks for this demographic. First, create a new tier what I will call the Lost Demographic. The Lost Demographic member would be potential member who older than 23 but not older than 32, was a registered YN member at any time prior to turning 23, applied for the ANA’s Basic Membership—it would not be available for Regular Membership. Lost Demographic Basic Membership dues would be half of the difference between a Regular and YN membership. For example, the Basic one-year membership for YN is $14 and Regular members $28. For the Lost Demographic Basic Membership would be $21 per year.
Finally, I am not one to sit on the sideline and throw stones by telling others what to do. Once again, I am willing to volunteer my services as an ANA member and a computing professional. Although I have offered my voluntary services to the ANA many times in the past, I am using my personal soap box to offer my services. However, continued frustration will reduce my desire to help. Act now before it is too late!
Feb 2, 2011 | CCAC, technology, US Mint
While watching the live coverage of the situation in Cairo, Egypt, I was marveling how we can see history being made while it was happening. Earlier this year we watched a populist uprising in Tunisia that forced a change in the government broadcast around the world. A few weeks ago when a gunman shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the news was so fluid that watching the news on Twitter became the best way to keep up with the developments. Technology has brought a new world of instant communication to anyone who wants the content. News junkies, like myself, are thrilled!
Unfortunately, this type of communication has been lost on the U.S. Mint. On Wednesday, February 2, it will be two weeks since the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee introduced and adopted as its recommendation the report “A Blueprint for Advancing Artistic Creativity and Excellence in United States Coins and Medals.” As of the time of this writing, the report has not been made available on either the CCAC’s website or the website for the U.S. Mint.
It must be emphasized that this is the fault of the U.S. Mint. According to CCAC member Donald Scarinci on Twitter, they were “told that it will be posted on the ccac website.” It was confirmed that after the meeting, CCAC Chairman Gary Marks urged the U.S. Mint to have the report posted online immediately.
According to Presidential memo, “Transparency and Open Government,” government should be transparent, participatory, and collaborative. Keeping it off line is not transparent, does not allow participation by the citizens, and does not allow for the collaboration between a government mandated committee (the CCAC) and the “citizens” it is to represent. In short, the U.S. Mint is not doing its job.
I know the weather around the Washington-area has not been the best, but we are not talking about snowmageddon-like conditions we had last year. But according the Office of Personnel Management the government is open. This means that the business of the government must go on including observing the President’s Memo regarding transparency and open government.
I urge the U.S. Mint to post the CCAC subcommittee report immediately!
Jan 19, 2011 | grading, technology, video
Last March, the Professional Coin Grading Service announced the PCGS Secure Plus service. Coins graded through Secure Plus will be scanned by an optical device that will map the surface of the coin creating a digital signature of its characteristics that can be used for later reference. The digital signature is a unique identification of the coin that can withstand potential coin doctoring and to prevent the users from removing the coin from the slab to try to have it graded higher. It can also be used to determine if the coin was doctored from its previous submission such as being artificially toned.
Recently, PCGS created a video demonstrating the scanner used to fingerprint and detect re-submitted coins. In the demonstration, PCGS shows how it detected a coin that had previously been submitted then artificially toned before being re-submitted. Here is the video:
I thought the device would be a little bigger. But that is the beauty of modern technology. In the past, I wrote, “Computers are great tools. Imaging technologies enhanced by computers can do wonderful things. To apply this technology to coin grading and analysis would be a fantastic addition to the industry. Can you imagine being able to take the technology to major shows and for a small fee, provide on sight diagnostics for coins before submitting them to the grading services?” PCGS is one step closer to that possibility!
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing will announce today that they have developed EyeNote,™ an app for iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad) that will help the assist the blind and visually impaired determine the value of the U.S. currency they are holding.
After downloading the free app from the iTunes App Store, it was installed on my iPhone and I tried it. I had two notes nearby, a $20 note and a torn $1 note. When the app starts, there is a page with brief instructions. Interestingly, for an app that is supposed to help the visually impaired, the instruction text is a bit small that cannot be expanded using the iPhone pinch motion. For those who cannot read it, it says:
On my iPhone 4, the LED flash was turned on, I positioned a $20 note reverse in front of the camera, tapped the display, and the camera sound played as it took the picture. After a few seconds, a woman’s voice told me that it saw the back of the $20 note. I found a $10 and $50 note. Both were identified on both sides with no problems.
After passing those tests, I tried the only $1 note I had: one that was used as a chew toy by one of my dogs. No matter how I positioned the camera, the app could not identify the note. While the app is impressive it would have been amazing if the app could have identified my torn note!
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