🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Jul29.235144.14702@informix.com> rfisel@informix.com writes:
>In article <22912@oasys.dt.navy.mil> gotimer@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Gene Gotimer)  
>writes:
>> >In article <7709@lee.SEAS.UCLA.EDU> linley@ada.seas.ucla.edu (Bruce Linley)  
>> >writes:
>> >> Does anyone know if there exists an OCR program that can read sheet music
>> >> and save it in a format readable by Finale???
>> 
>> 
>> rfisel@informix.com wrote:
>> >--I don't think there is one, but there's not much reason there couldn't be  
>> >(provided you're reading printed music, not handwritten). Finale et. al. use  
>> >music fonts for notes, repeat signs, etc. OCR would have to be enlightened  
>that  
>> 
>> You may want to try OmniPage Pro.  It has an excellent training feature
>> for teaching the OCR software what a particular symbol means.  It
>> should be able to learn to read sheet music.
>> 
>> 
>This is interesting, but I'll bet it's not enough for two reasons.
>1. Input: it's not just the note that's important, but also it's location on  
>the staff (vertically). It's also tricky to imagine the OCR being smart enough  
>to know that an eighth note A on a staff is the same as the font key, which is  
>an eighth against a white background. And how would you read a "p" beneath a  
>sequence of notes - as a modifier or a separate "note" in Times instead of  
>Sonata font?
>
>2. Output: Finale doesn't read ascii, and translation to MIDI standard files,  
>say, is not at all straightforward. Finale does a reasonably good job of  
>matching notes plus tempo and volume notation to MIDI, but it would be tricky  
>to get it read in at the right time.
>
>It's still an interesting idea. Anyone have this OCR program and want to try it  
>out?
>
>Rick
>-------------
>P.S. Sorry for the prior copy-only post. That's what I get for using NeXT  
>NewsGrazer.
>
>Rick Fisel 
>opinionated employee of opinionless
>Informix Software
>I prefer replies by email. 




Allen Kay from ("Apple fellow"--whatever that is) Apple lectured and
showed us movies using OCR from the sixties (maybe seventies) in 1986.
I want to attend another lecture but I can't find the man.  Anyway,
I tried to develop OCR for music notation in 1989 and learned that 
it wasn't cost effective and no one was interested; plus there were 
hardware limitations with the Mac II at the time.  Some even felt 
threatened by the whole idea.  Eventually, the programmers that I 
worked with lost interest and all our efforts were wasted.    

A better idea would be to contact the developers of Newton and beg them
to develop a two page tablet that recognizes hand written notes scribbled
onto a sixteen clef etched board.  That way all us composers could compose
for great lengths of time without having our eyeballs fall out from looking
at a pixelled screen.


If anyone else decides to fully develop this thing give me a buzz,  I
wouldn't mind manufacturing, marketing and supporting it.


maurices