Blaze EZ User Manual ENGLISH MANUAL For Software Version 1.0 (May, 2014) When there are any manual updates, the readme files or appendices will be added to the manual CD and website. HIMS International 139‐9, Gajung‐dong, Yuseong‐gu, Daejeon, Korea 305‐350 Phone: +82‐42‐864‐4460 Fax: +82‐42‐864‐4462 Email: hims@himsintl.com Website: www.himsintl.
Congratulations on the purchase of your Blaze EZ! The Blaze EZ is capable of scanning printed material and reading DAISY content as well as many standard functions of portable mainstream media devices, – but with a simplified interface utilizing just a few, intuitive, tactile buttons rather than using a touch screen! Before using the Blaze EZ, you should read the entire manual to familiarize yourself with the functions of the Blaze EZ.
3.When you use the Blaze EZ with the battery for the first time, the battery status may not be displayed accurately. To avoid this, leave the Blaze EZ connected to the AC adapter for about three hours with the unit turned on. If you want to use the Blaze EZ immediately, you may use it while it is charging. 4. If you want or need to remove the battery from the unit, power the unit off, and then remove the battery.
7.Do not use the Blaze EZ in a moisture-rich environment such as a bathroom or shower. This is to prevent damage caused by moisture getting into the device. Do not touch the AC adapter with wet hands. 8.Do not leave your Blaze EZ in closed or high temperature environments such as inside a car on a hot summer day, as the battery attached to the Blaze EZ may be damaged or catch fire. Please do not let your Blaze EZ remain in such environments for long periods of time. 9.
13.This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications.
1. Introduction Thank you for purchasing the Blaze EZ OCR multi-player. The Blaze EZ is a digital audio player and portable OCR device manufactured by HIMS International Corporation. It is a small, lightweight portable device which can play digital books, music files, document files, DAISY content, FM radio, and can scan and recognize printed text and text image files with the built-in 5 megapixel camera and OCR software.
5) Record via an internal / external microphone, using an Apple-compatible headset microphone or line-in recording source. Record using mp3 or wave file formats and adjust a variety of options, such as microphone sensitivity and recording quality. 6) Listen to media or document playback via a Bluetooth headset connection for wireless audio listening. 7) Use the Built-in Wi-fi and included Podcast application to subscribe to and download podcasts for listening on the go.
2) Micro USB OTG port 3) SD card slot 4) FM radio 5) Bluetooth 3.0 (Bluetooth stereo headset support) 6) Wi-Fi (802.11B/G/N, 2.4GHz) 7) 5-megapixel camera 8) Headphone jack (3.5 mm, apple compatible headsets can be connected. 9) Stereo microphone jack (3.5 mm, supports line-in input) 10) Built-in stereo speakers 11) Built-in mono microphone 12) Replaceable battery (Lithium Polymer, 12 hours of continuous music playback when fully charged. 1.4 Physical Orientation to the Blaze EZ.
Below the navigation pad is a row of 3 buttons: 2 square buttons with a dotlike button between them. The square button on the left is the Cancel button. The Square button on the right is the OCR button. The dot-like button between them is the Explorer button. The Explorer button brings up a list of files associated with the currently open program. For example, if you have the BOOK reader opened, pressing the explorer button will bring up a list of DAISY books and documents readable by the Book Reader.
1.4.4 The Top Edge. The top EDGE of the Blaze EZ contains only a small hole for looping a carrying strap or lanyard. 1.4.5 The Bottom Edge. If you move around to the edge nearest your body, you will discover 3 ports. From left to right these ports are the headphone jack, the micro USB port, and the stereo microphone jack. Use the headphone jack to connect headphones or external speakers to the unit. Use the microphone jack to connect an external microphone or line-in recording source to the unit.
2. Getting Started. This chapter describes basic operations of the Blaze EZ including inserting and removing the battery, powering on and off, charging, and copying content to the unit. 2.1 Inserting and Removing the Battery. When your Blaze EZ is shipped, the battery is packed separately to prevent any damage during transit. You should insert the battery before using Blaze EZ to ensure normal operation. As described above, you can access the battery compartment by sliding the back off of the unit.
2) Charging using a computer: You can also charge the Blaze EZ using your computer and the included micro USB cable. Connect the smaller end of the cable to the micro USB port on the center of the bottom edge of the Blaze EZ, and connect the larger end to a USB port on your computer. Charging via a computer usually takes about 4 hours. 2.3 Powering On/Off. To power on the Blaze, press and hold the Power button for 2 seconds.
To insert the SD card, locate the corner of the SD card that is cut at a 45 degree angle. Place the SD card so that this cut corner is at the top right when you insert the card into the SD slot. The surface of the label should be face down. Gently press the SD card into the slot until it clicks into place. Do not use excessive force. Only slight pressure is required to insert the SD card in the slot.
folders into which content such as Web Radio and Podcast URL's must be placed as well as to help you organize content. 2.5.2 Connecting to a Mac. As described above, Blaze EZ uses the Media TRANSFER Protocol, (MTP) connection for transferring data to and from a computer. As the Mac operating system does not natively support this connection type, it is necessary to download a third-party executable which will allow you to drag and drop files into Blaze EZ.
B. Import: — Images can be copied from another device to this folder and can be recognized by Blaze EZ. C. Temporary; — files that are created during capturing and character recognition are stored in temporary files in this folder. D. Text :— recognition result files are stored in this folder. 2) Podcast: Podcast content and address information is stored in this folder, including URL, XML, OPML. To subscribe to podcasts on the Blaze EZ, you must copy the podcast address information into this folder.
3. Basic Functions. 3.1 The Home Menu. When you power on the unit for the first time, you are placed in the Home Menu. You can also get to the Home Menu by pressing Cancel when in a program. The Home Menu contains a combination of things including status information, settings, and executable programs not accessible via the program buttons. You can navigate among the items in the Home Menu using the Left and Right arrows. Press the Select button to activate the focused item in the menu.
9) Online DAISY: Pressing "Select" on this item executes the Online DAISY program which lets qualified patrons connect to and download from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind library. 10) Web Radio: Press "Select" on this program to listen to web radio stations from around the world. 11) Podcasts: Press "Select" on this program to download and play podcasts you are subscribed to.
3.3 Adjusting Voice Settings. This section describes how to adjust the volume, speed and pitch of the speech of the main voice which guides you through the unit and announces system messages, etc. The Guide Voice Settings are located in the Home Menu. Use the Left and Right arrows to navigate to "Guide Voice Settings", and press the Select button to open the dialog. Use the Up and Down arrows to move between the settings in the dialog. Use the Left and Right arrows to change the value of the setting.
3.5 Setting the Date and Time. You can set the Date and Time in 2 ways: you can set it manually using the Date and Time dialog, or you can have it automatically synchronized with a time server. 3.5.1 Manually setting the Date and Time. Use the following steps to manually set the Date and Time: 1) From the Home menu, press the Left or Right arrow to navigate to the Date and Time. 2) Press the "Select" button to open the "Date and Time" dialog. 3) You are placed on the "Month".
To set the Date and Time by Syychronizing with a time server, follow these steps: 1) From the Home menu, use the Left and Right arrows to navigate to the Date and Time. 2) Press the "Select" button to open the "Date and Time" dialog. 3) Use the Up or Down arrow to navigate to "Synchronization". Press the Left or Right arrow to navigate to "Yes". 4) Press the "Select" button and the time is synchronized with a time server, and you are returned to the Home menu. 3.6 Checking Power Status.
3.8 Checking System Information. To access basic system information about your Blaze EZ, from the Home menu, press the Right arrow until you hear the software version and free space announced. Press the "Select" button to open the "System Information" dialog box. The "System Information" dialog displays the following information: 1) Firmware version. 2) Build date. 3) Serial number. 4) Total space and remaining space of the internal flashdisk. 5) Total space and remaining space on the SD card.
4. Using the Media Player. 4.1 Supported Media Formats. The Media Player on the Blaze EZ supports the following media formats: 1) MP3 320 Kbps, 44100 Hz, Stereo 2) MP4-AAC, M4a) 3) Wave 16bit 48000Hz 4) Ogg Vorbis 5) ASF ASF 6) FLAC Q1 & Q10 7) Avi 8) WMV WMV 9) Audio cd (CDA) You can use the Media Player to play music, books, or podcasts stored on the Blaze EZ, or to play commercial audio CD's. You can begin playing media content immediately with the touch of just 1 button. 4.2 Playing Audio Files.
4.5 Moving by Time. To move through audio by time, press and hold the Left or Right arrow. Hold the Right arrow to move forward, and hold the Left arrow to move backward. As you hold the Left or Right arrow, the guide voice announces time elements by which you can move. The longer you hold the arrow key, the larger the amount of time. When your desired amount of time is announced, release the arrow key, and you are moved backward or forward by that amount of time.
can easily return to them later. You can identify such sections using bookmarks, Voice marks, or highlight marks. You can place up to 999 marks in each file, and you may not duplicate mark numbers, even if the marks are of a different type. For example, you may not have a bookmark and a highlight mark both labeled as number 5. Each mark, no matter the type, will have a unique number from 1-999. 4.7.1 Inserting a Bookmark.
3) Press the Down arrow to navigate to "Voice Mark" and press "Select". 4) The unit prompts, "Start recording", and you have up to 40 seconds to record your audio anotation. 5) When you have finished recording, press the "Select" button. 6) You are prompted to choose the number for the voice mark. 7) Use the Left or Right arrow to choose the number for the mark. Use the Up or Down arrows to move by groups of 10 numbers. 8) Press "Select" to save the mark.
4.7.4 Moving to a Mark. You can move to an existing mark in 2 ways: either by using the "mark" navigation unit available during playback, or by specifying the mark to move to using the Mark Manager. If you have few marks in a file, or you wish to move through your marks sequencially, using the "mark" movement unit may be most efficient. However, if you have many marks in a file, and wish to quickly access a specific marked position, you may find it more advantageous to use the Mark Manager.
4.8 Adjusting Volume, speed, and Equalizer. You can use the Volume dial to adjust the media volume, preamp, playback speed, and equalizer. 1) Media Playback Volume: You can adjust media playback volume using values 1-15. 2) Preamp: audio recordings are often at different volume levels. You can adjust the preamplifier level for each file to compensate for this variation. The default value is 0. You can adjust the preamp level using values from — -4 to 6.
6) Use normal playback and movement commands to move through the content on the CD. 4.10 Using The Explorer. If you wish to locate a certain song, album, or podcast file, you can use the "Explorer" to easily search for and navigate media content stored on your Blaze EZ. As folders and files appear in easily navigable lists, you can locate podcasts, books, music, or any other media files stored on your unit. You can also easily delete files without connecting to a PC.
5. FM Radio. In this section you will learn how to play the FM radio, how to manually and auto scan, how to set presets, and how to record the radio output. The FM Radio can access local stations at frequencies from 87.5MHz to 108MHz. Note: in order to receive a radio signal, you must connect a headphone cable or audio patch cord for use as an antenna. Please connect headphones or a patch cord to the headphone jack on the left end of the bottom EDGE of blaze EZ. 5.1 Playing the Radio.
To automatically detect stations press and hold the Left or Right arrow to auto scan backward and forward respectively. 5.4 Selecting and Moving to Channels. You may find it cumbersome to manually move through all the available channels, especially if you have specific stations you know you like to listen to. You can easily save presets, simply by pressing "Select" while playing the radio frequency you want to save. You can save up to 30 presets.
5.6 Recording a Radio Broadcast. to Record the current radio frequency, press and hold the "Record" button for 2 seconds. Depending how you have set your Record Settings, you will be prompted through beep or voice notification that the recording has started. To pause the recording, press the "Record" button quickly. Briefly press "Record" button again to resume recording. To stop and save the recording, press the "Select" button.
6. Book Reader. The Book Reader program on Blaze EZ is able to play DAISY books as well as several document file types. 6.1 Supported File Types. The Book Reader supports the following formats: Document formats: 1) Plain text document: TXT. 2) Rich Text Format: RTF. 3) MS Word document: DOC/DOCX. 4) Markup language document: HTM, HTML, XML. 5) Sense notetaker document: HBL HPF. 6) e-book: EPUB. 7) Adobe Acrobat document: PDF. Note: only text-based PDF documents are supported in the Book Reader.
Press the "Book" button briefly to pause playback. Press it once again to resume playing the book or document. Press the "Cancel" button to exit book or document playback and return to the Home menu. When you exit the Book Reader, the position at which you exited is marked in the book or document and playback resumes at that position the next time you open that book or document. 6.3 Navigation.
7) Sentence: When this item is selected the Left and Right arrows move to the previous and next sentence. This item appears only in documents and text-based DAISY content. 8) Line: The Left and Right arrows move to the previous and next line. This item appears only during playback of documents and text-based DAISY content. 9) Word: When this item is selected, the Left and Right arrows move to the previous and next word. This item appears only during playback of documents or text-based DAISY content.
6.5 Marks. In longer files, such as books, or files you intend to use for teaching, etc, it can be useful to mark certain sections so that you can easily return to them later. You can identify such sections using bookmarks, Voice marks, or highlight marks. You can place up to 1000 marks in each file, and you may not duplicate mark numbers, even if the marks are of a different type. For example, you may not have a bookmark and a highlight mark both labeled as number 5.
Use the following steps to insert a voice mark: 1) Locate the place in the content which you want to mark, and press "Select". 2) The Mark Manager is opened, and the first item "Bookmark" is focused. 3) Press the Down arrow to navigate to "Voice Mark" and press "Select". 4) The unit prompts, "Start recording", and you have up to 40 seconds to record your audio anotation. 5) When you have finished recording, press the "Select" button. 6) You are prompted to choose the number for the voice mark.
mark. Use the Left or Right arrow to move among the choices, and press "Select" to activate your desired option. Press "Cancel" at any time to cancel the setting of the mark. 6.5.4 Moving to a Mark. You can move to an existing mark in 2 ways: either by using the "mark" movement unit available during playback, or by specifying the mark to move to using the Mark Manager. If you have few marks in a file, or you wish to move through your marks sequencially, using the "mark" movement unit may be most efficient.
6) Press "Select" and the mark is deleted. Press "Cancel" at any time to cancel deleting a mark. 6.6 Adjusting Volume and Speed You can use the Volume dial to adjust the reading voice volume, audio preamp, playback speed, and voice pitch. Use the "Voice Control" button to cycle through the available adjustments. The adjustable settings will vary depending on the type of content being played.
While a DAISY book containing both text and audio is openen, press and hold the "Book" button. Each time you press and hold the "Book" button, it toggles between text and audio mode. 6.8 Deleting Content. You can easily delete the currently playing file or book during playback. To do this, press and hold the "Cancel" buffton for more than 5 seconds. You are asked if you want to delete the content. Press "Select" for yes, or press "Cancel" to cancel the deletion. 6.9 Using The Explorer.
2) Use the Left arrow to move back a level in the folder structure. 3) Use the Right arrow to move forward a level in the file/folder structure. 4) Use the "Select" button to play the focused file or folder. 5) Press and hold the Up arrow to move to the DAISY group. 6) Press and hold the Down arrow to move to the general documents group. 7) Press and hold the "Cancel" button for more than 2 seconds to delete the focused file or folder. You are prompted whether you are sure you wish to delete.
6.9.4 Continuous Playing of a Folder. You may have a situation where you wish to play a series of files in succession. For example, if you have a text book or user manual wherein each chapter is in a separate document. You can play all the content in a given folder continuously using the steps below: 1) Press the "Explorer" button and your currently playing title is displayed. 2) Press the Left arrow to move to the folder list. 3) Use the Up or Down arrow to navigate to the folder you wish to play.
7. Recording. This section discusses how to create and listen to recordings as well as how to set your recording preferences. You can record via the internal microphone, an external stereo microphone or line-in source, from a headset microphone, or from the FM radio. You can also adjust the quality of the recording and the sensitivity of the microphone. 7.1 Making a Recording. To begin making a voice recording, simply press and hold the "Record" button from either the Media Player or the Home menu.
7.3 Searching and Deleting Recorded Files. You can navigate and delete recordings using the Explorer just as you can when using the Medi Player and Book Reader. To access all the recordings, including those created from the radio, press the "Explorer" button while a recording is opened. Recordings are listed in chronological order by time. Use the Up and Down arrows to move through the list of recordings. Use the Left arrow to move to the folder list, and use the Right arrow to open a folder.
D. Speech quality: sample rate = 22050Hz, bitrate = 64kbps, mono channel = E. User Defined: Press the Down arrow to display additional options for the recording format and sample rate, bit rate, and specify them according to your wish. 2) Record Method: Microphone, Headset microphone, and Line-in. A. Microphone: built-in and external microphones to record automatically detect the recording. B.
8. OCR. "OCR" refers to Optical Character Recognition, which simply means the recognition and letters in an image, and the conversion of these letters to text. The Blaze EZ accomplishes this by snapping a photo of a page of text with it's built-in 5 mega-pixel camera, and processing it through its included OCR software. 8.1 Opening and Closing OCR. To open the OCR program, press the button on the bottom right of the Blaze EZ's keypad.
2) Hold the Blaze EZ in your hands in the horizontal position where your hands meet in the center of the arch made by your elows. 3) Press the "OCR" button to open the OCR program. 4) Press the "OCR" button once again to take the picture. 5) Blaze EZ auto focuses, shoots the picture, and automatically begins text analysis. During text analysis, progress beeps are heard, and when the analysis is finished, Blaze EZ automatically begins reading the text aloud.
Up and Down arrows to navigate the list, and press "Select" on a file you wish to play. While reading a recognized file, press the "Select" button to pause and resume reading. You can navigate the file in detail in the same way as would a document file in the Book Reader. Pressing the "OCR" button takes a new picture. Press the "Cancel" button to return to the OCR menu. Press and hold the "Cancel" button to delete the currently playing file. You are asked if you are sure you want to delete.
2) Press the Up or Down arrow to navigate to the "Open An Enwithgnal File" option. 3) Blaze displays a list of image files. 4) Use the Up or Down arrow to navigate to the file you want to recognize and press "Select". 5) The file is analyzed, during which time you will hear beep sounds to indicate progress. 6) When the recognition is completed, the text is automatically read aloud. 8.5 Setting OCR Options. 8.5.1 Turning Flash On/Off.
1) Open the OCR menu. 2) Use the Up or Down arrow to navigate to "Options" and press "Select". 3) Use the Up or Down arrow to navigate to "Delete All Files" and press "Select". 4) When asked if you want to delete all files, press "Select" to delete the files, or press "Cancel" to cancel the deletion.
9. Using a Bluetooth Audio Device. You can use Blaze EZ with BLUETOOTH headsets or speakers for high quality, wireless audio listening. 9.1 Turn Bluetooth On/Off. To turn Bluetooth on or off, do the following: 1) From the Home menu, press the Left or Right arrow to navigate to the Bluetooth Information item. 2) Fress the "Select" button to open the "Bluetooth Settings" dialog box. 3) You are placed on the Bluetooth status setting. Use the Left or Right arrows to move between On and Off.
8) Press the Cancel button to cancel connecting to a Bluetooth device and you are returned to the Home menu. 9.3 Disconnecting a Bluetooth Headset or Speaker. You may wish to disconnect from one Bluetooth cevice so that you connect to another. To disconnect from a Bluetooth device, use the following steps: 1) From the Home menu, press the Left or Right arrow to navigate to the Bluetooth Information item. 2) Press "Select" to open the "Bluetooth Settings" dialog box.
10. Using Wireless LAN. This section describes how to check Wireless status, turn Wi-fi on and off, and how to connect to and delete profiles. Using Wi-fi enhances the abilities of Blaze EZ in the following ways: 1) Stay synchronized with a time server, always ensuring the Date and Time is as accurate as it can be. 2) Access Web radio stations from around the globe: 3) Subscribe to and download podcasts. 4) Easily upgrade your Blaze EZ software online.
1) From the Home menu, use the Left or Right arrow to navigate to Wireless LAN information, and press "Select". 2) The "Network Setup" dialog box is opened. 3) If Wireless is not turned on, use the Left Or Right arrow to change wireless status to On. 4) Press the Down arrow. 5) The list of available wireless networks is displayed. 6) Use the Left and Right arrows to navigate among the networks. As you move through the list, the network name, signal strength, and security are announced.
4) Press the Down arrow. 5) The list of available networks is displayed. 6) Use the Left or Right arrow to navigate to the network you want to delete. 7) Press and hold the "Cancel" key for more than 2 seconds. The unit announces, "Delete profile completed". If you are currently connected to the network, you are disconnected, and the profile is removed.
11. Web Radio. Web Radio is live audio casting over the Internet as opposed to an FM signal. Web streaming is the method by which devices like Blaze EZ allow you to listen to such casts. To use the Web Radio, Blaze EZ must be connected to a wireless network. 11.1 Executing and exiting Web Radio. To execute the Web Radio application, from the Home menu, use the Left or Right arrow to navigate to Web Radio" and press "Select".
the channel list, and press "Select" on the station you actually wish to listen to. You may wish to use the second method if you want to skip through many stations quickly. Because Web casting happens in real time, you are not able to move by track or other time elements as you can when playing stored audio files. The movement units available when playing Web Radio channels allow to move by1 channel, 5 channels or to the first or last channel.
12. Podcasts. Podcasts are audio files published by individuals or organizations via a method called RSS. Podcasts are available on any number of topics including news, politics, music, books, technology, cooking, and an unlimited number of individual casts covering very specific personal interests. Anyone with the know-how and the right equipment can publish a podcast, thus, the selections are virtually unlimited.
The first time you open Podcasts after pasting an OPML file into the Podcasts folder, it may take more time to create the feed list. When Blaze is finished creating the feed list, it announces "Feed list creation complete" and you are placed in the list of podcast feeds. To close the Podcasts application, press the "Cancel" button, and you are returned to the Home menu. 12.3 Navigating Feeds and Podcasts. From the podcast feed list, use the Left and Right arrows to navigate among the podcast feeds.
are asked if you're sure you want to delete the item. Press "Select" to delete, or press "Cancel" to cancel the deletion.
13. Online DAISY The Online DAISY program allows patrons of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to access their bookshelf and download content directly to the Blaze EZ. 13.1 Logging In. To log into your Online DAISY account, please do the following: 1) From the Home menu, use the Left or Right arrow to navigate to Online DAISY, and press "Select". 2) You are placed in the "Online DAISY Login" dialog in the ID edit box. Use the Up or Down arrow to move among the items in the dialog.
13.3 Downloading and Playing content. 13.4 Returning content to the Bookshelf.
14. Upgrading Blaze EZ firmware. This section describes how to upgrade the firmware on the Blaze EZ. You may upgrade the firmware in 2 ways: Online, or Offline. 14.1 Online Upgrade. Use the following procedure to upgrade your Blaze EZ online. 1) Make sure you are connected to the Internet. See chapter 10 for details on setting up a wireless network connection. 2) Connect the AC adapter.
2) From the Home Menu, use the Left or Right arrow to navigate to "Upgrade" and press "Select". 3) You are prompted to choose how you wish to upgrade. Use the Left or Right arrow to navigate to Offline and press "Select". 4) The unit announces, "Start System update", and the update begins installing. Once the upgrade begins installing, please do not press any keys on the Blaze EZ or disconnect it from the AC adapter.
