3 ms·

Does anyone remember the name of the service or similar software that takes a screenshot every N seconds and runs OCR on it, so that you can search everything y

Does anyone remember the name of the service or similar software that takes a screenshot every N seconds and runs OCR on it, so that you can search everything you saw on your screen at any time? I remember HN balked at the cost. A combination of that and this would make my life so much better, i think. That or giving away all of my computers.

quambene 3y ago
Using Bogrep, I could only find https://tenderowl.com/work/frog/ https://tenderowl.com/work/frog/ in my bookmarks which is a bit related, but doesn't seem to be what you're looking for.
- genewitch 3y ago
  Sorry for the derail! bogrep + everything (windows filesystem search) + the screenshot "service" - i'm about 80% sure it was a service and not self-hosted - would completely obviate the need to remember anything ever again! It would also eliminate the hassle of firefox or chrome "forgetting" my bookmarks every few years in an apparently random fashion. I've been having HN "dropbox" moments about this... how hard can it be? I've hacked together OCR to use my phone to control my icom ic-7100 - the person who makes/sells the bluetooth serial ports compatible with icom Ci-V was out during the pandemic, and before, when i needed one, so i wired a raspberry pi to the Ci-V port, enabled BT file transfers on the pi, and using repeaterbook on the phone with GPS i could find the info page for a nearby repeater, do the 2 finger screenshot, hit share, and the pi would OCR it and get the frequency and offset. I never bothered to extract the PL tone frequency, because my radio can find that quickly on an active repeater. So there's a workflow, and i have spare machines to do the OCR and inserting into solr (or whatever).
  - quambene 3y ago
    Interesting setup! Personally, I would be cautious to use such a screenshot service though. Even if self-hosted, it could screenshot credentials, environment files, and my password manager for example, which would then be stored in plaintext somewhere? So I would rather prefer to "keep control" by using a search utility when needed instead of scanning the background permanently.
luckman212 3y ago
Are you talking about rewind.ai? (no affiliation) I have been eyeing the service, I tried the free version and it was pretty amazing. But I can't bring myself to pay the $30/mo. Hoping somehow they offer this for $10/mo someday. https://www.rewind.ai https://www.rewind.ai
- quambene 3y ago
  "Rewind compresses, transcribes, encrypts, and stores your data locally so only you have access." sounds good. Was your CPU usage ok when running the background service?
  - genewitch 3y ago
    it says on m1 and m2 macs it uses 20-40% of one core, or up to 5% of all CPU. Local transcription is expensive (in my experience). It appears i am misremembering, because i thought it was for windows. Oh well.
  - luckman212 3y ago
    CPU usage was definitely noticeable, but not more than 8-10% IIRC (on M1). I remember lots of tiny 0->10% spikes rather than a steady ~5% when viewing the CPU graphs.

quambene 3y ago

Using Bogrep, I could only find https://tenderowl.com/work/frog/ https://tenderowl.com/work/frog/ in my bookmarks which is a bit related, but doesn't seem to be what you're looking for.

genewitch 3y ago
Sorry for the derail! bogrep + everything (windows filesystem search) + the screenshot "service" - i'm about 80% sure it was a service and not self-hosted - would completely obviate the need to remember anything ever again! It would also eliminate the hassle of firefox or chrome "forgetting" my bookmarks every few years in an apparently random fashion. I've been having HN "dropbox" moments about this... how hard can it be? I've hacked together OCR to use my phone to control my icom ic-7100 - the person who makes/sells the bluetooth serial ports compatible with icom Ci-V was out during the pandemic, and before, when i needed one, so i wired a raspberry pi to the Ci-V port, enabled BT file transfers on the pi, and using repeaterbook on the phone with GPS i could find the info page for a nearby repeater, do the 2 finger screenshot, hit share, and the pi would OCR it and get the frequency and offset. I never bothered to extract the PL tone frequency, because my radio can find that quickly on an active repeater. So there's a workflow, and i have spare machines to do the OCR and inserting into solr (or whatever).
- quambene 3y ago
  Interesting setup! Personally, I would be cautious to use such a screenshot service though. Even if self-hosted, it could screenshot credentials, environment files, and my password manager for example, which would then be stored in plaintext somewhere? So I would rather prefer to "keep control" by using a search utility when needed instead of scanning the background permanently.

luckman212 3y ago

Are you talking about rewind.ai? (no affiliation) I have been eyeing the service, I tried the free version and it was pretty amazing. But I can't bring myself to pay the $30/mo. Hoping somehow they offer this for $10/mo someday. https://www.rewind.ai https://www.rewind.ai

quambene 3y ago
"Rewind compresses, transcribes, encrypts, and stores your data locally so only you have access." sounds good. Was your CPU usage ok when running the background service?
- genewitch 3y ago
  it says on m1 and m2 macs it uses 20-40% of one core, or up to 5% of all CPU. Local transcription is expensive (in my experience). It appears i am misremembering, because i thought it was for windows. Oh well.
- luckman212 3y ago
  CPU usage was definitely noticeable, but not more than 8-10% IIRC (on M1). I remember lots of tiny 0->10% spikes rather than a steady ~5% when viewing the CPU graphs.