First time you use this project, (do it twice) click the green flag, then immediately click the stop button. Select an image to scan using the "Image idx" slider, then wait, and get the result in a list. You can see what the actual rendered image looks like for just five seconds after the scan finishes. Press space to render image again for five seconds. Click "see inside", then right click on the "ASCII Image" list and select "export" to download the .txt file.
See inside and drop your images as costumes in the backdrop, then use the 'Image idx" slider to select them and press green flag to scan them. Credit to griffpatch