Re: Camera That Talks
- From: "W. Nick Dotson" <nickdotson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 08:51:36 -0500
It is not, nor should it be conceived of, nor does it position itself as a
replacement for nor analog to an Optacon. You're comparing apples and oranges
when you attempt to compare the functionality of an analog image information
access device such as the Optacon, to an OCR solution, whether it be
K1000, OpenBook, or the KT/NFB Reader. The former device type depends solely
on the capabilities of a hopefully well-trained human to scan with the
camera, feel and interpolate whatever type of graphical information is under
the camera. The later type of device depends upon algorithms and lookup
tables to detarmine what linearly oriented text is present in the image
presented to the OCR engine, and to determine which regions/segments of the
page
should be sent to the speech synthesizer/or braille display. Come on people,
can't even we Optacon user's think clearly about the differences in design
philosophies, goals of, niches for, and technologies being used by a plethora
of potentially useful devices in the arsenal of an independent blind person?
To
what end the absurdly useless and irrational positing that device or software A
is "better than or best" as contrasted with device B?
Nick
On Fri, 7 Jul 2006 09:22:58 -0400 (EDT), Catherine Thomas wrote:
Personally, I don't want anything else speaking at me. As Mry mentioned,
some of us can't hear all that well, if at all.
As to the controls for testing, it's well-known that the pages used for
exhibiting these devices are flawless.
The only true control test for an Optacon user would be reading the same
material with the Optacon and with this other device. All of us who have
used the Optacon to re-examine scanned documents can testify to the fact
that there is often missing text, layouts which are interpreted
incorrectly, (two columns hopelessly combined for example), and layouts
that are just not clear in speech--we won't even discuss pronunciation.
In our work these past twelve weeks we have isolated many uses of the
Optacon that can't be replicated by other current devices. If this new
camera can scan round things, that's great.
If this particular type of camera can fit into tiny places, which is one
of our big wishes, maybe can borrow its design. I still want and need an
Optacon. This thing sounds like all the other things I've read about over
past years. It's still not what I want.
Catherine
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Catherine Thomas
braille@xxxxxxxxx /
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
quotes) in the message subject.
Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes)
in the message subject.
To unsubscribe at any time, just send a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" (without the
quotes) in the message subject.
Tell your friends about the list. They can subscribe by sending a message to:
optacon-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "subscribe" (without the quotes)
in the message subject.
Other related posts:
