I agree with you about an open source solution for the optacon. I use NVDA
and am amazed at how it is developing. I really enjoyed your story about
using the optacon for math. You're right there is no other equivalent
device.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of David Moore
Sent: Thursday, March 26, 2020 3:18 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Hi, Optaconers
I want everyone to know that I used my opticon in the 80s to read all of my
math textbooks. I majored in math with my optic on. I could feel how the
equations were laid out in the book just like a sighted person sees them. I
traced graphs in learned what the graphs of many functions look like in
calculus. Because I felt what people see, I tutor math two-sided students
and I can show them what graphs look like because I felt them with my optic
on. I also read mail, screeds, and even handwriting with the optic on. When
I lived in the dorm in the 80s, people were really excited when I would just
whip out my opticon, and start reading their textbook right there on the
desk. No putting it on a scanner or anything like that. my dream is to see a
much better optic on with the technology we have now, for a much cheaper
price. We have the technology, we just need somebody to start making at, and
I would love it to be open source as well. Yes, totally open-sourced just
like in BDA. Take care guys, bless us all and keep safe.
David Moore
On Thu, Mar 26, 2020, 5:59 AM Mallard <mallard@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
...And all the people said: AMEN!nothing.
Amen to this message!
Plus: Open Hardwaer and Open Softeare, please! No moe patents, which
is what eventually killed the Optacon.
Ciao,
Ollie, Androidian forever and ever
On 26/03/2020 02:44, dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I think you might be overcomplicating things. Any new optacon wouldprobably have to have zoom features just like the ones you find on
phones and are used in computer magnification software. NO doubt the
best platform for a new optacon would be Android mobile. A mobile
device is very portable and easy to update. Android is the most open
software platform for development. App updates don't need to be
approved by Google. The only certification would be the initial
certification of the optacon as a trusted device to Google.
It's also the type of device most people are familiar with.
Having the optacon be a mobile device would offer the most flexibility.
On Behalf Of David
Dan
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 3:03 PMelectronic feature of the next generation Optacon?
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Carolyn <4carolyna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Hi, Optaconers
Eh, do we see one of the few cases, where we could wish for an
interpretation to the human brain. And yet, what if you got a new Optacon.
We have been talking of the benefit of the Optacon leaving all the
you sit down and do your reading, and come across a part of the text
in thick print. You now press a button on the Optacon, and a tiny
piece of software kicks in. It does no interpretation, no reshaping, no
What it is all about, is that it will scan the picture of theprinted text.
character, and rip off all the thickness. What is left for you to
feel, is a true copy of the character, but with thinner lines.
to each others are active; Cut off one of the needles in such cases.
The basics of the technology could be described as follows.
Scan the image;
Look for continuous lines in the image, where three or more needles
next
you press the button once again, the software will go one step
Your shape-lines of the character, now will be one needle thinner.
If
further, taking the shape-lines down to one needle - the thinnest and
most crisp you could get.
would be a chance to thicken some text. That could specially be, when
Of course, there are the moments, when you find yourself wishing
there
a font type has very thin lines in the top and bottom of the characters.
In such cases, there could be a second button, leaving you theactivate extra needles on the thinner parts of the image.
chance to
assistance in "seeing" the shape more clearly, leaving you the better
What do you think. This would be no interpretation, but more a bit
of
chance to perform the recognition of the characters. Promise you, when
dealing with things like electronic diagrams, I've been wishing for
some kind of ways to make the lines thicker, just as frequently as I
wish there would be ways to make shapes thinner.
how about when you read text that vary between bold (emphasized) text,
As a bit of a sidenote here, which goes along the same line of
ideas,
and plain characters. Or, where you would have a mix of fonts, some
more outstanding than others. Great if you are eager to know the
outlook of the page. And necessary whenever you are to deal with
certain features of the material you read, like recognizing and
distinguish the very number, in a mathematical formula. But it often
leads to extensive thumbling with the knobs of the Optacon, raising
and lowering the intensity and thickness of the displayed image. What
if the next Gen Optacon had a feature, that could be turned on, which
would attempt to give some mild equalization through out the text. It
would attempt to reduce the boldness of the boldest print, somehow
making it close to the rest of the text. A trained user would still
feel a slight boldness to the print, but it would be no more than what
still would be readable, without any fur th
er adjustment. Kind of auser wants to do a plain reading of text. You then can go for the raw
"This is my reading level"-setting.
This level of adjustment could be saved, and brought up, whenever
the
reading, like we have to day, if you need all the whistles and bells
of the text layout. But in most daily activities, when you do not care
much about the layout, only want to get to the info, the
levelled-reading could be activated.
steps as possible in practical terms. Having only one or two steps of
And yes, of course any such settings should be divided into as small
adjusting, may prove unacceptable. Again, blowing the Optacon with 129
steps for adjusting, will likely be little practically beneficial, and
rather prove frustrating. Something between 8 and 12 steps, either
direction, might be useful. You then could go from minus 12, to plus
12
- 0 being the standard, or Raw mode. Raw mode, would be what wehave on our current Optacon models.
already
implement in the software - I would conclude. It is all about
Technically, these features are possible, and not too difficult to
algorithms, and is being done in photo handling in dedicated
applications on your computer and cellphone already. Without me having
checked it up, I am ready to think there might be some freeware
algorithms available on the net already, that could be used for such
up and down scaling of the thickness and boldness of scannings of the
the hight.chance of bi-derectional scaling of the image. You all are familiar
Lastly, one more thing that I find myself often wishing for, is the
with the slider on top of the camera, leaving you the chance of
adjusting the magnification of the character a bit. But it seem to
only change the hight of the character. I wish there would be ways, to
adjust the magnification either direction. Sometimes it would have
been nice to widen the character a bit, other times it is nice to lower
And there would even be times when you need do a bit of adjustmentboth the hight and width of the character, to have the best reading
to
experience. Specially this comes true, when you deal with symbols,
icons and things like diagrams of different sorts. If the slider had
been replaced with a four way button, like the arrow-button on some
old-style cellphones and remote controls, you could have stepped up
and down in either hight or width. Press Up-arrow to raise the hight,
Down-arrow to lower it. Press Right-arrow to increase the width, and
left-Arrow to decrease. Even some users might find that they would
read better, if the character could be centered more to the point on
their finger, where they hold the highest sensitivity.
we'll save them for later.
Don't know, what the rest of you think. Got a few more ideas here,
but
the quotes) in the message subject.
On 3/25/2020 6:34 PM, Carolyn wrote:
> I agree about thick print, as opposed to thin and sharp
> print.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> harlynn@xxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 3:18 AM
> To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [optacon-l] Hi, Optaconers
>
> This is Bob from Brooklyn, NY. I have been using my optacon
> to go over
> mail: I read part with the optacon, and part with my Sara.
> I like how they work together. I find that my main problem
> is still that I often think I know the next word in a
> sentence, and then realize I guessed wrong, and have to go
> back and figure it out.
>
> Very thick print is challenging for me. But regular print,
> I can do pretty well.
>
> I hope all of you are safe, and perhaps using some down time
> to use your optacons!
>
> Kind regards,
> Bob
>
>
> to view the list archives, go to:
>
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>
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>
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>
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