Hello Judy. As I wrote to Dan, the actual parts cost for one completed
pre-prototype optacon III built at at the bench by hand come in at at
least $750+ Cdn. As for costs related to paying people, production,
nominal profit, I know nothing about that. Development cost has been
minimal because the person who has worked on it is not receiving salary
for hundreds and hundreds of hours, and so this has kep down the costs
of development. It is a multi-facet project, the main effort for which
is by far -- almost exclusively -- the vibrotactile display. If an
engineer is paid for a year to work on nought but something like an
optacon with all of its various sub-projects,that cost alone might be
from $80 thousand per year and up.
Charles "my brother" haha
On 2020-07-21 7:29 a.m., sonshines59@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi,to view the list archives, go to:
I haven't heard any more on the Video TIM developed by Germany either, and I
think they were running close to a ten thou price tag.
What person or agency is going to spend that kind of money on a reading
machine, no matter how great it is? Just my thoughts is all.
Judy
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 6:56 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Investment
Hi Charles,
Yesterday when you were reporting your progress in developing a new optacon
you quoted a $10,000 figure. Is that amount the total cost of developing a
new optacon, or the cost of each individual unit which would need to be sold
to break even or make a small profit? the total amount seems modest
compared to other projects for other technologies like Braille displays.
I see an interesting parallel between the possibility of developing a new
optacon and the recent development of new Braille displays. New Braille
displays often come to the market because the assistive technology companies
can't get parts for existing products. An example is the Humanware
Brailliant. They said they are introducing a new model at the end of the
year. Another reason new Braille displays come to the market is that enough
users request a new design and the developers implement it. Cases include
the Hims QBraille which has a Braille keyboard and windows modifier keys.
Humanware has a new Braille display sold by APH which has a qwerty keyboard.
Then there is the impetus for developing Braille displays using new and
cheaper technology. Despite all the hiccups in the development of the orbit
Reader, Orbit Research has succeeded in bringing a new technology to the
market and developing products which have staying power.
I don't know if this could be done with the optacon but it is always
possible. The first step is promoting the use cases and that is difficult
as there needs to be more awareness about the optacon than what we have in
our group of people who subscribe to this mailing list. This would be
difficult as no major blindness organization or assistive technology company
has expressed an interest in developing a new optacon. It might be possible
to bypass established organizations and use social media to promote the
optacon. There are already videos on YouTube demonstrating the optacon.
The videos are copies of old presentations from the time the optacon was
new. I don't know if they are visually attractive though. Then we need
start-up capital to create prototypes which would also be difficult. Then
we need a reliable supply chain. This would have to be done carefully. In
the beginning of the development of the Orbit Reader, Orbit Research made
promises it couldn't deliver. the Orbit Reader was not widely available and
people ended up buying it on eBay or from notices on blindness mailing
lists. Now Orbit Research has straightened out this issue which is lucky
for them. They didn't alienate enough people to remove the product form the
market.
I think the awareness of the need for graphics displays is growing due to
changing computer technology and the need to provide graphics to students
who are learning remotely. It's not practical to send students embossed
graphics as they would never keep up with their assignments. this is a
unique situation. It would be necessary to persuade enough people that the
optacon could fill a need and should be an option for people who need
graphical information in real time. APH submitted a request for proposal
looking for partners to develop a graphics display. that will take a while.
Among other things the only currently available graphics display is the
Graphiti which is financially out of reach for individuals.
Dan
to view the list archives, go to:
www.freelists.org/archives/optacon-l
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 view the list archives, go to:
www.freelists.org/archives/optacon-l
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.
