Dan,
I don't think there is anything wrong in raising the idea of getting in
touch with companies like Orbit Research. And since they launched the
low-cost Braille display, it would have seem natural to start there. At
least, they have already proven that they are both willing, and capable
of thinking new lines of technology, and not just stick with
convensional solutions. We would need such people, should we ever see a
new gen of the Optacon.
Admittedly, it was disappointing to learn the pricing on the Grafiti
display. That was a real show-stopper. At the same time, it was
interesting to hear that apparently there has been some contact with the
company, since we are informed that the technology used in their
displays cannot handle the speeds needed for an Optacon. Still none of
this need block all ideas of investigating what they could come up with.
Have they managed to solve one problem, even two, why not the third one?
One obstacle may of course be, that they want to see the product
selling. And if possible, selling prior to even being developed. Now
that they have launched the Grafiti, and due to it somehow overlapping
the functionality of the Optacon, challenge is if they really will be
all that eager on the project. Yet who knows. Perhaps they would see it
as a portable complementary to the Grafiti.
Clearly, we need that kind of engineers. A group that holds the funds,
expertise and distribution network needed for getting things moving.
They already know the hoops and loops of legal stuff, requirements that
have to be met and overcome when manufacturing electronic devices. And
they have the necessary network for getting hold of needed parts. What's
more, if they don't get the parts they need, they might have production
plants and personel for crafting the parts themselves. Even, they are
already established in the market.
Up till now, they have been busy with their Grafiti and braille
displays. But renewed contact could be worth. And if not, we here at
least see one example of where it might be worth asking. Several years
ago, I did talk to someone at Freedom Scientific about the Optacon. They
were not too interested, and simply informed me that there was some
ongoing researches from other places. Again, Freedom Scientific would
have been a company that had the muscles to get the project moving.
Charles Pond never had that. However hard he was working on the idea,
like several other more or less single-man projects, he never would have
been able to set up the whole production and distribution line on his
own. Very few people would be. You need a group, company or federation.
Like most people on this list, It is sad to see that the blind
organizations don't take more interest in the idea.
Still, the fact that you yourself own an Optacon, yet do not use it
currently, might tell exactly the story. Too many alternatives of the
modern-day, fill too much of the need. Oh well, we have discussed that
before, the fact that there are so many things in which the Optacon is
superior. Just keep in mind, that is what we feel, since we know the
unit. New-comers don't. What they cannot do today, by help of current
technology, most users simply do not bother. Kind of: Not everyone can
drive, so some people just walk or bike. You cannot transport your couch
on the bike, neither carry it on your shoulder, so you order a big truck
to perform the one task, and live without a car in the daily - however
nice it would have been to own one. Guess that is the feelings most
blind users have toward reading printed text today.
Kind of same line:
When I grew up, we had a load of maps in the school for the blind. The
whole world, actually, was fitted into three volumes of plastic maps. If
that would not do, you could play around with a big globe, with the
continents and main shapes raised. It was very useful, and even
beneficial when listening to the news, or reading a traveller's novel.
How many hours I enjoyed in travelling around the world, moving my
fingers here and there. And how much I have benefitting from having a
clue as to where in the world a city or country is located. Whatever do
they do in school, now aday. I don't know. But likely blind students of
today is quite lacking. Sure, there is available some kind of maps, made
by modern technology. The little I have seen of them, they are nothing
close to the detailed ones we used to enjoy. Often the modern maps are
mostly just to show the shape of a country. One of them, which I have
right next to me here, is not even trusty in the layout. The United
States are all listed, 50 states. Yet, Alaska is placed way out on the
right-hand side of the map, more lined up with New England. Somehow they
got lost when calculating the size of the map, and had to just throw it
in, at some empty space on the sheet. Did I not know better, from the
old maps, this modern one would leave me the impression that Alaska is
the most eastern part of the States. Further, no cities, no rivers, no
mountains are marked out or shown. Well, give the manufacturer this much
credit: They did put Lake Superior on the map of Canada. Guess it was
too big to be overlooked. Funny smile. End of story, students now aday
live without the map they cannot get hold of.
When I did contact one printing facility for Braille books, asking if
they would consider publishing some maps for the blind, they told me it
was on their list of considerations. And still, they did not have the
needed expertise or whatever, to get the project going. It's been a year
or so now, and still no maps. Smiles. To rectify a bit here, I did talk
to some sighted people. For years they have been able to walk to the
bookshelf, and pick out the world map book (Atlas) and do their
research. Now they told me, they do not even know where on earth the
place they were to spend their vacation, is located. Not until I helped
them realize that the sighted people benefit from graphical maps on the
net. Seems gone are the days, when a map stirred the least curiosity.
Winky smile. OK, an Optacon could help us with some simplified maps. It
does not do a good job on graphical layouts on a website. The Grafiti
might sound interesting for such a task, had it been affordable in price.
As you can see, people will need to stir a certain amount of interest,
and experience a given amount of need, before they want to crawl the
learning curve of the Optacon, present or upcoming versions. A
presentation video, would have to focus specially on such benefits. It
would need to cover several aspects. One user is into mathematics, and
benefit from reading advanced formulas. The next one is a musician,
greatly relying on the Optacon for checking his music sheets. Still
another is enjoying her hobby of building electronics, and could never
do without the Optacon's reading of the schematics. Then there would be
the student who learns a foreign language, with non-standard characters.
not to forget, the guy who do his best in housekeeping, benefitting from
the Optacon around the house in reading cans, boxes and appliances.
Short story - you would need a team of users, who could contribute with
each their part of the video. You cannot just let the onlooker see that
the Optacon can reproduce some strange-looking shapes from a printed
page. You would need interviewing the user, and learn why he cannot get
that job done without this particular technology. List is full of
stories, but people want to SEE, to understand.
Being such few people left, who uses the Optacon actively - and them
being such scattered around the globe - it would take some coordination
to get all those video clips organized. Who knows, maybe that's our
first horse to climb. Go get some media students, who would take on the
project of pulling together such an informational video. Then bring that
one to some engineer students, asking them to develop a new Optacon as
their graduation project. First the prototype is developed - and do to
it all being done by students, it got done cheap as can be - we are
ready to run down the street and calling the door bell of the blind
federations or whoever else.
Just some thoughts.
David
On 3/18/2020 11:26 PM, dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi All,
I guess my idea of engaging with Orbit Research wasn't such a good one. It
sounds like we will need to start from the ground up. In the short term the
best thing to do is raise awareness about the optacon. There are really old
videos about it on YouTube and even an article on Wikipedia. Someone could
make a new video demonstrating the device and explaining what it can do that
conventional OCR can't. I think raising awareness will be a tall order. It
doesn't seem that ACB or NFB are even interested. A number of years ago the
ACB Braille Forum featured an article promoting the reason for a new optacon
but nothing came of it. I can think of a use case for myself but it would be
complicated to explain by e-mail. I have an optacon which doesn't work and
haven't had the time to get it fixed. It was a recent gift from a friend who
didn't know what to do with it. At least she didn't throw it away like I've
heard other people do. My original training was a long time ago and I coul
dn't afford an optacon so I didn't have an incentive to keep up my skills.
If I do get the optacon I have fixed I will need to learn how to use it all
over again. It's not my highest priority right now. If I end up not doing
anything with it than I will give it to someone in this group. I would like
to see it used.
The long-term and much more difficult project is doing the research to create
appropriate components. This costs time and money and most importantly the
desire to see the project through. Based on what most of you have said I'm
not very optimistic.
Dan
Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Carolyn
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 3:49 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Looking for info about new Optacon
And on the viPhone list, sometimes, I'm not reading on a subject, but if
Richard has a message, I do, and I've never seen a scrambled one from him
there.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
On Behalf Of Judy Jones
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 2:41 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Looking for info about new Optacon
Hey, Richard,
We're getting junk characters.
Judy
“Embrace each day with His mercies and blessings.”
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] ;
On Behalf Of David Plumlee (Redacted sender "knobman" for DMARC)
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 11:06 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Looking for info about new Optacon
Something is weird on this list! I have gotten three junk messages.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Richard Turner
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 7:40 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Looking for info about new Optacon
êÞŠËazX§’Ú-…è«ÁæìŠ×šžz.Ǧz{ÿ†ÛiÿÿðÃè¸ë j·!ýÊ&þŠÛŠßëzÇšÈÿŠ{k¡ÛœzÏí…ïàªaŠØÿŠ{^§-Š÷ÿµ§-ŠWÿ‚¶©†'ÿv+)•¬¿þm§ÿÿÃ
ÿ¢¶â¶·¬yªÜ‡÷(›ú+n+ÿë j·!þ)í®‡nqëÿ¶ÿ‚¶©†+bþ)íz¶œ¶+ÞþÖœ¶)^þ
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