[optacon-l] Re: Optacon research and development
- From: "cpond" <cpond@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:35:02 -0500
Dear Prof.s and Seth Teller:
I am a rehabilitation engineer with a background in biology and in
electronics engineering, and am also an optacon user. In ordder to not
clutter up list, I would be most interested in furthering this discussion
with you off list.
Let me start by asking if the resolution of your MEMs matrix can be
increased? 1 millimeter is not quite as fine a resolution as is desirable
for an optacon display. In addition, a very dense matrix of MEMs might also
permit a display to be used for optacon-like functionality, and for
producing refreshable Braille.
Tactile displays, even screens, involving the use of clays and polymeres are
also being researched. However, as with all present and previous tactile
technologies (including electrode arrays) have been found lacking. One
project does not learn from the others what went wrong, why, and how to
avoid the mistakes which are inevitably made by whichever present project is
bding tried.
My best wishes to your success, and I would be happy to converse with you
off list.
Charles Pond
Ottawa, Canada
-----Original Message-----
From: Seth Teller
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 9:07 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Carol Livermore ; Luis Fernando Velasquez-Garcia
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon research and development
Dear Optacon users and list members,
This post is prompted by the many messages that have appeared
recently expressing interest in a successor to the Optacon.
We are researchers at Northeastern University and MIT who are
developing a high-resolution tactile display intended to provide
blind people with a way to gather visual input through their
fingertips. The display, based on MEMS (micro-electromechanical
systems) technology, will have roughly one "tactel" (or tactile
pixel) per millimeter in both horizontal and vertical dimensions,
and will accommodate touch by several fingertips simultaneously
rather than just one. Thus it will have both higher spatial
resolution, and more total area, than the Optacon.
Like the Optacon, the tactile display will be linked to a camera
or "retina" so as to provide direct sensation of printed material
and CRT displays. However, a significant difference between our
approach and the Optacon is that our device is intended to code
information not only spatially but spatiotemporally, for example
as particular patterns of motion under the fingers. Compared to
the Optacon, the relatively higher resolution of the device we
are designing should enable access by the user to both more kinds
of information, and more dynamic information, than can be conveyed
by an Optacon.
One use case would involve coupling the device to sensors integrated
unobtrusively into clothing, to provide real-time information about
the wearer's surroundings, including: orientation with respect to the
compass or landmarks; mobility hazards such as obstacles and dropoffs;
the presence, identities and motion of any people nearby; the presence
and contents of nearby signage; and other aspects of the environment,
to be determined in consultation with users. (In this way the device
would produce sensations at the fingertips analogous to those on the
tongue described in Nick Dotson's recent posts.)
The system would "interpret" raw sensor data to varying degrees as
per the task and the user's preferences. For example, while names
of approaching people might be displayed as Braille, the user could
also elect to receive raw data directly, for example to read distant
signage or to feel the shape of others' faces at a remove. And of
course the system would support an Optacon-like mode in which the
user could move the retina across any document or object in order to
experience a minimally interpreted tactile version of whatever data
the retina was capturing.
This effort has been underway since early 2011, and has been informed
by many conversations with blind people at MIT, at The Carroll Center
for the Blind, at the National Braille Press, at the Bay State Council
of the Blind, and elsewhere. We would be delighted as well to learn
your opinions, either on or off this list, about how such a system
might meet your needs or fall short.
Sincerely,
Prof. Seth Teller <teller@xxxxxxx>
Prof. Carol Livermore <livermore@xxxxxxx>
Dr. Luis Fernando Velasquez-Garcia <lfvelasq@xxxxxxx>
On 11/11/2012 6:43 PM, Ninette Legates wrote:
> Hi List,
> Could we, as a group, approach engineering departments
> who
> might be interested in working on a modern version of the Optacon? Perhaps
> a
> group of researchers would take the information that has come out on this
> list and produce a prototype. The realm of possibilities for such a device
> is truly exciting.-Ninette LeGates
>
>
>
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