[optacon-l] Re: Optacon research and development
- From: "marsha" <marshamac669@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2012 21:38:16 -0800
Hi, Marsha here. While I don't post much if at all on this list, I would
like to differ with Carla on this one. Even sighted people use GPS and other
devices such as this on their I-phones, cars, and even walkig these days.
Yes, solid travel skills with a cane or dog is the way to go but why not
enhance what you already have? If sighted people can use GPS and other
technologies, than why the heck not.
Marsha
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Janet Wallans
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 8:52 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon research and development
I agree with Karla's comments, especially regarding using this device as a
mobility aid and the importance of a device to access print.
Good luck with your research and hope it can be a new and improved Optacon.
Janet Wallans
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Karla Westjohn
Sent: Sunday, November 11, 2012 10:27 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon research and development
We don't need the mobility information. Solid travel skills coupled with a
white cane or guide dog provide that better than any itching thing in my
business suit or dress ever could. What we need, for the trillionth time,
is a portable, efficient way to read print and examine graphics in real
time, with our brains doing the interpreting. We had that in the Optacon.
After you produce said device, please do a better job of marketing. Try
employing blind people who have actually worked somewhere--preferably
outside the blindness system and in a job where blind people were not being
sought.
Failures in Optacon marketing: Trying to sell the Optacon as a replacement
for Braille. It decidedly is not. Actually, because they are good readers
and thereby motivated to read,many, if not most, Optacon readers are
proficient Braille users. Use sensible teaching methods. If intensity,
magnification, and threshhold are so low that letters are indistinguishable,
tactile blobs, it is no wonder the user develops no speed and proficiency.
I had conventional Optacon training, gave up on the device, and, years
later, purchased one in law school as another option for print use. In the
intervening years, I had retained my knowledge of print, examining large,
raised numbers and letters when the chance presented itself. The second
time around I taught myself the Optacon. I junked the nonsense peddled by
TSI and its sponsored instructors and taught myself the device the way
people learn to read.
I reviewed the sheets of raised letters and numbers until I knew them cold.
Intensity, threshhold, and magnification were turned up to the point of
clear recognition. No more Dolch word lists. I read what I wanted and
needed to read: a copy of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich--bought at a used bookstore for 45 cents; law school supplements;
the phone bill.
Then a miracle happened. Because I truly could recognize the characters,
magnification, intensity, and threshhold came down. Speed came way up--to
about 100 words a minute. I discovered that, as a matter of fact, I could
use the Optacon to examine some handwriting, logos, and other graphics. Fix
the problem. Do not attempt to solve problems already well solved. Employ
qualified blind people on your research team. Those fixated on the
inferiority of the blind and the inferiority of blindness skills like
Braille and travel--skills which should be reinforced and celebrated--should
be permanently excluded.
Karla Westjohn
On 11/11/2012 8:07 PM, Seth Teller wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>> 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.
>
>
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.
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.
Other related posts:
