I hope my fellow listers don't kill me for the redundancy, but I have
been scanning messages without looking too closely. How far along are
you in the development of this device? How closely does it resemble its
mjuch-loved predecessor? I agree with those who point out the
superiority of the Optacon for accessing math, science, signature lines,
and the list goes on. Developers of the original were wrong: if you
played with magnification, intensity, and threshhold, you could get some
information about handwriting, too. The solution for tingling fingers?
The same as for sore fingers in the early days of learning
braille--PRACTIC!E
On 9/27/2016 1:47 AM, C. Pond wrote:
Speaking of the optacon noise: one of the minor but notable inefficiencies
in the actuators which form the display is that a lot of energy is used up
by the actuators' lateral movements, albeit a few thousandths of an inch.
However, this does contribute to noise, I am trying tighter tolerances, and
a much fancier waveform, and a few other things, but I "perceive" that we
have just about optimized the actuators. There are about half a dozen
strategies for reducing energy comsumption and possible further reducing
mechanically generated noise. The actuators do not creat most of their
noise by moving up and down and hitting the tops of the capsules and the
finger plate, or the two magnets inside the capsule clicking together. The
noise is made monely by the tiny Moving Magnets clicking against the sides
of the capsule. Not a game changer. ... We shall see.
Charles
-----Original Message-----
From: Carolyn Arnold
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 8:51 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: R: Re: Optacon works where OCR fails
You know, I think I have told this before, but back in the 70's, TSI had a
representative in the Houston area. He came to my office at the hospital and
brought the display screen along with a master-slave cord. He connected my
Optacon to the screen and had me read first from the PDR, then from a carbon
report.
First of all, the girls in the office were literally astounded at how fast
the letters flew across the screen, as I read out loud. They could not tell,
because they could not keep up with the letters going across the screen.
Then they could see the difference on the screen of the look of a carbon and
could realize that it showed up for me like it did for them.
At that time, we had IBM Correcting Selectric typewriters and had to correct
our own work. I had to keep my lift off things labeled by color. This was in
pathology, so you would have to continue a report after microscopic
examination, and sometimes have to "revise," as they called it the gross
description. Usually it did not have to be retyped, but without an Optacon,
I could not have lined it up and made the corrections. The copies had to go
to doctors and our file and the original to the patient's charts.
Then, if there was quite a bit that had to be changed, the identifying
information, which was on a form and the gross description would have to be
retyped. I did that using my Optacon. Thankfully, that was a busy office
with a lot going on, so no one seemed to think anything about the noise of
the thing. They were just glad I could get my work done. At that hospital,
if you could not correct work, you could not work there. There was another
transcriptionist there, who did not have an Optacon, and his wife did his
after they punched out. He told me that down in Medical Records, there were
so many typewriter bells that rang that he had to be careful not to enter on
someone else's bell. I don't guess my hearing was all that good then,
because I don't remember having that problem. There weren't as many
typewriters going simultaneously where I was as where he was.
Bye for now,
Carolyn
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Dan Tevelde
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2016 7:56 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: R: Re: Optacon works where OCR fails
Hello All,
I never became a very proficient optacon user because I knew that the unit I
had was just on loan for the duration of high school. Once I returned the
unit to the government, I didn't give the optacon a second thought until I
became a programmer, and found that there were times I needed to read
something which an OCR program couldn't scan, or the document was some kind
of flow chart. Producing graphics with a Braille embosser is very
time-consuming. There have been a few times when I have wanted to print out
some mainframe program output, and then review it just like my sighted
co-workers do. I would also find an optacon useful in deciphering foreign
language characters. This is especially true now that the new UEB Braille
code has confused foreign language symbol representation. I used to know
what Spanish letters with accent marks looked like, but now I have forgotten
and have know way of re-learning.
It is also sad that some people have been shut down by mailing list
moderators when they tried to discuss the future of the optacon. I think
one thing our list members might consider is getting sighted assistance in
making videos to put on YouTube. People could get the word out by posting
videos to YouTube, and then sharing them on Facebook and Twitter. It might
even be possible to create an optacon Facebook page or Twitter feed. There
are already some videos on YouTube about the optacon but I think they are
rather dated. Videos are things which sighted people pay attention to.
Blind people also pay attention to social media so this would be an
important way to tell others about the optacon.
Dan
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 26, 2016, at 12:01 PM, Fran <fran.italy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:to view the list archives, go to:
I hardly use the Optacon anymore these days, but if I didn't own one I
would feel lost and so vulnerable...!
I absolutely don't trust OCRs as they cannot replace the human brain. They
work great with very clear writing, but if a letter is not legible, they
simply can't figure it out. Artificial intelligence has come along way,
and I love all of it! But nothing can replace my brain's ability to
interpret.
Also, when I need to tackle a weird text produced by an OCR that didn't
perform well, I'm often able to supply the correct words, because knowing
what print looks like, I can often figure out what the OCR saw to yield
that incomprehensible string of letters :)
Fran
-----Messaggio originale-----
Da: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Per conto di Maureen Hogg
Inviato: lunedì 26 settembre 2016 11:47
A: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Oggetto: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon works where OCR fails
I'll second all of that, Anne! Thanks to the Optacon, I was able to
puruse a minor in French at university. That led to my first job as a
technical translator for an American company with interests in Algeria.
That same company later hired me to work in its aerospace division. The
rest is history. I pursued a highly successful career with Ball Aerospace
& Technologies Corp., which spanned 30 years and 15 awards. I only used a
refreshable braille display with MS products for the last seven years of
that career. It was the Optacon that gave me access to a DEC VT-100 using
MASS 11, then on to Macs and PCs.
Did i say I was proficient with the Optacon?
Smiles!
Maureen
On 9/25/2016 2:02 AM, Anne Robertson wrote:
Hello,
I couldn’t imagine coping without my optacon. I first saw an optacon when
I was 21 years old and attending the RNIB secretarial college in London.
My roommate had an optacon and I was desperate to learn to use it.
She persuaded her optacon teacher to give me some lessons, and I took to
it like a duck to water.
However, I had to wait another six years to have an optacon allocated to
me for work. In the meantime, I had earned a degree in French and decided
to be a computer programmer. Back then, in Britain, programmers were
given optacons.
Since my optacon training had been informal, an optacon teacher was sent
to verify that I was able to use the device. It didn’t take long for me
to prove that no further training was necessary.
The optacon allowed me to work efficiently as a programer for the next 15
years, and as a translator after that.
These days, my iPhone has taken over many of the duties of the optacon,
but if I had to choose, I would take the optacon over any other
technology.
Cheers,
Anne
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