Sarah, David is so right. It is a painful growing process, but one that can
blossom. Over time, you can get used to your mail, will know right where to
look on bills for balances, account summaries, that sort of thing. I even
learned to type on my statements what I was sending and the dollar amount in
the right place. That does not come over night. That does not come in a
month, probably not in a year, but it does come. I think that those of us on
the list want to encourage you, especially since you are being given no
formal training, so it will take hard work on your part, but I believe that
you will realize that it will be one of the most important investments of
energy and effort that you will ever make.
"Whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right." Henry Ford.
Carolyn
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Moore" <jesusloves1966@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2015 8:28 PM
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training TipHi, Sarah,
Hi Sarah. David Moore here again. How are you doing with keeping the
camera straight while going across a line of print. When your finger
is on the array, if you feel only half of letters, That is a good sign
that your not right on the line of print. Also, I found that
depending on the quality of the print, I had to adjust those two nobs
a lot. Also, what you read will be diferent sizes of print, so you
will have to keep adjusting the button on the camera that makes the
print larger and smaller. If people are good hand writers, you will
be able to read that as well. You probably won't be able to read a
doctor's prescription lol! My sighted wife can't always read those
lol! Also, with my Optican, I need attachments for reading displays
and with the typewriter. You can unscrew the cord from the camera and
put the attachment onto the cord where the camera was. To read
displays and such, you will need to slide a switch on the back toward
the cord so you can read white on a black background. It takes hours
and hours of practice, so don't get frustrated. You will receive a
reward for your time by being able to read almost anything and be able
to feel the same shape that a sighted person sees. If you follow all
of the great suggestions given by others here, you will slowly become
more comfortable with reading different types of print. I would not
pay attention to speed at all yet. It is more important to read all
types of materials first, and then concentrate on speed. To get
faster, reading things like Psalm 23 was a great suggestion. If you
have memorized something, work with that first to increase speed,
because you will know what it should say before you read it. Then,
start reading a simple fun, exciting novel to increase speed. You
will never probably be able to read technical material fast. The fact
that you can read math and science symbols will be so awesome that
speed won't matter. You will be able to read your cans of food,
receipts, meds, and all kinds of things like that that you can't even
place on a scanner. Also, the ability to skim through mail with the
Optacon really helps, because you will find that most of it is junk
you can throw away lol! The important mail, you can then scan and use
OCR software to read. However, even the important mail many times is
better to read with the optican, because bills and so forth are
written in rows and columns. The more tabular the material is, the
harder it is to scan even that. Patients is the key and don't give
up. I remember that I had to spend at least 20 hours just keeping the
camera straight, and then I caught on by leaps and bounds. It goes
slow at first, and all of a sudden the light bulb comes on and you are
climbing up the hill faster and faster every day. Take care. Please
e-mail me anytime with questions and help.
jesusloves1966@xxxxxxxxx
On 7/10/15, Carolyn Arnold <4carolyna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Plus with an Optacon, you can stop where you are, put something light onto view the list archives, go to:
the
cable, answer, phone, etc, then go right back to where you were reading
without having to scramble for it.
"Whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right." Henry
Ford.
Carolyn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lisa-maree" <lisa_maree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2015 10:09 AM
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training TipHi, Sarah,
Hi Sarah,
It will change your life, and give you access to everything, the only
difficulty I found was handwritten things, but some have got round that
too. It opens up a new world, and as you feel more confident, you will
experiment on what you can read with it.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Daniel Tonge
Sent: Thursday, 9 July 2015 9:04 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training TipHi, Sarah,
It is so exciting to see someone new just starting with the Optacon.
You will be able to read things that you can't with a scanner, because
with a scanner the characters have to be pretty close to what it
considers
normal, whereas with the Optacon, you can use your own judgment in
interpreting the characters. Best of luck, and congratulations!
On 7/8/15, Carolyn Arnold <4carolyna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sarah, the bottom knob is the one that adjusts the thickness orto view the list archives, go to:
sharpness of
the
characters, so that would be threshold. It's arrow is pointing in a
leftward direction. The top knob is the intensity, and it's arrow
points toward the right. So the threshold arrow is more on the 9 to 7
o'clock position of the clock, or there abouts, according to what you
need for letter thickness, where the upper one will be from around
12:30 all the way to maybe 4, as far as it goes, the way I like it.
"Whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right." Henry
Ford.
Carolyn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarah Clark" <sarah@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2015 12:02 PM
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training TipHi, Sarah,
Thank you all for your tips and suggestions so far.
I will get started with implementing them. But for now I have one
question to help me get the settings right. Someone mentioned that
the bottom knob is intensity (and therefore top is threshhold), and
someone else said the bottom knob is threshhold, so I am wondering
which is which?
Thanks again for all the help, and please keep the suggestions coming
if you have any. :)
Sarah
----- Original Message -----
From: "Catherine Thomas" <braille@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2015 7:18 AM
Subject: [optacon-l] Training TipHi, Sarah,
This may seem strange but you should begin your practice with
material where you aelready know exactly what is on the page. For
instance, print out a page conweettaing three lines of dashes spaced
several lines apart.
Then practice with the page until you can:
1. locate all three lines of dashes:
2. follow each line across left to right and back again. Thesee
tracking skills will be a ong the most important you will have to
master.
Using uch a page, you can also practice finding which is the blank
side, and the use of the thrdhhold knob and zoom lens to get the
best adjustments. so that you can read the lines of dashes clearly.
You can also make pages that contain a few different letteers spaced
widely apart cuch as c and o. The Optacon training material does
contain such pages but sometimes at the beginning you are best oof
working with things you designed yourself.
You'll be surprised at the number of variations possible in forming
the different letters and numbers. If you have address labels, try
reading your own address or even just your name. Eventually
adjusting the threshhold and the zoom lens will become second
nature. The intensity button can usually stay at one settting,
however
you find you like it.
Be sure to work for only short perionds at the beginning. Try hard
not to move the finger thatt is resting on the array. The tracking
hand with the camera is what moves.
Feel free to write to any of us off-list or to the list itself with
any questions. We will all be very interested to follow your
progress.
Best of luck,
Catherine
--------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
-Catherine Thomas
braille@xxxxxxxxx /
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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