[optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
- From: "Milton Ota" <mota@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2010 20:40:14 -1000
Can someone please change the "Subject" line of this thread? Thanks.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of DAVID PLUMLEE
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 6:37 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
i HAVE FOUND THAT i CAN OFTEN READ THE NAME OF A cd BY READING OUT THERE ON
THAT NARROW SURFACE WHICH i WOULD CALL THE SPINE IF IT WERE A BOOK. oN SOME
cdS, YOU HAVE TO THROW THE iNVERT SWITCH. gRANTED, ALSO, THAT SOME cdS ARE
LABELED WITH SUCH DAMNABLY FANCY SCRIPT THAT THEY ARE HARD FOR ME TO READ.
gOING INTO THE BOOKLET MIGHT HELP. iF YOU TRY TO READ THE TWO LARGE FLAT
SURFACES ON THE cd CASES, YOU MIGHT GET SOME INFORMATION - PARTICULARLY ON
THE "BACK" SIDE. oFT' TIMES THE PROCESS ISN'T EASY; BUT IF YOU LOOK AT ALL
THE SURFACES WHICH COULD BEAR INFORMATION, YOU MIGHT GET SOMETHING.
oNE CAVEAT: i'D BE VERY CAREFUL IN ATTEMPTING TO READ THE ACTUAL "TOP"
SURFACE OF THE cd ITSELF. iF YOU DAMAGE THAT SURFACE, THE cd'S PLAYABILITY
COULD SUFFER.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dianne B. Phelps" <d.bphelps@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 6:18 PM
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
> If there are pictures involved as used to be on those old long-playing
> records we used to buy, and I think there are, you will have lots of
> trouble
> with those. I should think, however, if you go into the little booklet
> that
> comes with the CD, you might do better. My CD collection is such a holy
> mess
> here that I can't stand it. I wish I could have someone come in and
> reorganize and Braille my labels. I just kind of grab and play and see
> what
> happens when I am in the mood.
>
> Dianne
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> On Behalf Of Korene Kegg
> Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 8:37 AM
> To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
>
> I can't seem to read the labels on Cd's with the Optacon. Does anyone
> else
> have this problem?
> Korene
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Marie Rudys" <mrudys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 1:35 AM
> Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
>
>
>> David, that is marvelous. Are you the one who did a song called After
>> All?
>> If you are, I was blown away by the harmony and the arrangement. To the
>> rest of you, please forgive me for veering a little bit off topic; I just
>> had to ask David this question. Back to the Optacon, it is quite a
>> delight
>> when I can read titles to songs in German and I have a French album by
>> Edith
>> Piaf somewhere. I never had a chance to use it in math or in school at
>> all,
>> since I learned it so late in life.
>>
>> Marie
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "DAVID PLUMLEE" <knobman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Thursday, August 12, 2010 9:09 PM
>> Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
>>
>>
>>> Hi, Marie,
>>>
>>> I used my Optacon quite a bit a few years ago when I was dabbling in
>>> Latin
>>> church music of the Renaissance. I even did a rendition of a French
>>> Christmas carol on which I used the Optacon to read the French text,
>>> dictated some of it on cassette, then wrote in braille a "lyric" sheet
>>> which
>>> was a hybrid between the French text and my phonetic representation of
>>> some
>>> words so that I would get some of the tricky pronunciations correct. I
>>> suppose I could have listened to the track and brailled a totally
>>> phonetic
>>> representation of each syllable I wanted to pronounce; but reading the
>>> actual French text along with the English translation gave me a better
>>> feel
>>> of how I should sing the parts (I sang a quartet with myself).
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Marie Rudys" <mrudys@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 6:07 PM
>>> Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hear, hear!!! I feel the same way you do, Diane. Oh, scanners are
>>>> nice,
>>>> but nothing beats being able to read in realtime and know what words
>>>> look
>>>> like in print if names and words, especially foreign ones, are so
>>>> unusual
>>>> in
>>>> their spelling and all. I use my good old Optacon to read record
>>>> sleeves
>>>> (Oh, yes, I do have a small vinyl collection and it is old, but I love
>>>> it
>>>> and sadly, none of it is on CD);, and I use it to read German song
>>>> titles,
>>>> and Italian titles and whatever I have around here on vinyl and CD and
>>>> cassettes. You bet it is very indespensable. Scanners cannot come
>>>> close
>>>> for me; it has to be the Optacon. It helped me through those long,
>>>> lonely
>>>> nights when I could not sleep too well in the battered women's shelter
>>>> in
>>>> 1995 and 1997; whenever I was not running the dishwasher or writing
>>>> something on my Braille 'N Speak which has since died, I was always
>>>> reading
>>>> something with my Optacon. I found a way to muffle some of the
>>>> vibrations
>>>> so people would be less bothered by it. Crazy thing is when sometimes
>>>> my
>>>> roomie worked nights at the shelter, and didn't come home until much
>>>> later,
>>>> I took the Optacon to bed with me and read. It was the closest I could
>>>> come
>>>> to reading with a flashlight.
>>>>
>>>> Marie
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>> From: "Dianne B. Phelps" <d.bphelps@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 1:46 PM
>>>> Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>I agree with you on this. I must say that I was thrilled when I
>>>>>acquired
>>>>>my
>>>>> first Kurzweil Personal Reader for which I scrimped and saved and got
>>>>> a
>>>>> bank
>>>>> loan to have. But I remember vividly thinking that there were still
>>>>> things
>>>>> I
>>>>> needed and wanted to see with my fingers and kind of wanted both
>>>>> elements
>>>>> within the same device. To this day, I find it more difficult to learn
>>>>> to
>>>>> do
>>>>> something via just hearing it unless I slow it down and listen line by
>>>>> line
>>>>> to the steps I need to take. There was just something about that put
>>>>> your
>>>>> hands on it in real time that made total sense to me along with the
>>>>> help
>>>>> of
>>>>> the OCR. The optacon is where I can really "SEE" it and where it
>>>>> really
>>>>> gets
>>>>> to my stunted brain.
>>>>>
>>>>> Dianne
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
>>>>> On Behalf Of John Huffman
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 4:51 AM
>>>>> To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi, Catherine and All,
>>>>>
>>>>> It's fine to "think outside the box" in terms of developing a NEW
>>>>> Optacon.
>>>>> After all, technology has advanced much since 1970, and it may be
>>>>> possible
>>>>> to devise new ways to accomplish old tasks which would never occur to
>>>>> us
>>>>> non-wizards.
>>>>>
>>>>> But I feel very strongly that in doing this the Optacon's primary
>>>>> purpose,
>>>>> READING print in real time, should remain the primary goal of all such
>>>>> redesign projects. That is a niche that critically needs to be kept
>>>>> filled
>>>>> by an Optacon or something very much like it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers, JH
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "Catherine Thomas" <braille@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>>> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 5:40 AM
>>>>> Subject: [optacon-l] Re: new optacon design
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Just as with scanners, there are some excellent braille translation
>>>>>> programs. If you need to read print documents and covert them to
>>>>>> braille
>>>>>> that is the method to use.
>>>>>> The Optacon reads print as print--no re-interpretation. Because the
>>>>>> Optacon reads print as print, we can read all sorts of non-standard
>>>>>> things
>>>>>> including lettering imposed on pictures. Lots of mail these days
>>>>>> comes
>>>>>> with logos. We may not know all the details of what the logo contains
>>>>>> but
>>>>>> we can often if we encounter the same thing a few times, recognize
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> shape. Again, reading print as print in real time is the Optacon's
>>>>>> primary
>>>>>> purpose.
>>>>>> Catherine
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> --
>>>>>> -Catherine Thomas
>>>>>> braille@xxxxxxxxx /
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> ---
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>>>
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>
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