David,
Warning, sorry that this response is rather long and you may need to
skip it unless you need some help getting to sleep.
When TSI developed their first Optacon, their research indicated that
about 85 percent of braille users preferred their left hand's index
finger for reading. Incidentally, this was, at that time, considered
to be similar to the frequency of right-hand dominance.
Although the Optacon teachers found that the index or pointer finger
of the left hand worked best on the Optacon for most users, they
discovered that many users, especially left-handed folks preferred to
use their right hand on the array.
Unfortunately, the Optacon design made using the right hand awkward
on the display, usually requiring users to stretch their other
fingers up to rest them on the top of the Optacon case, over the
intensity/contrast/on-off controls.
Although many asked for Optacons with the array on the left side, TSI
only made one prototype of a left-handed Optacon. It was bought by
Bob Legrone, who insisted on a left-hand Optacon, although it
required reading with the Optacon camera upside down and the cable
exiting out the back of the camera.
-
Part of the reason for making the Optacon with the array on the right
side was that moving and tracking with the camera was found to be a
surprisingly difficult task that most users found easier to do with
their dominant right hand.
If there ever is another Optacon-like product produced and sold, it
should have the tactile array mounted on the camera unit and in a
manner that allows use by either the left or right hand. TSI made an
experimental one-handed Optacon in which their standard tactile array
was mounted on top of the camera. It was an awkward contraption, but
the single person who managed to test it for a few weeks found that
she was able to double her reading speed with the one-hand prototype.
-
Regarding responses to David's questions about braille reading, some
reader's seem to be confused about the idea of reading with all eight
of your non-thumb fingers. The confusion appears to be the
difference between primary tactile image recognition, versus
alignment and tracking support. Reading braille with both hands does
not mean that you would recognize each braille cell with each of your
fingers. Some braille readers say that they recognize the individual
braill characters with both their index and their middle fingers, but
most seem to focus on and use primarily their index fingers to
recognize the braille cells.
Because of injuries to index fingers or calluses built up from
mechanical work such as guitar fretting, many braille and Optacon
readers use other than their index fingertips. Some even find that
the tips of their littlest fingers read best.
Some, like myself, can't read braille on the tips of our thin
fingers. Instead, I have to use the pad of my fingers for tactile
reading. It can be difficult or impossible for finger pad readers to
simultaneously align more than a single finger's pad of each hand on
a braille line.
-
As already described by some on this thread, faster braille readers
(but not all fast readers), typically are doing most of the image
recognition with the index fingers. Some will track all the way
across the line with both hands, while other readers may read the
left half of the braille line with their left hand and the rest of
the line with their right hand. This can allow the left hand to
track back to the beginning of the next line, while the right hand
finishes reading the rest of the line.
In addition to helping in alignment and tracking on the braille line,
the non-dominant reading fingers are useful for picking up coarser
details such as the length of a word. As is also the case with
either visual or Optacon speed reading of print text, most of the
information needed to recognize a word can be picked up from
recognizing just the first two characters of a word and its
approximate length, sometimes improved by focusing on the last
character of the word to confirm the whole word recognition hunch.
Cordially,
Noel
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Noel H. Runyan
Email: Noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 1-408-866-7564
-
At 03:55 PM 11/10/2019, David wrote:
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
I know this is a bit off-topic, yet been wondering and wanted to hear
people's opinion on the matter. it seems this somehow have been
discussed before, still, what do you think.
As any Braille user will know, we are supposed to use 8 fingers for
reading fast and effeciently. That is, the fingers on both hands, except
our thumbs. True enough, thumbs ar on the page, but I am not aware if
anyone would claim that they really read with their thumbs. When
discussing Braille reading back in time, my impression is that though we
use 8 fingers on the page, seemingly particularly ONE finger stands out
to be the number-one for reading. That finger is the one the user will
prefer, should he ever need to read something with only one finger. And
you often do want to do one-finger-reading. Whenever you are to find a
volume in your bookshelf, or you are to read the Braille tag telling the
color of your cloghing, or any other narrow and tight places. Try
searching for the page number in a book, using 8 fingers. Smile.
My big wondering here, could be three-fold - at least. First of all, is
this the case, that you have one "main finger" for reading Braille?
Secondly, if so, say you are a right-handed person, is your prefered
finger then on your left or right hand; and consequently same question
for left-handed people. Number three, which finger is your prefered one?
Will it be your Index-finger, Middle-finger or does your preference sit
with any of the others? Even, we could be tempted to ask if people find
the same finger being their main "seeing" finger, whenever you are to
explore your way on any surface, or perform daily tasks around the
house, office or workshop.
Those who happen to be users of the no-longer manufactured reading
equipment named Optacon, would be using mainly one finger, due to the
very shape of the Optacon itself. And though it might be nice to know
alternative on that equipment, my question widens out for Braille users
in general, due to that being a more representative group.
For one, I find that I have one finger, that is of special good service.
Whether it comes to Braille, or simply just "seeing" what I am doing
when working, that one finger is my top preference. Should I - for any
reasons - find that the finger is out of business for a day or two,
braille reading as well as many daily living tasks, become somehow more
challenging. And I could think of people suffering from Diabetes - who
have to punch their finger tips seveeral times a day - probably they
prefer to leave their prefered-finger untouched by any puncher.
Not to disturb you all in making up your own mind, for now I will leave
it untold which finger I personal find most useful. If anyone feels like
sharing their experience, or know of any study that has been dealing
with the matter, it would be nice to hear your feedback. Otherwise,
maybe this message might just have made you aware of something of lesser
interest, yet quite puzzling.
Sorry, to those who find it too much off-topic.
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