I literally despised the 2 and currently have a 1D.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Noel
Runyan
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019 9:15 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: optacon and Braille Users,
Steve,
The Optacon II was designed by Canon, to meet the needs of
the Asian market, including reducing the cost. Jim Bliss
told me that he discovered that Canon, who was a distributor
for TSI's Optacon I, was secretly reverse engineering the
Optacon and coming up with their own model. When left
unescorted for a bit at the Canon development facility, Jim
wandered into one of their tech rooms and discovered the
prototype of the Optacon II sitting out on a technician's
bench. Originally, Jim was quite upset about the secret
Optacon II development, but he calmed down and accepted it
after Canon agreed to let TSI buy it at a much lower price
and sell it as a replacement for the Optacon I product line.
Jim told me that he shut down the California Optacon I
production line and switched to selling Canon's Optacon II
before he figured out that the 20 by 5 tactile array was
found to be quite inferior to the original Optacon's 24 by 6
pin array.
The smaller Canon array seemed to work well in the original
Japan field testing, but that was because their language did
not use descenders, which are the portion of many English
lower case characters that descend below the base line. The
taller original Optacon array makes it much easier to
recognize lower case characters such as 'g', 'j', 'p', 'Q',
and 'y'. Many other languages also use descender as well as
accents, tildes, and other marks that may extend the height
of characters, hence being harder to read with the Canon
Optacon II.
-
Regarding braille speed reading, In the mid 1970s, folks at
the Palo Alto VA Center worked on developing braille speed
reading techniques, some similar to the Marilyn Woods
sighted speed reading techniques. I met Neal, one of the VA
researchers who claimed that he was actually able to read
two handed, with his left hand on one page and his right
hand on the other page, two pages at once! Of course, he
wasn't able to demonstrate that technique very well, since
he did not have two mouths for repeating what he was reading
from each page.
As braille reading is off-topic for this list, we maybe
should continue any further discussions off-line.
Cordially,
Noel
-
Noel H. Runyan
Email: Noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 1-408-866-7564
-
At 01:48 PM 11/13/2019, Steve" (Redacted sender "k8sp" for
wrote:
Noel,mounted in
Just to add to this, I think the Optacon II had the array
the center to allow for either hand to read the array. Theunfortunate
thing with the II was that they made a less-refined arraywith a 20 x 5
matrix instead of the 24 x 6 matrix; and the camerainterface wasn't as responsive.
recognize with
The Braille reading issue is interesting. I primarily
both index fingers; although I took a Braille speed-readingcourse that
advocated using all fingers, in much the same way as asighted
speed-reader can recognize whole sections of a page almostat once.
you got real
I guess the closest analogy with the Optacon is that when
fast with it, you recognized shape patters as words, ratherthan each
individual letter.may need to
Steve
Lansing, MI
----- Original Message -----
From: "Noel Runyan" <noel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <Optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 5:08 AM
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: optacon and Braille Users,
David,
Warning, sorry that this response is rather long and you
indicatedskip it unless you need some help getting to sleep.
When TSI developed their first Optacon, their research
left hand'sthat about 85 percent of braille users preferred their
that time,index finger for reading. Incidentally, this was, at
dominance.considered to be similar to the frequency of right-hand
pointer fingerAlthough the Optacon teachers found that the index or
users, theyof the left hand worked best on the Optacon for most
preferreddiscovered that many users, especially left-handed folks
hand awkwardto use their right hand on the array.
Unfortunately, the Optacon design made using the right
otheron the display, usually requiring users to stretch their
over thefingers up to rest them on the top of the Optacon case,
left side,intensity/contrast/on-off controls.
Although many asked for Optacons with the array on the
It was boughtTSI only made one prototype of a left-handed Optacon.
although itby Bob Legrone, who insisted on a left-hand Optacon,
the cablerequired reading with the Optacon camera upside down and
on theexiting out the back of the camera.
-
Part of the reason for making the Optacon with the array
was found toright side was that moving and tracking with the camera
easier to dobe a surprisingly difficult task that most users found
and sold, itwith their dominant right hand.
If there ever is another Optacon-like product produced
and in ashould have the tactile array mounted on the camera unit
TSI mademanner that allows use by either the left or right hand.
standard tactilean experimental one-handed Optacon in which their
awkwardarray was mounted on top of the camera. It was an
it for a fewcontraption, but the single person who managed to test
speed with the one-hand prototype.weeks found that she was able to double her reading
reading, some-
Regarding responses to David's questions about braille
with allreader's seem to be confused about the idea of reading
to be theeight of your non-thumb fingers. The confusion appears
versusdifference between primary tactile image recognition,
both handsalignment and tracking support. Reading braille with
with eachdoes not mean that you would recognize each braille cell
recognize theof your fingers. Some braille readers say that they
their middleindividual braill characters with both their index and
their indexfingers, but most seem to focus on and use primarily
up fromfingers to recognize the braille cells.
Because of injuries to index fingers or calluses built
and Optaconmechanical work such as guitar fretting, many braille
even find thatreaders use other than their index fingertips. Some
thinthe tips of their littlest fingers read best.
Some, like myself, can't read braille on the tips of our
for tactilefingers. Instead, I have to use the pad of my fingers
pad readersreading. It can be difficult or impossible for finger
of each handto simultaneously align more than a single finger's pad
braille readerson a braille line.
-
As already described by some on this thread, faster
the image(but not all fast readers), typically are doing most of
the wayrecognition with the index fingers. Some will track all
read theacross the line with both hands, while other readers may
the rest ofleft half of the braille line with their left hand and
hand tothe line with their right hand. This can allow the left
right handtrack back to the beginning of the next line, while the
braillefinishes reading the rest of the line.
In addition to helping in alignment and tracking on the
picking upline, the non-dominant reading fingers are useful for
also the casecoarser details such as the length of a word. As is
text, most ofwith either visual or Optacon speed reading of print
up fromthe information needed to recognize a word can be picked
itsrecognizing just the first two characters of a word and
the lastapproximate length, sometimes improved by focusing on
recognition hunch.character of the word to confirm the whole word
wanted toCordially,
Noel
-
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
somehow have beenhear people's opinion on the matter. it seems this
fingers fordiscussed before, still, what do you think.
As any Braille user will know, we are supposed to use 8
both hands,reading fast and effeciently. That is, the fingers on
but I am notexcept our thumbs. True enough, thumbs ar on the page,
their thumbs.aware if anyone would claim that they really read with
impression is thatWhen discussing Braille reading back in time, my
particularly ONEthough we use 8 fingers on the page, seemingly
finger isfinger stands out to be the number-one for reading. That
read somethingthe one the user will prefer, should he ever need to
yourwith only one finger. And you often do want to do
one-finger-reading. Whenever you are to find a volume in
the color ofbookshelf, or you are to read the Braille tag telling
searching for the page number in a book, using 8 fingers.your cloghing, or any other narrow and tight places. Try
First of all,
My big wondering here, could be three-fold - at least.
reading Braille?is this the case, that you have one "main finger" for
your preferedSecondly, if so, say you are a right-handed person, is
samefinger then on your left or right hand; and consequently
finger is your prefered one?question for left-handed people. Number three, which
preferenceWill it be your Index-finger, Middle-finger or does your
ask ifsit with any of the others? Even, we could be tempted to
finger,people find the same finger being their main "seeing"
performwhenever you are to explore your way on any surface, or
manufactured readingdaily tasks around the house, office or workshop.
Those who happen to be users of the no-longer
finger, due toequipment named Optacon, would be using mainly one
might be nice tothe very shape of the Optacon itself. And though it
out forknow alternative on that equipment, my question widens
representative group.Braille users in general, due to that being a more
special good service.
For one, I find that I have one finger, that is of
what I am doingWhether it comes to Braille, or simply just "seeing"
Should I - forwhen working, that one finger is my top preference.
for a day orany reasons - find that the finger is out of business
becometwo, braille reading as well as many daily living tasks,
suffering fromsomehow more challenging. And I could think of people
times a dayDiabetes - who have to punch their finger tips seveeral
untouched by any puncher.- probably they prefer to leave their prefered-finger
now I will
Not to disturb you all in making up your own mind, for
useful. If anyoneleave it untold which finger I personal find most
study that hasfeels like sharing their experience, or know of any
yourbeen dealing with the matter, it would be nice to hear
made youfeedback. Otherwise, maybe this message might just have
puzzling.aware of something of lesser interest, yet quite
"unsubscribe" (without
Sorry, to those who find it too much off-topic.
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