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                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 1059

                           Tuesday, July 12, 1994

Today's Topics:


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                Re: Braille output devices for PC compatibles
                         Blind Athlete Association?
                                   thanx!
                          Personal Reading Machine
                          Re: getting books on disk


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Subject: Re: Braille output devices for PC compatibles
From: fricke@fuhainf2.fernuni-hagen.de (Joerg Fricke)
Organization: FernUniversitaet Hagen


Till now, I myself have seen two output devices with a movable
braille display for one finger: Antonio Parreno from Madrid, Spain
developed a device comprising one usual 8 dot-braille cell. A very
smart thing with this device is that you have to move the braille
cell just about 2 mm to get the next character. So you can read 80
characters using a device being as narrow as a 40 cell line. Of
course, the dots popping up under the finger don't feel like dots
scanned by the gliding finger.

The second one was developed here at the Fernuniversitaet Hagen,
Germany, inspired by Antonio's device. Instead of using a usual
braille cell its display contains four rows of 18 narrow pins each
with a 1 mm spacing. Each dot is represented by two or three
partially resp. completely lifted pins. By lifting and settling
the pins, the dots can be moved smoothly in lateral direction. Of
course, even this display doesn't feel exactly like braille dots
scanned by the finger because the friction between the skin and
the dots is missing. However, we expect this to be a minor
problem.

In the Netherlands, a 2-D system containing a braille cell was
built. In Canada and the USA, there were several approaches to
provide a mouse with a braille cell but as far as I know they
didn't reach the prototype state.

Since I am not a braille reader I can just summarize what braille
readers told me and research on tactile perception has revealed:
Usually, the actual braille reading is done by just two fingers,
one of each hand. However, the preview perceived by the rest of
the fingers (at least of the right hand) is useful for keeping
track of the line and for feeding the expectation about the next
characters to be read, for example by indicating the length of
words or the end of a sentence. So, most of the characters are
sequentially scanned by three or four fingers but the reading
finger and the others contribute different information to the
reading process.

My idea concerning a preview facility is that perhaps it could be
sufficient to enhance a finegrained display for the "reading
finger" by a coarse row of preview pins which just indicate the
locations of characters and spaces.

I expect a braille display to be too coarse to display graphical
information. However, a display with 1.5 mm or 1 mm spacing in x-
and y-direction should work. Depending on the kind of application,
it would be advantageous compared to microcapsule paper.

For graphical applications, Gregg Vanderheiden developed the
"Optacon puck", a mouse on a digitizing tablet provided with a
vibrotactile display. This way skilled users of vibrotactile
displays can read in principle each kind of graphical information.
Of course, the vibrotactile feeling differs basically from the
perception of real world objects.

Till now, it is not clear whether one of the mentioned displays is
absolutely the best concerning the possible reading performance
and the acceptance by the users or if it depends on the personal
preferences and reading styles of the users.

Joerg




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Subject: Blind Athlete Association?
From: cp0k+@andrew.cmu.edu (Claire Rene Palmgren)
Organization: Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


Hi!

Does anyone have a contact name for the Blind Athlete's Associaton? I
don't know the formal name of the association, but I am interested in
the organization which involves visually impaired people pairing up with
a sighted person on tandem bikes.  Any info would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
claire




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Subject: thanx!
From: LyndaS@edc.org


hi all,

first, i want to thank those who responded to my plea for mac
scanner info.  we are now investigating this hard/software, and the
possibility of a modem to get mom "on-line" asap.

an update: we went to a retina specialist and he was actually able
to prescribe reading glasses for mom! seems she has enough vision
that he could fit her to these special glasses. they look funny
with a great egg of glass in the middle. and she'll have to hold
her reading virtually up to her nose; but she could see textbook
print!

he also prescribed distance "glasses" that resemble mini-binoculars
and work on the telescope premises. they use her peripheral vision
and bring it to her in a centralize mode. when mom put these on she
was able to see ALL the letters on an eye-chart she had heretofore
not been able to see at all. and when the doc stood in her field of
vision, she shouted "i can see the grey hairs in your bears!" we
laughed and cried simultaneously.  :>

so for now, we've put the scanner/synthesizer on hold, but we are
actively researching info on overhead projectors w/ closed circuit
tv for the home.  actually anything that works on the lcd crystal
method and can be inputted to a computer would most likely work.
the one we looked at was much to pricey for my wallet, so if anyone
has any suggestions on how to buy or rigged this type of device,
you're in my debt -- THANX!

st.j
***************
"don't push the river, it flows by itself"




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Subject: Personal Reading Machine
From: triqua@telerama.lm.com (True Heart)
Organization: Telerama Public Access Internet, Pittsburgh, PA

     I have a machine for sale that may be of use to some of you folks here.

What is it?: Xerox/Kurzweil Personal Reader

What does it do?: Scans print materials, such as magazines, books,
letters, printouts, etc. and speaks the text aloud.

Features:

Portable main unit with hand-scanner for use in classrooms, libraries, etc.
Automatic scanner, book-edge, for scanning multi-page documents, books, etc.
Nine clear reading voices, (male and female)
Adjustable volume, intonation, and reading speed controls
Spell-back function for missed words
Built-in calculator
Multiple dot-matrix recognision settings so one can scan even
poor-quality    dot-matrix printouts
Ability to communicate with PC, allowing text storage and retrieval, as
well as allowing the KPR to act as a speech synthesizer.


     This machine needs no other computers to work, is extremely
user-friendly for people with vision impairments, and is pretty much
completely idiot-proof, (which was a good thing for me!)

     Unit is in excellent condition and comes with carrying case and
manuals in print, braille, and on cassette.  I will also provide
telephone assistance if needed.

Asking price: $2800 or best offer.

Please contact me, Becky, via E-mail: Triqua@Telerama.Lm.Com  Thanks so much.

--
"What else could I write?
I don't have the right..."





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Subject: Re: getting books on disk
From: jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU (Jason John Griffin White)
Organization: University of Melbourne

I think that the most effective method of encryption is public
key encryption, using an algorithm such as RSA. It allows
documents and messages to be encrypted without requiring the
distribution of secret encryption keys.

The problem with using this approach (or any other encryption
scheme for that matter) to protect publishers' intellectual
property rights, when it comes to distributing electronic copies
of books for the print disabled, is that only the production of
the first copy can be made difficult. Suppose that a user
decrypts a book (for example by using the specialised reading
software designed for that purpose), and then manages to send
the output out a communications port (for example by instructing
the software to print the document, output to a speech
synthesizer, etc.) Or, suppose that the document is saved in a
disk file after it has been decrypted. The making of subsequent
copies would be very easy once this initial problem (of
capturing the file in its decrypted form) has been resolved.

Consequently, if security of some kind is to be attained through
cryptographic techniques, which is a possibility that interests
me, then there would have to be security software put in place
which restricts what the user can do with the file once it has
been decrypted by the local system. It is important that such
a security scheme not be overly restrictive. I think that the
goal would have to be that the reproduction of the electronic
copy of the book would have to be made as difficult (or even
more difficult) for a person to achieve than the photo-copying
of the printed original.

--Jason White.





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                 End of Issue # 1059 of the Blind News Digest

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