[Blindmath] Announcing BrailleBlaster

[Michael Whapples]

Hello,
Either I have been passed the wrong end of the stick or something wasn't 
clear in the announcement which may have lead to you drawing the wrong 
conclusion.

As far as I understand it, BrailleBlaster is intended purely as a 
Braille translation tool and the project will not directly make books 
available. It will enable you to produce Braille versions of documents 
you have.

The software which the project is producing is going to be released as 
opensource although the chosen license will permit companies to make 
commercial customised versions and provide support services for their 
distribution of the software.

Hope that clears a few things up.

Michael Whapples
On 08/07/10 23:35, Peter Wolfe wrote:
> John,
>
>
>      This sounds like an interesting post about the Braille Blaster
> project. I'm wondering what your particular views of braille display
> one line affectieness for blind people truly is though? I almost see
> no need other than portability on small projects like algebra and not
> high end mathematics like calculus or linear algebra with differentual
> equations as well to truly work. Also, how did you guys getthe
> copyrights for the mathematics books? I am wondering what sorts of
> books you will offer and will this end product be free or charged in
> the future? I see both pluses and minuses to projects massive like
> this. The mone and resources will be enormous and yet cannot be not
> done at all. Yet, having  realistic expectations and understanding
> that no one universal way will ever truly work and the expense of
> braille pages and time and or energy will be taken out because of
> preformating via Braille Blaster will help. However, my delimma is
> that mathematics versions with my professors will say "It's not my
> book" and it changes every year because they are bought out by the
> publishing industry and each teacher teaches differently. Thanks for
> anymore ensight into this project.
>
> sincerely,
> Peter
>
> On 7/8/10, John J. Boyer<john.boyer at abilitiessoft.com>  wrote:
>    
>> This project will make many more math books, with tactile graphics,
>> available in Braille. This is an announcement of an exciting new
>> software development project that will greatly increase the availability
>> and usability of Braille. Since this is an open source project, you are
>> invited to participate. We need transcribers and technical writers as
>> well as programmers.
>>
>> BrailleBlaster will be excellent for translating and formatting braille
>> and inserting tactile graphics and hence release a blast of braille.
>>
>> It will be very user-friendly for non-technical users but also powerful
>> enough for experts.
>>
>> Naive users will be able easily to compose simple documents and then
>> translate and emboss them in braille or read them on a braille display.
>>
>> Advanced users will be able to divide books into multiple braille
>> volumes, with title pages, tables of contents, and end-notes for each
>> volume.
>>
>> The BrailleBlaster project should be completed within less than two
>> years.
>>
>> BrailleBlaster will be fully usable in speech or braille by people who
>> are blind.
>>
>> It will be designed for Windows, MacIntosh, and Linux operating systems
>> and common screenreaders
>>
>> It will have visual display controls that make it maximally accessible
>> for users with low vision and other visual disabilities.
>>
>> It will be localized into most major languages.
>>
>> BrailleBlaster will be developed under the Apache 2.0 license, which
>> permits broad use, including use in commercial software.
>>
>> BrailleBlaster's sponsors are ViewPlus Technologies, Inc. and
>> Abilitiessoft, Inc. They will hold the license copyright.
>>
>> --
>> John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
>> Abilitiessoft, Inc.
>> http://www.abilitiessoft.com
>> Madison, Wisconsin USA
>> Developing software for people with disabilities
>>
>>
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>>      
>
>