[Blindmath] Announcing SVGExplore01 from the creator ofSVGDraw01

[Amanda Lacy]

Michael, What is an audio scope?

Amanda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 6:07 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Announcing SVGExplore01 from the creator 
ofSVGDraw01


This sounds interesting, I will have to try it out. Also I have a few 
comments which I have put in your message below, some of them said a little 
tongue in cheek although they may have a bit of a serious point behind them.

Please also keep in mind this is comments from your description.

Michael Whapples
On 28 Oct 2011, at 18:45, Richard Baldwin wrote:
> […]
>
> My hope is that this will provide an economical "quick look" alternative 
> to
> the use of fully embossed drawings for the purpose of allowing the user to
> form a mental image of the shapes in the drawing.
> I also hope this will be true. Sometimes you know what you have done to a 
> diagram, you want to check it is about right but may not want to emboss it 
> at that point as you may still have a bit more editing to do before it is 
> "final". It will be a good way to get a general overview.
[…]
> This is a mouse version of the program
>
> A fully operational touchpad version of the program is still in 
> development.
> I am providing a mouse version at this time to allow potential users of 
> the
> program to get a taste of how it works. I am hopeful that those users will
> try it out and provide feedback and suggestions for improvement.
> I am glad that you recognise some of the limitations of the mouse for 
> this, good to see a touchpad being considered for the final one.
>
> […]
> Grasp the mouse in your right hand with your thumb touching the upper-left
> corner of the grid. Try to hold the mouse so that the front-to-back axis 
> of
> the mouse is parallel to the left edge of the grid.
> You right handed bigot, what about us left handed people :-(. May be a top 
> right corner calibration option would be good as well. OK, don't know if 
> that is needed, could it all work fine with a left hand on the mouse and 
> so calibration being to the right side of the mouse?

Also any tips on how to ensure alignment of the mouse axis? I could imagine 
some of the weird and wacky ergonomic mouse designs with curves and such all 
over may make the task harder.

> Press the 'h' key with your left hand. That will position the mouse 
> pointer
> in the upper-left corner of the drawing. Any time you feel lost you can
> repeat that procedure to reposition the mouse pointer in the upper-left
> corner to get your bearings again.
> Does this do anything with the mouse pointer on screen? I ask this as 
> could potentially one corner oneself in the bottom right corner of the 
> diagram? Mainly I am thinking of either the first time one calibrates if 
> the mouse got to the bottom right corner of the screen or if having lifted 
> the mouse the pointer finds itself in the bottom right corner. It may be a 
> good idea to suggest swipe the mouse up and left a few times if cornering 
> yourself is an issue.
> If you move the mouse to the right while dragging your thumb along the top
> edge of the grid (or along any horizontal grid line), you will (sometimes)
> hear a deep rumble in both ears similar to a motorcycle idling. Whenever 
> you
> hear that sound, it means that there is a shape somewhere along a vertical
> line that is parallel to the left edge of the grid and below (or above) 
> the
> mouse pointer. Note that you will only hear sounds when the mouse pointer 
> is
> moving.
> When you say dragging, do you mean just moving or do you mean dragging as 
> in holding left mouse button down at the same time? Interesting you 
> decided to only have it make a noise when moving, any reason? I hadn't 
> really thought about that until I saw this but I probably would have 
> naturally had it go regardless of whether the mouse is moving.
> […]
>
> There are three pitches associated with each shape. In addition, the three
> pitches associated with one shape are readily distinguishable from the 
> three
> pitches associated with each of the other shapes.
>
> When you have placed the mouse pointer squarely on the center line of the
> boundary of a shape, you will hear a series of pulses at a pitch that I 
> will
> refer to as the center pitch. When the mouse pointer is slightly below the
> center line, you will hear a slightly higher pitch. This means that you
> should slowly move the mouse toward the top of the grid to place the mouse
> pointer on the center line. When the mouse pointer is slightly above the
> center line, you will hear a pitch that is slightly below the center 
> pitch.
> This means that you should slowly move the mouse toward the bottom of the
> grid to put the pointer on the center line.
>
> You will also hear the pulses in your left ear, your right ear, and evenly
> in both ears. When the mouse pointer is positioned squarely on the center
> line, you should hear the pulses with equal intensity at the center pitch 
> in
> both ears. If you hear the sound in your left ear only, you need to move 
> the
> mouse slowly to the left in order to place the mouse pointer on the center
> line. Similarly, if you hear the pulses in your right ear only, you need 
> to
> move the mouse slowly to the right to acquire the center line.
> A question, not really sure if there is a wrong or right answer. Why did 
> you choose to go with direction to find the target? The alternative is say 
> where the person is pointing relative to the target (eg. if I am pointing 
> to the left then I get a signal saying/indicating left). May be I am 
> particularly aware of the two systems as with my shooting the audio scope 
> I use only gives me useful tones when it is pointing at the target 
> diagram, so if I am not pointing at the target the assistant tells me the 
> direction, but I noticed some were saying which way I needed to move when 
> others were saying which way off the target I was pointing, a bit 
> confusing until I realised what was going on.
> […]
> In order to help you maintain your orientation, all shapes are forced to 
> be
> closed, even if they weren't originally closed when the drawing was 
> created
> in SVGDraw01. By this I mean, for example, that if you plot a series of
> points using the Polyline action in SVGDraw01, a line will be drawn that
> automatically connects the last point back to the first point in this
> program. That will help you to identify the ends of a curve and avoid
> falling off the end of a curve only to search in vain for the rest of the
> curve.
>
> On the other hand, this is not completely without its problems. The return
> stroke can sometimes cross the curve and create a crossroads where there 
> is
> no difference in the pitch of each of the four directions of travel at the
> intersection. (Think of the center of a figure 8.) I'm still thinking 
> about
> how to solve this problem and suggestions are welcome.
> Would it be possible to give the closing line a different sound? An 
> example might be use a different wave form for the tone, so actual shape 
> sides are sine waves, the closing but non-existent side is a triangular 
> wave. Another alternative might be to give a sound indicating end of line 
> (eg. a pulse of white noise) or a click.
[…]
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