[Blindmath] Announcing SVGExplore01 from the creator of SVGDraw01

Fri Oct 28 23:41:51 UTC 2011

Hi Mike, I will respond to your comments embedded in the text below.

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 6:07 PM, Michael Whapples <mwhapples at aim.com> wrote:

> 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?
>

rgb] I have been married to a left-handed person for almost 53 years and
doing things with the left hand still looks awkward to me :-)

rgb] Seriously, it will still work with the mouse in the left hand. I prefer
an upper-left calibration point because it is always the same regardless of
the size and resolution of the screen. This won't be an issue with a
touchpad.

>
> 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.
>

rgb] Don't have any tips on this other than to buy a cheap mouse without the
fancy curves. Again, not a problem with a touchpad.

>
> > 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.
>

rgb] It actually moves the mouse pointer to the upper-left corner of the
screen with compensation for the top and left insets of the Frame that
contains the drawing. Nothing else is needed.

> > 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?

rgb] Very good question. For the version that I posted, it means to move the
mouse without pressing the mouse button. Originally, I had the user press
the mouse button, but I found that this made it more difficult to get fine
control over the mouse motion, for me anyway, so I changed it to simply
moving the mouse. However, in order to run the program on my Wacom pad, I
have to change the program to correspond to moving the mouse with the left
button pressed. I will make this an optional choice in the version that I
write for use with touch pads.

> 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.
>

rgb] Sometimes peace and quiet is nice.

> > […]
> >
> > 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.
>

rgb] That decision was essentially flip of the coin. I can program it either
way. Maybe I will take a poll to see what people prefer before casting it in
concrete.

> > […]
> > 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.
>

rgb] This is a very difficult problem. Creating different sounds is easy.
Knowing when to change sounds is very difficult. I don't have a solution to
this yet, but I am working on it.

Thanks for your feedback.
Dick Baldwin

> […]
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-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/