[Blindmath] Audio scopes/light probes and other things may beuseful to science people

Bente Casile bente at casilenc.com
Sat Oct 29 16:46:22 UTC 2011 

Hello everyone,

I am saddened when I read about VI/blind students being discouraged from
taking math or science.  I would encourage you to not give up.  I work with
our blind students at the community college level in mathematics and
subscribe to this because it a great resource to me as an educator.  I want
to post this to say two things:
1. As a sighted person, it wasn't until I had a blind girl living in my home
that I truly realized how capable blind people are and how narrow my vision
was.  I find it ironic that a blind person helped me to see that my
perceptions of what I thought I would be able to do if I were blind, totally
blinded me from seeing how wrong I was about others.
2.  Don't let frustrations of having to fight for things wear you down to
the point where you accept other people's opinions of you.

Bente

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Michael Whapples
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 9:31 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Audio scopes/light probes and other things may
beuseful to science people

May be it wasn't a surprise that I was allowed at school as it was a 
school for the visually impaired and part of the reason for choosing it 
was that it would give me the best chance to study what I wanted and to 
get the support for it.

As for when I moved to university to do physics, I think some of the 
tutors did admit that after a little time may be they had been a bit 
over cautious at the beginning on deciding which experiments I could do. 
Here is an article written by one of my tutors about the experience of 
teaching visually impaired students in a lab 
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pesl/resources/disability/teaching102/, it 
might be useful to you if you encounter some professors who are a bit 
cautious.

Michael Whapples
On 29/10/11 03:10, Amanda Lacy wrote:
> Thanks. I might have to look into getting one, especially when we 
> start studying light.
>
> I'm amazed that they let you take chemistry and physics. Someone at 
> OSD basically told me that at my college the professors did not want 
> blind students in their chemistry labs. Maybe I'll have to fix that 
> before I graduate.
>
> 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 8:02 PM
> Subject: [Blindmath] Audio scopes/light probes and other things may 
> beuseful to science people
>
>
> Hello,
> The ones I used at school were hand held units, may be could be put in 
> a large pocket. However I have no clue what make they were or where to 
> buy those particular ones (they may have even been something put 
> together by a member of staff as the electronics for such a device is 
> fairly simple). I think I have heard of a key ring sized device which 
> could be bought but I have no details on that.
>
> However here is one option I have found, unfortunately much more 
> expensive than a simple light only sensor as it also has a colour 
> detector as well (that might be useful as we used those as well in 
> chemistry at school, but those at school were not great as almost 
> anything could come out as olive green if it was uncertain, but this 
> one looks a bit more advanced). Also saying this looks expensive at 
> about £150, well that is cheap compared to the thing I have bolted to 
> the air rifle (£600 when I bought it), but may be it needs good optics 
> to be millimetre accurate or better at 10m instead of table top 
> distances. Anyway, hear is a link to the RNIB shop page about this 
> colour/light sensor 
>
http://www.rnib.org.uk/shop/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?category=labelling_col
our_detectors&productID=DH28801.
>
> OK, a bit more of a search on RNIB found the keyring light only 
> detector 
> http://www.rnib.org.uk/shop/Pages/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=DH24801. 
> Much closer to what I would expect, about £13 with VAT.
>
> I will finish by saying, I don't have any personal experience with 
> those particular models I have linked to on the RNIB website. Also I 
> don't know whether these can be got in the US or if not then how much 
> RNIB would charge for posting it to the US.
>
> Michael wahpples
> On 29 Oct 2011, at 00:45, Amanda Lacy wrote:
>
>> That sounds fun. I've never heard of it before. Were these smaller 
>> devices key chain sized, and were they on some sort of website for 
>> adaptive lab tools? I am in physics now and have no access to any 
>> special lab equipment, nor do I know of anyone who has. I'm mostly 
>> unaware of what's available.
>>
>> 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 6:34 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Announcing SVGExplore01 from the creator 
>> ofSVGDraw01
>>
>>
>> Its probably not really the technical term, however it essentially is 
>> a device I have bolted to the top of an air rifle, which detects the 
>> amount of light, producing a higher tone for more light. By using an 
>> illuminated target which is white in the middle, going through 
>> circles of grey, to black at the outside I am able to successfully do 
>> air rifle shooting by listening for the highest tone.
>>
>> I know that when I was at school we had similar devices, which were 
>> more sensitive to lower levels of light but probably less accurate in 
>> the directional sensing of light so probably only suitable for close 
>> work (and by the way were much cheaper than my rifle one from what I 
>> know) which we used for all sorts of things (eg. being able to tell 
>> when liquids in a chemistry experiment went darker or cloudy or in 
>> physics to be able to explore the defraction patterns of lasers shone 
>> through slits).
>>
>> Michael whapples
>> On 29 Oct 2011, at 00:15, Amanda Lacy wrote:
>>
>>> 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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>>
>>
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>
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