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

[Amanda Lacy]

Michael, Thanks, I will hold on to this article.

Pranav, Someone who is totally blind and working on his PHD in computer 
science indicated that a study of more than one hard science often gave him 
more than one way to think about a computer science problem. I've not given 
up on the possibility of chemistry, perhaps after engineering physics. What 
exactly do you mean by constructing your own chemistry set? I only have one 
residence to burn down. <smile>

Amanda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Whapples" <mwhapples at aim.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2011 9:30 AM
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_colour_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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