[BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading

Wed Jul 26 16:17:01 UTC 2017

I would be okay with a program that allowed me to type braille via a 
standard keyboard, like the package someone described from duxbury. But 
if I am supposed to write the value for pi, it would be cheating to type 
3.14  and have the software convert it to Nemeth. I need to make the 
number symbol, dots 3, 4, 5, and 6. Then the symbol for 3, dots 2 and 4, 
And so on.

I wonder if an editor exists for linux that allows you to press several 
keys at a time to make a braille symbol. Press the s, j, k, and l keys 
all at once to make a number symbol.
On 07/26/2017 09:56 AM, White, Jason J wrote:
> You could just use a good text editor such as Emacs, and set the fill column to 40 characters (or whatever your preferred line length is). You would need a braille display with a braille keyboard for text entry. BRLTTY supports computer braille text entry under Linux. If you want page breaks, you could introduce form feed characters manually or write a script to automate it.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John G
>> Heim via BlindMath
>> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 10:50 AM
>> To: steve.jacobson at visi.com; Blind Math list for those interested in
>> mathematics <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: John G Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
>> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading
>>
>> I think what somebody else said was right -- the instructor is used to people
>> taking photos with their phone and submitting that. But the whole reason I'm
>> doing this is to find the best tools. I think I am going to see if I can find a linux
>> text editor that allows me to generate brf files.  That ducksbury tool sounds
>> interesting to me but right now, I must have linux.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 07/26/2017 08:52 AM, Steve Jacobson via BlindMath wrote:
>>> John,
>>>
>>> I can see where increasing the DPI might help since the braille dot is
>>> smaller than most characters.  Another thing to experiment with is
>>> whether your scanner is getting the image in black and white or color.
>>> I frankly don't know which will work the best because such things seem
>>> variable.  I have had cases, though, where low contrast differences on
>>> a page came out better in black and white because of the binary
>>> nature, but it seems likely that approach might cause some dots to not
>>> show at all falling below a threshold.  Obviously, the brightness
>>> sensitivity can also matter.  I would think that an instructor in such
>>> a course would have very specific recommendations, though, or perhaps
>>> Hadley itself.  This does not seem like it would be an unusual problem.
>>>
>>> I, for one, would be interested to hear what you find out.  I don't
>>> remember, are you an Optacon user?
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Steve Jacobson
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John
>> G.
>>> Heim via BlindMath
>>> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 7:12 AM
>>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>>> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>>> Cc: John G. Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu>
>>> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading
>>>
>>> My instructor is sighted. She can sight-read the braille if the dots
>>> come up clearly enough in the scanned document. I guess I wouldn't be
>>> taking the course if I could see but if I could, all I'd have to do is
>>> to keep tweaking the scanner settings until it worked. I think the
>>> first thing I am going to do is increase the DPI. There is a lot of
>>> info out there that says 300 DPI is best for OCR and my own
>>> experiments have confirmed that.  But a higher DPI might be better
>>> just to get braille dots to show up on a scanner.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 07/26/2017 04:43 AM, George Bell wrote:
>>>> Hi John,
>>>>
>>>> Scanning embossed braille is not an easy task.  Indeed there was once
>>>> a program called "OBR" (Optical Braille Recognition).  But even that
>>> required
>>>> that specific makes and models of scanner be used, which allowed
>>>> control
>>> of
>>>> lighting during the scan.
>>>>
>>>> You instructor should know this.
>>>>
>>>> Do I get the impression you are using a Perkins type braille writer
>>>> as opposed to say 6 key entry into PC braille software such as Duxbury?
>>>>
>>>> George
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>>>> John G Heim via BlindMath
>>>> Sent: 25 July 2017 15:02
>>>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
>>>> Cc: John G Heim
>>>> Subject: [BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading
>>>>
>>>> I'm taking a braille class through Hadley School for the Blind. I am
>>> trying
>>>> to submit my homework assignments as scanned images of braille pages
>>>> for
>>> the
>>>> instructor to sight-read. The instructor asked me to scan them as
>>>> photos
>>> but
>>>> I don't know what that means. Does anybody have experience scanning
>>>> in braille and can tell me the best format, mode, and dpi settings? I
>>>> sent my instructor tif line-art at 300 dpi which works well for OCR
>>>> but that
>>> didn't
>>>> work for sight-reading braille.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> --
>>>> John G. Heim; jheim at math.wisc.edu; sip://jheim@sip.linphone.org
>>>>
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