[BlindMath] Scanning braille for sight reading

Wed Jul 26 16:45:24 UTC 2017

John, if all you want is convenient transcription of keystrokes into
visual braille which you can show a sighted person, then you can use
latex braille package. So you would write e.g. 
\braille{a b g e e whatever} and it would produce a pdf with
corresponding braille symbols.

If you want to try it online please send me a private email and I'll
set you up with a beta testing account for a latex service I'm
developing. 

Best,
Lukasz

On Wed, 26 Jul 2017 11:17:01 -0500
John G Heim via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> 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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