[BlindMath] 3 Dimensional Graphs

Fri Apr 6 04:48:10 UTC 2018

I basically wanted to use my microphones for making maps, but I can't do everything I want. I want to be able to pipe a three-dimensional arrow into my Maps so that I don't have to narrate anything. When I turn, the aero will just change. I also want some sort of scaling mechanism so that I can listen to a map in a shorter time, but still get the entire thing. Sometimes it works to pause the recording and then record every so often as you get closer to an intersection for example, so it seems like you got to the intersection and 30 seconds when it may have taken two or three minutes, but I want something more uniform. Another thing for your sensory research is that you need to have different categories. You need to have people who were born blind and people who became blind later in life. I was born with light perception, but medically, I am considered totally blind. It seems like to me that only people who are born blind have this experience of it sound turning into shape. This happened to me automatically. And sound turn into shape for blind people in a logical way or no one would be able to create software that replicates it. But from my observations, people who were not born blind, even if they were cited for short time, do not experience this. For example, my boyfriend was partially blind for around one or two years and then he became totally blind, but he does not experience this. However, even if people who are totally blind experience this automatically, I wonder if people who have been blind for a long time like my boyfriend can easily have their brain trained to this method. I have gone through all sorts of training to learn to read tactile images that has been largely ineffective. I wonder if maybe I will never be able to read them in the same way that sighted people will not be able to read audio images and maps. I also wonder how the brain of a deaf blind person works. It has been scientifically proven that blind people process sound through the visual cortex although I don't think sighted people really know what that means, so how did the brains of death blind people process spatial information? I was also reading articles about sided deaf people that they process vision through the auditory cortex. I wonder what that would be like. I am very sure that I processed sound through the visual cortex although I have not really had a brain scan. I can read very simple tactile images, but with the more complicated ones, it is just a jumble of lines that do not make sense to me. I got through calculus barely being able to read the graphs. I barely passed, and I did many things algebraically. I could've gotten so much more out of it if I had been able to read those graphs though. Growing up, sighted therapists told me that I had spatial deficits I was just born with and that I would have to except these limitations. Blindness has never been disabling to me. It has always been an asset to me because The way I process a lot of information has been right for me and consistent with the way I am meant to be based on my identity. However, The way I process spatial information has always been disabling to me. I thought for a long time that I would never be able to process this information. I would never be able to travel as effectively as other people because I could not read a map or understand where I was, I would never be able to understand chemistry because of the electrons and the energy levels, I would never be able to understand biology because the way we evolved from a sponge into human is actually very spatial, I would have limited access to math, and I would have trouble with basic things like fitting the greatest amount of dishes into the dishwasher. My own parents did not even understand what it meant. My mom could never understand why always went to the kitchen trashcan the same way. She said I should go there a different way depending on where I was in the kitchen and I could never understand it.Now I see that even this could have been an asset instead of a disabling condition if it had been treated appropriately. I don't even think this condition has a name, but I think it should be treated differently than blindness. No one has a name for it. I have never been able to get official documentation for it. At first growing up, I did not even know I had it. I have tried to explain it to professors, but I don't know how. I know that other people's brains work differently because I observed them more and more as I got older and I learned about the discrepancies concerning information they could process that I could not. However, I cannot explain what it is like. I cannot think of any simulation that would explain it either. I think that if I had been able to communicate what it was like to some professors, they would have figured out what to do to help me and I could have done well in math. A lot of my professors were pretty smart and they did want to help. I wish this condition had a name and that there were mainstream alternative techniques for it. Yes, you can work around it. For example, you can use algebra to understand something if you can't read a graph, but alternative techniques mean that you do the same thing as other people, just in an alternative way. So what I mean is that I want to process spatial information just like other people, but in an alternative way, and I know I can. I know now that the spatial part of my brain is not broken like those therapists said it was. If that part truly were broken, I would not be able to read a map or graph no matter what form it came in. I tried to explain what it was like to one professor, and she said that she understood and it is like not knowing which way up is. That is not what it is like though. Summa side of people have it too, but I believe that people born blind are getting this spatial thing in disproportionate numbers. I do not believe it is because they need visual information, they were overprotected, or it was genetic. I believe that we develop these spatial difficulties because we do not receive spatial information and the training to interpret it in an accessible format. I don't know if it is too late for me now. Even if we develop alternative techniques for this, I don't know if they can help me now or if I would have had to start using them as a baby for them to be effective. I sometimes play this binaural game called A Blind Legend. I can walk around in the game and do lots of things in it that were very hard for me when I was playing text  adventures. 

Sabra Ewing

> On Apr 5, 2018, at 10:11 PM, Sabra Ewing <sabra1023 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> There is a program called math tracks that does it. You put in equations and it makes a graph. There is also an app called voice and a computer program called seeing with sound that can translate any picture into sound. Math tracks is a bit better for grass though because you can get information on. Some things. The problem I had in school though was that no one else knew how to use it to create audio graphs so I was just given tactile graphs that I could not read. I was able to understand two dimensional graphs with this set up. But what that means is that I understand them exactly the shape they are so you still cannot get a three-dimensional object that is a two dimensional picture and have me listen to it and understand it. I have been able to make recordings of three-dimensional objects with binaural microphones.
> 
> Sabra Ewing
> 
>> On Apr 5, 2018, at 1:27 PM, Donald Winiecki via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Sabra, what software have you used to convert two-dimensional graphs to
>> sound?
>> 
>> _don
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 12:47 PM, Sabra Ewing via BlindMath <
>> blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> If you are good with sound editing, I would recommend making 3-D audio
>>> recordings of the graphs. There are programs that can import two
>>> dimensional pictures and convert them into sound, but maybe you could
>>> convert one of these programs to work for three-dimensional items or find a
>>> method to do that on your own. You cannot get a three dimensional graph
>>> that is actually two dimensional and import it into one of these programs
>>> though because it will not work. For example, I cube or just be like a
>>> bunch of squares, dotted lines, and diamonds. You would need to use
>>> binaural sound and actually make it be three-dimensional. How you would do
>>> this, I don't know, but audio really is your best bet. You will be able to
>>> understand graphs with a Percision that you will not be able to with a 3-D
>>> printer. You will be able to experience graphs as they move around and
>>> rotate and change. If you cannot get this method to work, the only other
>>> thing I can suggest is to have a reader or assistant look at the graphs and
>>> reproduce them with modeling clay and braille labels. Depending on how
>>> invested you are, 3-D printers are getting more affordable. I think you can
>>> get one for between 500 and $1000. If I were doing this, I would want a
>>> three-dimensional model I could I feel as well as a three-dimensional audio
>>> version so that I could listen and feel at the same time.
>>> 
>>> Sabra Ewing
>>> 
>>>> On Apr 5, 2018, at 9:21 AM, Michael Link via BlindMath <
>>> blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> That is exactly my trouble. What an interesting idea.
>>>> 
>>>> Michael
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>> 
>>>>> On Apr 5, 2018, at 4:21 AM, Robin Williams via BlindMath <
>>> blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I have a friend who has experimented in such matters, particularly
>>> making shapes encountered in topology. The main problem with 3D printing
>>> appears to be the expense, as one tends to need larger objects depending on
>>> the level of detail. It should be possible to produce something relatively
>>> cheaply for standard surfaces, though.
>>>>> There are R packages available that can readily produce the files
>>> needed for 3D printing.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I agree this is worthy of further investigation. Attempting to
>>> understand contour plots was certainly one of the most difficult problems I
>>> encountered in my undergraduate and postgraduate work.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Bests,
>>>>> Robin
>>>>> 
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>>> Godfrey, Jonathan via BlindMath
>>>>> Sent: 05 April 2018 03:29
>>>>> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <
>>> blindmath at nfbnet.org>
>>>>> Cc: Godfrey, Jonathan <A.J.Godfrey at massey.ac.nz>
>>>>> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] 3 Dimensional Graphs
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>> 
>>>>> I'd love to see some more done on creating such graphs using a 3d
>>> printer.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I haven't yet had a chance to exercise this interest to date, but
>>> creating 3d printer ready image files for statistical graphs is on my to-do
>>> list.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Jonathan
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
>>> Michael Link via BlindMath
>>>>> Sent: Thursday, 5 April 2018 2:10 p.m.
>>>>> To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
>>>>> Cc: Michael Link <michaelllink1 at gmail.com>
>>>>> Subject: [BlindMath] 3 Dimensional Graphs
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hi All!
>>>>> 
>>>>> I’m an undergraduate mathematics student who is struggling with
>>> figuring out the best assistive tech to use for understanding 3 Dimensional
>>> graphs.  Do any of you recommend certain programs or devices for graphs in
>>> three dimensions?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks!
>>>>> Michael
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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