[Blindtlk] devices RE: introduction

Sun Sep 9 03:38:39 UTC 2012

Wow, yes, you're a lot better at explaining things than I am, LOL, I'm 
fascinated with it too, I'd really be fascinated if a school or something 
like it could teacher several blind children to use it, that way we  would 
surely know how good it could actually be. :) I've told some people at my 
school about it, so we'll see where it goes.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lloyd Rasmussen" <lras at sprynet.com>
To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 10:02 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] devices RE: introduction


> the vOICe is not really a device, but it uses devices you may already 
> have. If you have a webcam connected to your PC, or if you have it look at 
> your screen or the active window or the area around the mouse pointer, it 
> converts the image into a "soundscape" which is an audio signal, rescanned 
> every two seconds, which represents the image.  Probably best used with 
> stereo headphones.  In this representation, an imaginary vertical line 
> scans across the image from left to right.  At each instant, tones are 
> generated with highest pitch being toward the top of the image, and with 
> volume of each pitch corresponding to the brightness of the image at that 
> point.  By default, 64 different frequencies are generated, and 176 
> vertical lines constitute a two-second scan.  A single vertical line would 
> sound like a burst of noise.  A horizontal line sounds like a tone of 
> constant pitch which lasts the whole 2 seconds, which pans from left to 
> right in your headphones.  A print capital V would sound like a tone which 
> falls and then rises in pitch, repeated every two seconds.  You can adjust 
> most of the parameters of how the image is sonified, including zooming it, 
> changing the scan rate, reversing the video, filtering by one color, etc.
>
> It's a small Windows executable.  People who really get into this obtain a 
> webcam that is built into a pair of glasses, put a portable computer in a 
> backpack (providing for enough ventilation), run the software with speech 
> recognition, and walk around the house or the area learning how to 
> distinguish objects, learning about how occlusion and parallax work, etc.
>
> Whereas the Optacon was a direct translation aid (the human has to do all 
> the work of interpreting what the camera sees) for printed material, the 
> vOICe is probably most useful as a direct translation aid for sensing the 
> environment or quick rendering of images that appear on a PC.  Like the 
> Optacon, it takes lots and lots of practice to get good at using it, and 
> it remains mostly a subject for experimentation rather than a tool that a 
> lot of blind people are using in their daily lives.  It would not be a 
> good travel aid, in my opinion, because you need to hear environmental 
> sounds and the time to recognize a scene is long.  And Peter Meijer, the 
> author, is careful not to make any claims that it would be a good 
> substitute for a cane or guide dog.  The first version, run in dedicated 
> hardware, is now 20 years old.  I think that the Windows executable is 
> about 15 years old (undergoes continuous improvements).  An Android 
> version
> has been in Google Play for about 2 years.  He also did one for Simbian 
> cell phones, but these are disappearing from the market.
>
> This is probably more than you wanted to know, but I think it is 
> fascinating.  www.seeingwithsound.com .
> Lloyd Rasmussen, Wheaton, MD, W3IUU
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Chris Nusbaum
> Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 10:22 PM
> To: 'Blind Talk Mailing List'
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] devices RE: introduction
>
> Hi Roger,
>
> I've heard of this device, but I don't think it works quite like the
> Optacon. From what I read about it, it seemed like some kind of device 
> that
> simulated the sense of sight by making the blind person feel like he/she 
> is
> seeing the object being detected by the VOICE. I was kind of intrigued by
> this technology, but couldn't quite wrap my head around how it works. I
> would be interested to hear any firsthand accounts of how the technology
> works from anybody who has actually used the device. By the way, I read
> about this device in an article in the Matilda Ziegler magazine a few 
> months
> ago.
>
> Chris
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Roger devin Prater
> Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 9:35 PM
> To: Blind Talk Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] devices RE: introduction
>
> Hmm, have any of you tried the vOICe? http://seeingwithsound.com It works,
> as far as I know about the opticon, like it, only it uses sound instead of
> tactiles, and is free. http://seeingwithsound.come just in case I 
> misspelled
> it the first time, LOL.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
> To: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: "Blind Talk Mailing List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2012 8:26 PM
> Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] devices RE: introduction
>
>
>> Absolutely not! Translation into Braille means the unit would be
>> telling you what it think it sees, not letting you interpret for
>> yourself what the unit sees.
>>
>> Mike
>>
>
>
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