[Blindtlk] devices RE: introduction
Chris Nusbaum
dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Mon Sep 10 21:46:59 UTC 2012
Maybe Hadley?
Chris
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger devin Prater" <r.d.t.prater at gmail.com
To: "Lloyd Rasmussen" <lras at sprynet.com>,"Blind Talk Mailing
List" <blindtlk at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 22:38:39 -0500
Subject: Re: [Blindtlk] devices RE: introduction
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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