[MusicTlk] An idea - what are your thoughts?

Thu Aug 9 15:54:14 UTC 2018

Yes, I’m aware of the Lime Limelighter software.  I just don’t like their price.  So many of the accessibility solutions we have are so costly, and I’m sure it prevents some people from getting what would help them.  That’s why I was thinking of this software being in the few hundred bucks range, not the thousands.  Of course I understand that they want to make a profit on their investment, but if it costs too much for people to buy, you may just be pricing yourself out of business.

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________________________________
From: MusicTlk <musictlk-bounces at nfbnet.org> on behalf of Donald Winiecki via MusicTlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 9, 2018 9:51:48 AM
To: musictlk at nfbnet.org
Cc: Donald Winiecki
Subject: Re: [MusicTlk] An idea - what are your thoughts?

The 'Lime Lighter' apparatus from *Dancing Dots* seems to have the features
you describe, and more.

See the following URL:
https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dancingdots.com%2Flimelighter%2Flimelightermain.htm&data=02%7C01%7C%7C7bc62fa4a558430a368608d5fe07e3fe%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636694232190327082&sdata=IBfinKH5L3WL5j0MTxM5B2ZAMhtD7a8hbfZbIAM8mbg%3D&reserved=0

_don

On Thu, Aug 9, 2018 at 7:15 AM Mike Jolls via MusicTlk <musictlk at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hi everyone
>
> I have an idea for a product that could help some people.  I wanted to
> find out what everyone thought.
>
> First, let me tell you about myself.  I’m a visually impaired musician.
> I’m very nearsighted.  I use a pair of telescopic glasses to read my
> music.  Due to the magnification I require to read a standard piece of
> music, I can only see a measure at a time.  It makes learning the music
> slow, and if I ever wanted to just sit down and read and play, it’s almost
> impossible to do that in a performance situation.  Consequently, with this
> experience, I’ve been thinking there has to be a better way.
>
> My idea is to have some software that allows you to read your music from
> an electronic file, then render and magnify the music and display it on say
> a 26” monitor.  The user should be able to set the magnification level in
> the software as desired. Plus, have a footswitch tied to the monitor
> (probably wirelessly) so that you just tap the footswitch, and the page
> advances or goes back.  I’ve been thinking about this for several months
> and the technology to do this appears to all be there.  The big problem is
> having the software that will render the magnified view.
>
> Here’s how it might be accomplished.
>
>   1.  Scan your music to graphic form
>   2.  Have software that “rips the music” from the graphic form and
> converts it to electronic format … maybe XML format (it appears this is
> already available)
>   3.  Store the music on a small flash card
>   4.  Have software running on a very small device such as Raspberry Pi
> computer which can read the files and render the music on a 26” monitor
> which is connected to the Pi.
>   5.  Have a wireless footswitch communicating with the Pi.
>   6.  Have the software recognizes the footswitch clicks, which are used
> to turn the pages forward and back.
>   7.  Have the software programmed so that it allows the user to increase
> the magnification / decrease as desired and updates the monitor display.
>
> The  Pi is a small device.  The footswitch is small also.  Therefore, it
> could be easily transported to a gig, or to a music lesson.  Or if you’re
> practicing, you put the monitor on your music stand or piano and you’re
> ready to read your music.  The software would allow you to pick which music
> you wanted to play from your stored music library.  If you were playing a
> gig, you’d want to be able select and sequence multiple pieces so you  can
> move seamlessly from one song to the next.
>
> All of this technology is relatively inexpensive.  The software would be
> the big undertaking.  From what I’ve seen, the only thing that approaches
> what I’m talking about is the LimeLighter / Dancing Dots system, and it’s
> like $4000.  That’s really unfortunate, because I think it prices a lot of
> people out.  What I would see is that the software I’m talking about would
> be a couple of hundred bucks, plus the hardware the end user would buy.  In
> addition to the Pi, the monitor, and software, you’d also need a good
> scanner.  One caveat, however, is that this software would probably not
> allow composition.  You’d have to use a different product to write the
> music, and then export the music to XML (or other) electronic format.  But
> once created, the electronic file could be read and rendered.
>
> So again, let me say this would be a VISUAL system.  Based on what I’ve
> said, would there be interest for such a system?  It would take a
> tremendous amount of work to do.  I’d be interested in in it.  Being a
> retired software engineer, it’s something I might be interested in working
> on for myself.  And if others could benefit, that would be even better.
>
> So, what kind of interest would there be in something like this?
>
> Thanks for listening.
>
> Sent from Mail<https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.microsoft.com%2Ffwlink%2F%3FLinkId%3D550986&data=02%7C01%7C%7C7bc62fa4a558430a368608d5fe07e3fe%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636694232190327082&sdata=uoJWx6o3DedRF3VQFE%2B%2F%2BRKCg0hA1DI3TPhbUpgqOXo%3D&reserved=0> for
> Windows 10
>
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