[nabs-l] FW: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo

Sun Jan 1 00:58:53 UTC 2012

Yeah, but they ought to give us, (students,) a discount.
Blessings, Joshua

On 12/31/11, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> its costly due to the technology, Josh.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Lester
> Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 7:44 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] FW: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display --
> IndieGoGo
>
> How many cells are on this new Braille display?
> Also, why do the current ones cost so much?
> That's like the IBill!
> The IBill is small, but it costs $100.
> It's the size of a Giga-pet, like I got as a child.
> I only paid $5, for the giga-pet, but they expect me to pay $100 for
> something, the same size!
> Wow!
> They should price things by size.
> Blessings, Joshua
>
> On 12/31/11, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> wonder when it will be ready for sale. I'd like braille displays to be
>> more
>> affordable. Even $500 would be better than the thousands they are now.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Humberto Avila
>> Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 10:00 PM
>> To: shaneread at fastmail.fm ; jessbrl at fastmail.fm ; deniserob at gmail.com ;
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org ; GUI-talk at nfbnet.org ; villagers at gmail.com
>> Subject: [nabs-l] FW: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
>> Behalf Of David Andrews
>> Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 12:03 PM
>> To: david.andrews at nfbnet.org
>> Subject: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo
>>
>> Subject: Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo
>>
>> http://www.indiegogo.com/Open-Source-Braille-Display
>>
>> The Story
>>
>> This project started earlier this year when I
>> read a local author's book of life as a Blind
>> person. After contacting him, I decided I could best help by
>> designing a simple device to make low-cost
>> Braille display from a computer possible.
>>
>> So Will It Change the World?
>>
>> I hope so - or I wouldn't be working on it!
>>
>> Braille is to the Blind as the written word is to
>> us sighted folk - and so Braille literacy is
>> vitally important. Yet according to Wikipedia, while in 1960
>> half of blind American schoolchildren could read
>> Braille, in 2007, that number had dropped to one
>> in ten. To improve literacy, we need to make available
>> more ways to access and learn Braille - and an
>> important one is a tool to allow the Blind to
>> read the vast amounts of information on the Internet.
>>
>> For many years, Braille readers have done just
>> that. A Braille reader takes computer text and
>> turns it into tactile impressions of Braille characters for
>> the blind to 'read'. However, these devices are
>> expensive - thousands of dollars - and so few can
>> afford them. The goal of this project is to make an Open
>> Source/Open Hardware Braille reader: simpler,
>> easy to build, well documented, and inexpensive,
>> so people anywhere can make it themselves (or get it made
>> locally).
>>
>> But there's a second goal: to get people doing
>> more. This design is meant to be simple and cheap
>> to build. My hope is other, smarter people will step in
>> and build better, faster, and more powerful
>> devices. But nobody is doing it now, and so
>> someone has to start the ball rolling.
>>
>> With your help, this will be that ball...
>>
>> What You Can Do
>>
>> The goal is to get from the current first
>> prototype to a finished design for a 40-character
>> Braille display, complete with software, and all the details
>> people need to build it, placed online. To that
>> end, here's some of the things needed:
>> list of 4 items
>> . Small CNC machine (build or buy), to do faster
>> turnaround of prototype parts.
>> . Purchase a selection of stepper motors and
>> driver boards, to test different
>> price/performance ratios for the Braille display design.
>> . Get a low-cost netbook to prototype the exact
>> software to run a device (netbook rather than a
>> full computer so as to test the device in the most likely
>> 'real world' situation).
>> . Materials! Prototypes use up a lot of material,
>> as a part can get tweaked many times, each time requiring a new piece cut
>> out.
>> list end
>>
>> Make no mistake - the project IS going ahead,
>> whether a little or a lot of money comes in - the
>> difference is just the speed things happen! So when this
>> project is out there making the difference I hope
>> it will, ask yourself how good it will feel to
>> say 'I helped with that' - and please contribute!
>>
>> Any level is appreciated, and there's some 'thank
>> yous' listed on the right side of this page to show appreciate for your
>> aid.
>>
>> Progress will be discussed on my blog,
>> http://UtopiaMechanicus.com,
>> and designs will be made available there as they
>> are finished. All code and design will also be
>> made available for download, allowing people to make or
>> modify these products.
>>
>> What (Else) You Can Do
>>
>> Tell the world - the more people that know of
>> this project, the greater impact we can make.
>> Blog about it, tweet away, link to it, talk about it at work.
>> And please share this information with everyone and anyone.
>>
>> Thank You.
>>
>>
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>>
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