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

David Andrews dandrews at visi.com
Sun Jan 1 02:56:26 UTC 2012


Companies need to make money to survive.  If they provide a discount 
to a sizable part of their audience, then how can they do that.???

Dave

At 06:58 PM 12/31/2011, you wrote:
>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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