[NFB-Seniors] Interesting History - a reading machine for the blind - FW: the Optophone

Tue Jan 7 15:47:23 UTC 2020

The device that Harvey Lauer demonstrated in Houston was called the Visotoner. Shortly afterwards the stereotoner was invented. It was the same, only you received its information in stereo, so you could hear for instance that the high part of a D was in the right side. For a time Hadley taught folks how to use the Visotoner in sort of a Beta project. Before you could do this, you had to take a course from Hadley that would determine your ability to recognize tones. People went one on one to learn the device. The course was two weeks at the Hadley's school. I had the opportunity to do this and was thrilled for the opportunity. My biggest problem, both with the Visotoner and the Optacon, was that I had trouble keeping the devices in a straight line.
Cindy Lou 

-----Original Message-----
From: NFB-Seniors <nfb-seniors-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Robert Leslie Newman via NFB-Seniors
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2020 9:18 AM
To: nebraska-senior-blind at nfbnet.org; NFB Senior Division list <nfb-seniors at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Robert Leslie Newman <robertleslienewman at gmail.com>
Subject: [NFB-Seniors] Interesting History - a reading machine for the blind - FW: the Optophone

Hi You All

Some of you will recognize this device. (Two devices are covered; the second one I have seen; not the first one.)

From: The Blind History Lady [mailto:theblindhistorylady at gmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, December 2, 2019 7:45 AM
To: robertleslienewman at gmail.com
Subject: the Optophone

The Optophone 

. 

Hello Blind History Lady Fans;

The holidays are here. This is my favorite time of the year. Someone just told me this is the busiest time of the year, but I can tell you that the past several months have been extremely busy for The Blind History Lady! Since September, I have had the pleasure of addressing groups in Montana, New Jersey, Nebraska, Kansas and several groups in my home state of Colorado. Thank all of you for your interest and support during this past year.

Here is my December offering. 

I often wonder who thought of the idea or where did the idea come from for devices for the blind such as the Optacon that first made its appearance in the 1970’s.  The Optacon for those born too late, was a device that consisted of a small, hand-held camera, when run across print documents, converted what it scanned to an electronic display connected to the camera that consisted of several rows of vibrating pins. The reader read the actual print and could identify charts, tables, layout, even reading their phone bills. The user placed their hand inside the device about the size of a digital talking book player of today. 

I dug around a bit and found an interesting story that pre-dates the Optacon. The first “scanner” for the blind was invented about 1912 in Brittan. The device was called the Optophone, Articles began appearing in American newspapers in the summer of 1912, offering the machine as a way for the blind to distinguish between light and dark; opened doors, different clothing and much more. It was later manufactured by Barr and Stroud as a reading machine beginning in 1918. 

The online dictionary defines an Optophone thus; “a device combining a selenium cell and telephone apparatus that converts light energy into sound energy, used to enable blind people to sense light through the hearing and thus read printed matter.”

Eager blind men and women in Brittan worked countless hours with Barr and Stroud, becoming “proficient” readers to improve the device, many without compensation. Again without compensation these same blind people traveled far and wide to demonstrate the device for Barr and Stroud. Most only achieved a reading speed between 25 to 40 words a minute although a couple individuals did test at more than 60 words per minute. 

In 1922 the Optophone was brought to the U. S. It was demonstrated to many groups, schools for the Blind, government leaders and agencies for the blind. Only two schools purchased the Optophone. 

In 1922 Miss Margaret Hogan, a blind instructor at the New Jersey Commission for the Blind, read the New York Times to an audience with her Optophone. She was also employed by the makers of the Optophone to become proficient with the device and teach others in the United States. 

The cost of an Optophone was 35 pounds in England, about 1,600 pounds today, or about $2,029.00 today. For most schools for the blind and most blind individuals themselves, they could not afford the new reading technology, nor the extensive training that was needed to learn the different tones for each capitol letter, lower case letter and punctuation. In the Editor and Publisher for March 18, 1922, the cost was listed at $600.

But the biggest obstacle for most individuals wanting to learn how to use the device was the ability to distinguish between the tones. Letters and punctuation could be made of more than one tone. Those with not a good ear for recognizing the differences could not learn to read with the device. Many blind individuals were given an opportunity to work with the Optophone, yet after a few days, it was clear to the instructors that the individual just could not pick up on the differences. Students used headphones with the device to enhance the sounds and block out unwanted noise. Yet, headphones did not make any difference for the majority who tried the new reading device.

Mary Jameson, the most well-known user of the Optophone who lived in England could read about 40 words a minute and reached a recorded speed of 60 words per minute. She used the Optophone until her death in 1980. 

Ms Hogan was one of very few people in the United States who had access to and became somewhat proficient on the device. Although it was advertised widely for a few years, it never found financial backers in the U. S. The Optophone made it in the 1922 Encyclopedia Britanica, such were its hopes for making the printed world open to the blind. 

Vladimir Zworykin, a Russian-American inventor examined first-hand the pilot optophones of E.E. Fournier d’Albe in London. He was encouraged by the device. He began to  experiment himself decades later at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). After building a new version of the Optophone, Zworykin and others at RCA built a reading machine (1946-47) capable of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – the first of its kind.

Others in the U. S. picked up on the idea and tried to manufacture a similar machine. In 1971 in Houston Texas at the National Federation of the Blind convention, Harvey Lauer demonstrated a similar device in the general session that read the printed word with tones. Harvey worked for the Vets administration at Hines Hospital in Chicago. He had mastered the techniques of listening to the tones and was able to read well enough to identify printed information. 

At the same convention, Tim Cranmer, blind inventor from Louisville Kentucky, demonstrated a calculator using tones to identify the numbers and functions. 

When the Optacon came on the market, it utilized the same principles, but converted the impulses into a tactile format. Feeling the pins meant that more individuals were able to learn effectively the new reading device.  Users also had to learn to read print. Learning print took up the bulk of the teaching time. Reading by touch seemed far easier than to read via ear with “musical” tones.

Some reported Optacon readers reaching a speed of more than 100 words. Although the Optacon has not been manufactured for more than 23 years, there are still blind individuals using the optacon in their jobs and daily lives today. 

 If you would like to schedule a presentation contact me at theblindhistorylady at gmail.com

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