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

Tue Jan 7 17:54:35 UTC 2020

Barbara, it was a descendant of the Optophone, and of the Visotoner. It was just coming out when I had my training on the visotoner. Wow! That blowing up had to be scary.
Cindy Lou

-----Original Message-----
From: NFB-Seniors <nfb-seniors-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Barbara Loos via NFB-Seniors
Sent: Tuesday, January 7, 2020 11:19 AM
To: Nebraska Senior Blind Info and Discussion List <nebraska-senior-blind at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Barbara Loos <beloos at neb.rr.com>; NFB Senior Division list <nfb-seniors at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [NFB-Seniors] [Nebraska-Senior-Blind] Interesting History - a reading machine for the blind - FW: the Optophone

This is very interesting to me. In 1974, I went to the Vet’s Hospital in Palo Alto, California, to learn what I’m thinking may be a descendent of the Optophone called the Stereotoner. it was similar to the Optacon in that it had a camera that you rolled across lines of print on the page. One big difference is that instead of tactile pins it had tone combinations for letters. My reading speed with it was about 25 words per minute at the point at which it literally blew up when I overcharged the big nickel cadmium battery on which it operated. I was working in the Orientation Center here at the time and had a group of students at my place playing scrabble. My initial thought was that one of them had pulled a prank of some kind. The one I suspected, who had been closest to the bang, responded with such utter surprise that I determined that he was either innocent or worthy of  an Academy award for his acting. what he earned was an apology from me as I discovered the fate of that machine at my own hands. 

Barbara

Sent from my iPhone

>> On Jan 7, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Robert Leslie Newman via Nebraska-Senior-Blind <nebraska-senior-blind at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 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
> <~WRD000.jpg>
> <image001.jpg>
>  
> . 
> 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.
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>  
> 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. 
>  
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