[Tactile-Talk] newhaptics

Seeing Hands community at seeinghands.org
Thu Sep 19 15:46:40 UTC 2024 

Extracting the image data from a PDF is not the tricky part. Although 
some displays will support it and some won't, software exists that can 
extract images from PDFs into other formats which can be sent to the 
display. That is unlikely to be the limiting factor.

However, the images that you have described may not work well when 
imported automatically. Print music can use small changes to symbols for 
important differences in the result. This means that you would probably 
have to zoom in very much to see the detail, making each individual 
symbol quite large. I wouldn't be surprised if the 10 by 32 line display 
on the Monarch was only displaying three symbols across and two down by 
the time the symbols could be felt with enough accuracy, and that might 
not even be three notes. Zooming out on that image would probably shrink 
the musical symbols so much that they're very hard to tell apart. There 
are some types of graphic that does not adapt well to low-resolution 
displays. That would be fine if you're trying to learn the shapes of the 
symbols, but it would probably cause annoyance if you were trying to 
learn the music that way.

     In the case of printed sheet music, I think converting it to 
Braille music is likely the more reliable answer. It can be tricky, but 
software exists to convert sheet music to a format like Music XML with 
OCR, and that format can be converted to Braille. The multi-line display 
will make that easier to read than a one-line display, and the density 
of information will be higher with Braille than it would with graphics. 
The software that converts music to Braille doesn't, as far as I know, 
support eBraille yet, but you can arrange it for an embosser with 
32-cell lines and 30-line pages for the Monarch. The Graphiti would not 
support that as well.


On 9/19/2024 7:56, Ken Perry via Tactile-Talk wrote:
>
> Yes monarch and graphiti can I think the others will be able to but 
> kadence is really to small to see anything large.   I am not sure with 
> the metech one but it should.
>
> *From:* Tactile-Talk <tactile-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> *On Behalf Of 
> *carcione--- via Tactile-Talk
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 19, 2024 10:21 AM
> *To:* 'Tactile Talk for the discussion of the display and use of 
> graphics on refreshable Braille platforms' <tactile-talk at nfbnet.org>
> *Cc:* carcione at access.net
> *Subject:* Re: [Tactile-Talk] newhaptics
>
> Most of the images I come across are in PDFs.  Can any of the devices 
> handle an image from that format?  I’m thinking of print music and 
> knitting charts as examples.
>
> Print music is 5 lines with notes in various places, often spanning 
> multiple lines.
>
> Knitting charts are rows of rectangular boxes with symbols in them, 
> and a key explaining the symbols.
>
> Tracy
>
> *From:* Tactile-Talk <tactile-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> *On Behalf Of 
> *Alfred D'Agostino via Tactile-Talk
> *Sent:* Thursday, September 19, 2024 9:17 AM
> *To:* Tactile Talk for the discussion of the display and use of 
> graphics on refreshable Braille platforms <tactile-talk at nfbnet.org>
> *Cc:* Alfred D'Agostino <alfred.t.dagostinophd at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [Tactile-Talk] newhaptics
>
> Good morning.
>
> Aside from the development of a full-page display from Newhaptics, and 
> the Graphiti and Monarch, are there any other existing devices or ones 
> being developed?
>
> In general, what form does a graphic have to be in to be translated 
> into the raised-dot format? on these devices? That is, taking a 
> photocopy and digitizing it into bitmap; or if already in digital 
> form, how is it translated into ‘pixels’ on the  device.
>
> How does a figure in a online digital textbook get translated? Is 
> there a standard protocol / interface?
>
> Alfred
>
> On Wed, Sep 18, 2024 at 7:32 PM Ken Perry via Tactile-Talk 
> <tactile-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>
>     Yes I have seen it. This is an off shoot of University of Michigan
>     and was
>     called the Holy Braille.  If you do a search you can probably find
>     a video
>     on it.   It runs on Air and the under lying  technology has a
>     rubber mat
>     like material that pushes up pins.  It can run on a air pump or CO2
>     cartridge.  It has micro vacuoles that open and close to move the
>     pins up
>     and down.  I like how compact the material is and I have helped
>     with some of
>     my knowledge in the past . I have my worries about its power
>     source but they
>     are showing the technology now and it can be resized to make larger
>     displays.  I say the more types of technologies out there the better.
>
>
>
>
>     From: Tactile-Talk <tactile-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Rich
>     Caloggero via Tactile-Talk
>     Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2024 5:44 PM
>     To: 'Tactile Talk for the discussion of the display and use of
>     graphics on
>     refreshable Braille platforms' <tactile-talk at nfbnet.org>
>     Cc: Rich Caloggero <rjc at mit.edu>
>     Subject: [Tactile-Talk] newhaptics
>
>     Anyone heard of this company or seen their haptic display? They
>     were at CSUN
>     this past spring.
>
>
>     https://www.newhaptics.com/about
>
>
>     -- 
>     Rich Caloggero
>     Accessibility Specialist
>     Disability and Access Services
>     Massachusetts Institute of Technology
>
>
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