[Trainer-talk] new notetaker

[David B Andrews]

At the risk of sounding negative, I am skeptical about this.  First, we
are seeing things move towards smart phones, and net books, instead of
dedicated notetakers.  Why not use a netbook with system Access.  You
are still under the $1000 figure with power, flexibility, and lots of
options.
 
 
I suspect they will find it hard, and expensive to get dedicated
hardware manufactured.  Then, it is out of date in a couple years.  If
they are able to do something for between $500 and $1000 we are looking
at from $1000 to $2000 by the time it is made, imported, and supported
by a commercial company in the U.S.  So, are you saving money.
 
There have and are a couple attempts to do notetaker type things using
Linux, Papenmeier had one, now we have tie Icon/Braille Plus.  They tend
to be not that flexible, not as full-featured as Windows stuff, and it
is difficult to add features.  If you read through the document you see
lots of compromises, and stuff it can't do in terms of syncing,
compatibility, etc.  I am sorry, but I don't see this going anywhere!
 
Dave
 
 
 
David Andrews
Chief Technology Officer
Minnesota State Services for the Blind
2200 University Ave. W., #240
St. Paul, MN  55114-1840
(651) 642-0513  Office
(612) 730-7931  Cell
(651) 649-5927  Fax


>>> "Josh" <jkenn337 at gmail.com> 8/27/2009 1:00 PM >>>
hi here it is. 

Noteaker FAQ

Date: 23 February 2009 Version 1.0

Notetaker Frequently Ask Questions

Notetaker%20FAQ_html_m1020ef67

Notetaker%20FAQ_html_m4cad18c

Noteaker FAQ

Version 1.0

23 February 2009

Compiled by:

Willem van der Walt

Gerhard van den Berg

Meraka CSIR

Table of Contents

Q1 What is the Notetaker? 4

Q2 What are the Design Criteria for the Notetaker? 4

Q3 How does this Notetaker differ form other notetakers 4

Q4 If the Notetaker uses a computer platform what operating system does
it use? 5

Q5 How fast is the Notetaker's processor? 5

Q6 How much does the Notetaker cost? 5

Q7 How much memory does the Notetaker have? 5

Q8 How much space has the Notetaker for storing files? 6

Q9 Does the device have a media card slot? 6

Q10 Can one use a USB pen drive (memory stick) with the device? 6

Q11 How does the Notetaker work? 6

Q12 Which Communication interfaces do the Notetaker support? 6

Q13 Which Interfaces and Peripherals are supported? 7

Q14 Is there support for Braille and other keyboards? 7

Q15 Does the Notetaker provide for the partly sighted? 7

Q16 Does the Notetaker run Windows XP? 7

Q17 What Operating system does the Notetaker use? 8

Q18 What other Programs are available for the Notetaker? 8

Q19 Will it be possible to cut/paste between different applications?
10

Q20 Does the Notetaker have a Braille display 10

Q21 Which Braille displays will the device support? 10

Q22 Will grade 2 Braille be supported? 10

Q23 What about the weight? I have difficulty with carrying heavy
equipment. 10

Q24 What are the chances of loosing data if the batteries run down? 10

Q25 Will the device warn you about low batteries? 10

Q26 Is there an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program? 11

Q27 Does the device come with a modem built in? 11

Q28 Would it be easy to add extra languages in terms of speech
synthesis? 11

Q29 Will the device be able to extract compressed archives like .zip
files? 11

Q30 Will it be possible to move files between the device and a normal
Windows based desktop PC? 11

Q31 Why can the device read, but not write DVDs? 12

Q32 Will the device be able to read/convert PDF documents? 12

Q33 Can the device read and write Microsoft documents like Word and
Excel files? 12

Q34 Can one hear an example of the free speech synthesizers used on the
system? 13

Q35 Are there any commercial voices available that sound better? 13

Q36 Can email and diary entries by synchronized with MS Outlook type
applications? 13

Q37 Is there any indication when the Notetaker will be available? 13

Q38 Why did you not answer my question? 14

CSIR Notetaker FAQ

Introduction

This FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) discusses the features and
operation of the Notetaker, an assistive device for the Blind developed
by the Meraka Institute
of the CSIR.

Q1What is the Notetaker?

The Notetaker is really a communication and computing device for the
Blind based on a personal computer. It runs special programs to enable
the Blind to
access modern electronic media and other information sources
including:

Access recorded books and music, 
study material and electronic documents,
also access the internet,
send and receive e-mails and
serve as a personal organiser.

It can also assist the Blind in preparing, editing and spell check
letters, documents and student assignments. The Notetaker is a device to
provide the
Blind at work, at home and in the classroom with the ability to record
and play back lectures or events as well as edit, annotate and organise
such recordings.


Q2What are the Design Criteria for the Notetaker?

The criteria is to design a device that must be small, light, cheap,
flexible, locally supported, modular in terms of hardware, run of main
and rechargeable
batteries It must also be adaptable for South African needs and
affordable.

Q3How does this Notetaker differ form other notetakers

Most commercially available notetakers are dedicated devices with
proprietary programs to control their operation and functions. Programs
and program updates
are only available from the manufacturer or agents.

The CSIR based the Notetaker on a Personal Computer platform and free
open source software. The CSIR follows an open design and development
policy, which
allows anybody with the necessary skills to enhance existing functions
or develop new functions by changing and enhancing existing, or writing
new programs.

The Notetaker is small and lightweight, and can operate of rechargeable
batteries and mains power and is thus very similar to a small laptop. It
does however
have features that are not available on the ordinary laptop.

The idea is to provide a blind person with easy accessible
communication and computing tools to access many of the modern media and
information systems.

Q4If the Notetaker uses a computer platform what operating system does
it use?

A computer platform can do very little on its own; it requires an
operating system to communicate with a keyboard and a display as well as
stored programs
and data. Popular examples for the PC are DOS (Disk Operating System),
Microsoft Windows and Unix, while the Apple computer uses the OS-X as
operating
system.

The Notetaker uses the Debian Linux as operating system (not Microsoft
Windows) because it is much easier to interface the output of the Open
Source programs
of the Unix systems with the voice output of the Notetaker. The Debian
Linux operating system and the programs that run on the Notetaker are
also free.
Program upgrades and enhancements are also free. This has a major
impact on the purchasing and running cost of the Notetaker. Unix also
perform better
that Microsoft Windows on a small platform.

Q5How fast is the Notetaker's processor?

The PC platform for the Notetaker employs 600 Mega Hertz to 1Giga Hertz
CPUs.

Q6How much does the Notetaker cost?

The targeted price is 5000 to 10000 Rand (or 500 to 1000 US dollars),
depending on configuration options such as extra memory, large disk
space or special
keyboards.

The Notetaker uses free Open Source programs for its operating system
and functions. In the Open Source environment most software can
downloaded from the
internet at no cost. A developer might charges a small price for the
distribution of the software on disk. It is also possible that a
developer might charge
for a special program, but the Open Source licensing of the software
promotes the free distribution of the software.

The hardware is thus the main cost component of the Notetaker.

The CSIR has already developed three Notetaker prototypes. The main aim
of these prototypes was to reduce the cost, weight, size and provide
enhance battery
operation. No single hardware platform meets all criteria and features.
The challenge is to find a platform where the required features,
modifications
or enhancements can be added with little increase in cost.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) of South Africa provides
the funds for the development of the Notetaker , which is part of the
Meraka Institute's
National Accessibility Portal project for the disabled.

Q7How much memory does the Notetaker have?

The Notetaker is normally fitted with 512 Megabyte to 2 Gigabyte of RAM
(Random Access Memory), the standard RAM used in laptop computers. This
RAM is for
running programs and is not where data is stored. Data is stored on
hard disk or solid-state disk so that the data is retained when the
Notetaker is switched
off or the batteries run down.

Q8How much space has the Notetaker for storing files?

The Notetaker use a standard notebook hard drive for program and file
storage. Notebook hard drives sizes range from 40 Giga bytes to about
200 Giga bytes.
One can use any capacity, as long as the physical drive size remains
the same. Notebook drives are used because they are low power, shock
resistant and
physically small. 

The Current Notetaker programs use about 25 Gigabytes and the Wikipedia
about 7 Gigabytes. 

Q9Does the device have a media card slot?

No, but some Notetaker configurations might have it built in. Even in a
configuration without a built-in media slot, it can use an external USB
media card-reader.

Q10Can one use a USB pen drive (memory stick) with the device?

Yes, most of them will work.

Q11How does the Notetaker work?

A Blind person uses a standard QWERTY keyboard to communicate with the
Notetaker. 

A user accesses the Notetaker's features through a menu system, which
are navigated by pressing the first letter of the feature-description or
the arrow
keys to scroll until one reaches the desired menu option and then press
the Enter key to use the specific feature.

All output is through the speech-synthesiser in the language currently
selected.

Efforts to provide a 9-key Braille chording keyboard, as an alternative
to the QWERTY keyboard, are under way.

Q12Which Communication interfaces do the Notetaker support?

The Notetaker supports various network interfaces for communicating
with the outside world. These include a wired 10/100 UTP Ethernet
interface, a WiFi
wireless network interface (803.11 a/b & g) and Bluetooth. To reduce
size and power, some Notetaker implementations might not have a WiFi or
Bluetooth
wireless network interface.

The Notetaker can support external USB dial-up and GSM GPRS modems. 

Q13Which Interfaces and Peripherals are supported?

The Notetaker has many standard Personal Computer Interfaces such as
Video, Audio, USB (Universal Serial Bus) and Network interfaces as
mentioned in 12.
(Which communication interfaces do the Notetaker support)

External storage devices such as hard disks and CD/DVD readers,
printers, FAX machines, document scanners and Braille displays can be
supported via the
USB interfaces. In some instances, USB to parallel port converters
might be required.

Q14Is there support for Braille and other keyboards?

The Notetaker uses the standard QWERTY keyboard similar to the PC 104
keyboard with a USB interface. It should be possible to use any Personal
Computer
compatible keyboard with a USB interface. 

The CSIR initiated the development of a 9-key Braille chording keyboard
as an alternative to the QWERTY keyboard. The idea is to have a Braille
keyboard
that will be a swap-out replacement for a standard PC 104 USB QWERTY
keyboard. The plan is to support PC keyboard key sequences as well as
multi-language
"contracted" Braille. Keys such as the inverted T cursor keys, numeric
key-pad and the F1 to F12 function will be retained to keep the
Notetaker interface
as standard as possible.

Q15Does the Notetaker provide for the partly sighted?

The Notetaker is optimised for the totally blind person that cannot use
a computer screen. To reduce power consumption and reduce weight a
notetaker might
not have a screen.

Notetakers will normally have a video connector to attach a VGA
computer screen. A screen is handy and necessary when sighted persons
use it or assists
a blind person with the Notetaker. A screen is also handy for advanced
system faultfinding (when the voice output is not working).

Partly sighted persons often prefer to use ordinary computers or
laptops with large screens and vision-enhancing programs such as
Zoomtext. Partly sighted
persons can however use the Notetaker and many of the special programs
to assist them. 

Q16Does the Notetaker run Windows XP?

The Notetaker does not run Windows XP or any other Windows operating
system. For a detailed discussion on the Notetaker's operating system,
see question
2 (What is the design criteria for the Notetaker?) and 17 (What
Operating system does the Notetaker use?)"

Q17What Operating system does the Notetaker use?

Although the Notetaker runs on a PC platform, it uses Debian Unix as
operating system and not Microsoft Windows.

The Linux operating system is much better suited (than MS Windows) for
the implementation of the text and voice interfaces used by the Blind.
The Debian
Unix operating system software as well as future software upgrades are
free.

Q18What other Programs are available for the Notetaker?

Three programs are central to the operation of the Notetaker:

1. The Debian Linux operating system. 

2. Programs that control the reading of the computer output and the
voice synthesiser programs that communicates with the blind user. 

3. A menu program called "KIES" (pounced KISS) and is the Afrikaans for
choose or select. KIES is a special program to enhance the interface
between the
Blind computer user and the Notetaker.

The following are some additional features, programs and functions
provided by the Notetaker:

1. Functions that enable the user to install any console-based Unix
program, which can be configured to work well with the speakup
screenreader. There exists
many of these free and easy to install programs.

2. A personal database that is fully programmable.
This allows the creation of custom data basis fully searchable over all
fields, examples include:
a) Contact lists - with names, numbers, addresses, e-mail address, etc
b) CD records lists - with Album name, artist, track titles etc.

The database allows searching on the various columns simultaneously.

3. An e-mail program 

4. A scientific calculator.

5. An English dictionary with an easy lookup facility. 

6. An offline-version of wikipedia if the final Notetaker configuration
has enough storage. 

7. A Web browser.

8. A customisable menu system.

9. Support for speech synthesis in local languages, currently English
and Afrikaans and possibly Zulu, with others to follow as they become
available. 

10. Reading of Daisy books in Daisy 2.02 format with expansion to
include Daisy 3 when the player software becomes available. The current
player supports
the synchronisation of text with audio.

11. Recording of audio in digital format hopefully at high quality, and
suitable for recording in lecture rooms etc.

12. An easy-to-use editing program for audio files, allowing deletion
and insertion of sound.

13. A function to write data and audio compact disks. Should the final
configuration not have a built-in CD-writer, this function will still be
doable using
an external USB CD-writer.

14. Reading of DVD disks, both data and commercially available films,
provided that the configuration has a DVD player.

15. Word processing. 

16. Reading of various document formats. 

17. Access to external USB and storage devices. 

18. Uncompressing of a number of different compressed file formats E.G.
zip, bz2 etc. 

19. Support for on-the-fly changing of synthesizer language. 

20. Optical character recognition using the ocropus software. 

Any scanner supported by the same backend can be used. Although the OCR
is not as accurate as current commercial products, it is already usable
for many
things.

The database allows searching on the various columns simultaneously.
For example:
When searching, you are presented with the same column headings as in
the database.
If you put a letter 'A' in the artist column and the word 'love' in the
track title column the search will return all the entries with artists
containing
the letter 'A' in the name and with tracks containing the word 'love'
in the track title.

Since the user can effectively add features, the menu system also
allows for the addition of new menus and/or menu-entries to accommodate
the newly added
features.

Support for email and web connectivity is provided through one or more
of the following communication methods:

Ethernet through a local area network or ADSL, dial up through an
external modem, or connectivity through wireless LAN. Connectivity
through mobile phones
is under consideration.

Q19Will it be possible to cut/paste between different applications?

Yes is possible to cut and paste between programs that support cut and
paste.

Q20Does the Notetaker have a Braille display

The Notetaker does not have an integrated Braille display but can
support add-on Braille displays.

Q21Which Braille displays will the device support?

All displays supported by the "Brltty" software, which will be used to
drive them. It should be possible to write drivers for a particular
display if the
required technical documentation is available.

Q22Will grade 2 Braille be supported?

Theoretically, it can be supported, but no work in that regard has been
done. Apparently, some Braille printers have internal support for grade
2 translation.
In principal, there is no reason why an embosser cannot be connected to
the device.

Q23What about the weight? I have difficulty with carrying heavy
equipment.

The Notetakes's weight is similar to that of a small laptop. The
batteries contribute the most to the overall weight of the Notetaker. 

Q24What are the chances of loosing data if the batteries run down?

All saved information will be available once the device is recharged,
as information is stored on disk. 

Q25Will the device warn you about low batteries?

Yes, we are working on battery low warnings and the automatic saving of
information before the system shuts down or operation becomes erratic
due to low
power. 

Q26Is there an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program?

Yes, we have ocropus with tesseract. an open-source OCR (Optical
Character Recognition) with limited capabilities. We added supporting
software to turn
pages 180 degrees and to merge multiple pages into a single document.

It is possible to buy good OCR engines for Linux and thus the
Notetaker, but the free open-source OCR program software will be
distributed with the Notetaker.

Another OCR supporting applications is an image viewer for the blind.
The idea is that e mail might arrive with and an image file attached.
There might
be text in such an image format. Such an image could be quickly OCRed
and text it contains could be extracted and made available. If it was
just a picture
of someone's child or pet, well you will just get nothing.

Q27Does the device come with a modem built in?

No, but the Notetaker supports external dial-up and GSM GPRS modems
connected to a USB port.

Q28Would it be easy to add extra languages in terms of speech
synthesis?

If it is a text-to-speech program runs for Linux it is should be
possible to add it. Adding an additional language to an existing
text-to-speech program
is usually easy. Adding a new text-to-speech program might require
assistance.

Q29Will the device be able to extract compressed archives like .zip
files?

Yes, bz2 and zip formats are currently supported. It might be possible
to support other compression formats such as 7zip if there is a
requirement.

Q30Will it be possible to move files between the device and a normal
Windows based desktop PC?

Yes, one can use removable media such as memory sticks or write the
files to CDs.

For moving or sharing files on a regular basis, there are many options,
and we have not selected a specific one yet (integrated it into the menu
system).

One could do it through a cross-over UTP cable (Ethernet cable). Most
modern pc's have an on board Ethernet port and Ethernet cards for PCs
are cheap. This
would be the preferred method. 

With TCP/IPA over Ethernet as the basic communication method, there
several ways of affecting the up and download of files. 

1. Through a web interface, using Internet Explorer from the side of
the Windows desktop. This would make it platform independent and is
relatively easy
to implement, given what already exist on the device. 

2. By making the hard drive on the desktop sharable, the device can see
it in such a way that the desktop hard drive would look like a
sub-directory on
the device. One would then use the copy feature of the device to move
around files.

3. We can make the device appear to the Windows PC as another Windows
computer with some shared drives. One would then use the Windows pc's
Microsoft Explorer
to move/copy files.

The last two methods can get tricky to set up due to security
considerations on both sides, but once set up, it works well. There are
other ways too, not
using Ethernet.

One would have to decide if a combination of the above methods or just
one or the other should be used. Note that this is the kind of option
that can be
changed if a particular choice has problems.

Q31Why can the device read, but not write DVDs?

Replacing the DVD-reader/CD-writer slim-line drive with one that can
also write DVDs will allow for DVD writing.

Some software would have to be configured separately as well. The
slim-line DVD writers are still a little expensive and we are trying to
keep costs down.

Q32Will the device be able to read/convert PDF documents?

Yes, except if it is a .pdf where the text is in image format only.
Where the .pdf file contains text or text and images the text in the
.pdf file can be
converted to voice output.

Q33Can the device read and write Microsoft documents like Word and
Excel files?

The Notetaker can read them, and through conversion write in the MS
Word and Excel formats. There are however problems with complex
Microsoft documents
and there might be issues with writing some files. Rather than spending
too much time on this now, we are waiting for all the various players to
streamline
conversion to and from Open Document Format (ODF) which would solve a
lot of problems.

A comment regarding spreadsheets: The calculator has a feature called a
matrix which we want to explore further as we believe one could make a
tool which
works more effectively with speech and with which one can do typical
spreadsheet-like tasks.

Q34Can one hear an example of the free speech synthesizers used on the
system?

There are now two versions of the same example, a .wav and a .mp3 which
contain an example of both the English and Afrikaans of Espeak.

The mp3 might sound a little crackly, so we offer the .wav as well.

Find it at:

ftp://ftp.csir.co.za/MI/National_Accessibility_Portal/wvdwalt/bid.wav 
and

ftp://ftp.csir.co.za/MI/National_Accessibility_Portal/wvdwalt/bid.mp3 

Q35Are there any commercial voices available that sound better?

Yes, IBM Viavoice is available. Currently there are problems buying the
Linux version, but we got pricing a while back. It was $40 for a single
license
and $5 each if we can get 300 people to buy. We are trying to find out
about Realspeak, a high quality voice. If anyone has contact info, let
us know.
The Software Dectalk is also available, but we think the Viavoice and
Realspeak are better. Another commercial voice is the Cepstral voice
set.

We will distribute the software for the device with only free,
open-source voices, but will help to get the others activated, if
someone wants to buy and
use any of the ones listed above.

Q36Can email and diary entries by synchronized with MS Outlook type
applications?

Not in the current version.

Q37Is there any indication when the Notetaker will be available?

The KISS menu software for the Notetaker is already available for
download and install on Debian Unix processors. 

For the KIES README see: 
ftp://linux-speakup.org/pub/linux/goodies/kies.README 
For the KIES tar file see: 
ftp://linux-speakup.org/pub/linux/goodies/kiesfile.tar.bz2 
or: 
ftp://ftp.csir.co.za/mi/national_accessibility_portal/wvdwalt/kies-15649.tar.bz2


The development of local South African Languages for the Notetaker
depends on finding a committed person or persons with the correct
language knowledge
and some computer skills.

The hardware poses the greater challenge. After we have found the most
suitable hardware and identified the changes required, we have to find a
manufacturer
willing to make some modification and repackage the Notetaker in the
optimal format for the Blind. 

We hope to have a Notetaker available for purchase by the beginning of
2010.

Q38Why did you not answer my question?

If we missed answering a question, it is not intentional. Please just
drop us a line and we will try to answer.

Willem van der Walt

e-mail: wvdwalt at csir.co.za 

End of document

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