[nfbcs] Optacon thoughts

[David Andrews]

I had an Optacon, back in 70's, and used it some, but not a 
lot.  Sold it to buy my first computer.

My view, probably isn't popular, but iI will say, 1. the tactile 
array was expensive to make, and 2. if they were more widely used, 
and sold in greater numbers, we would still have them. But they 
weren't, they were amazing devices, but hard for most people to use 
well. There are still some dedicated users, and nostalgia makes us 
want them, but I say good bye, we have much better technology today.

Dave

  At 03:54 PM 9/13/2016, you wrote:
>So I was helping a low-vision student this morning learn to use a 
>desktop magnifier (VisioBook) to get her math homework done. I 
>pulled out my old Optacon to insure I'd picked a representative page 
>from the book and that I had it correctly oriented.
>
>I taught myself Optacon so I'm not that good at it. But it got me 
>thinking: nobody's ever came out with a modern Optacon; something 
>that turns a camera image in to a tactile display that the user will 
>OCR with his own brain power. Or at least, I don't think such a gizmo exists.
>
>It's rather sad, really.
>
>--Debee