[nfbcs] Optacon thoughts

[David Andrews]

I am sorry, and I know many people say this, but I don't buy it.

The Optacon was expensive and difficult to use, and if it worked 
better for people, I think someone would still be making them. But 
they aren't.

APH recently announced a graphics tactile display, to come out in 
late 2017. We may get back to this stuff -- but in a different way.

Dave

At 04:42 PM 9/13/2016, you wrote:
>It's amazing to me that such a relatively simple, useful tool hasn't been
>resurrected. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
>
>
>---
>Dale E. Heltzer
>deheltzer at msn.com
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong
>via nfbcs
>Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2016 3:55 PM
>To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>Cc: Deborah Armstrong
>Subject: [nfbcs] Optacon thoughts
>
>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