[nfbcs] Optacon thoughts

[Tracy Carcione]

Hi Dave.
I disagree.  I still have an Optacon, and there are things it does nothing
else can do.  I can read print music with it, for one thing.  I have music
scanning software, but, like all scanners, it makes mistakes, and I use the
Optacon to fix them.  I have also recently used it to look at a diagram of
some new doodad I bought, to figure out what buttons were where.  I've read
the label on some buttons.  I've read a blood work report, where K1000 was
not properly reading some highlighted material.  I've used it to look at my
solar output report, which has a table with several columns.  The Optacon
makes it easier for me to figure out which number goes with which header,
quicker than I can with Jaws.  I read a round pill bottle, which usually
doesn't work well with a scanner. And I used to use it to read Japanese
print.
It did take some effort to learn, but that effort has paid off many times
over.  I hope my Optacon lasts a long time, and that someone re-develops it
with more modern technology.  For me, nothing beats being able to interpret
print directly, using what's still the most sophisticated software around,
my brain.
Tracy


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David Andrews via
nfbcs
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2016 11:01 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Cc: David Andrews
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Optacon thoughts

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


_______________________________________________
nfbcs mailing list
nfbcs at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nfbcs:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbcs_nfbnet.org/carcione%40access.net