[access-uk] Re: Sight Village this year?

  • From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 12:07:39 +0100

Graham.

Thankyou for correcting my observations on the Steller product.  Well, 2k is
1k better than 3k.  My apologies to Steller.

Ray.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Graham Longly" <longly@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 11:57 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Sight Village this year?


Hi Ray!

I'm not going to comment on the venue but will be directing my thoughts to
the organisers.  As far as I know there is no relationship between Stella
and PVS and the device which Stella sell which has the camera mounted on top
of the TFT and either works stand alone or can work through a laptop is £2k
not £3k.  Cheers!

Graham


MSN to - graham_longly@xxxxxxxxxxx
Text messages to 07774 208008

Graham Longly BA GRAD CIPD CMS
Access Technology Consultant

Aspire Consultancy, York, UK
T: 01904 762788
F: 0870 1326940
M: 07774 208008
E: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.aspire-consultancy.co.uk

Helping visually impaired people to aspire to their full potential through
specialist technology!


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2004 11:09 AM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Sight Village this year?


Hi Andrew.

Trust the new job is going OK.  I am surprised that no one as yet seems to
have weighed in with their thought on Sight Village, and I'll only give you
a few impressions here.

The venue.  If I had to come down for or against, I'd say, marginally, its
an improvement on QAC.  For me the main downside of the layout of the
exhibition was that the main hall, or halls, were next door to one another
and there was a lot of noise spill-over which made speech products very hard
to hear.  Really what is needed is for exhibitors with speech/hardware
products to have screened off areas, while those displaying mainly
information and quieter products could be together in a larger area.

The whole thing was more compact though, even though it was spread over
three levels if you include the mezomine area.  Seminar rooms were good
though.

Speaking of seminars, GW Micro's presentation was a little lack-lustre.  Dan
Weirich hammered home the stability advantage with W-E and someone got a
baseball cap for recognizing that, but I thought he could have demonstrated
the private beta there, as well as downstairs.  I could also be wrong here,
but he didn't seem to make anything of the fact that a remote computer
running Window-Eyes could be accessed with a machine that (doesn't) have
Window-Eyes on it.  No, I do not think I have got this wrong, for as far as
I know, you can access W-E with a thin client if it has sound attached.
Someone put me right if I am wrong on this, please.

On the portable magnifier front, I found the 'tin can' cameras demonstrated
by New Vision quite acceptable for the price and they were very portable.
The idea is you hook up to a SCART on a TV, or via a box to a computer
monitor where you can switch between the two images.  The option including a
small LCD display - which also might be a TV, was selling for £550.00.  I'l
post more on that if anyone is interested.

In the crazy, 'you must be joking' class, we had Professional vision
demonstrating an elegant camera on stand to plug into a laptop along with
software for screen splitting.  That will be £3,000 sir.  Not bluddy likely.
Think it was from a German firm called Steller, who were also there.

Before leaving the subject of CCTV, I was interested in the device Andrew
mentioned in his post, and would be interested in a critical review of it,
if you are still reading this Andrew, (smile).

Braille products.  I was interested in the Braillino which seemed a very
neat and sturdy device.  Though its a Braille input and notetaking device,
it has no inbuilt speech, but that's not a problem if you are using with a
laptop with speech on board.  Sure Steve will come in on improvements, but
of course you can use it with a mobile.  Think it comes from Handitech who
may be associated with the software that makes mobiles talk.

I saw the Braillenote PK, and very nice and solid it was too.  As well as
being a bit heavy on the pocket - well aren't they always! - you would need
a pretty deep and stirdy pocket to put it in.  I didn't see Mr. Mozan, which
was a bit of a disappointment.  Whatever you think of Pulsedata, and not all
opinions are flattering to them, I must say they always have a very
professional looking stand and display, and Pedro Pulson was out there on
reception handing out leaflets with Braille and Print summarizing there
products.  Didn't see anyone else doing that.  It does no harm at all, in my
view, to approach blind people in a civilized way to tell what they have on
show, after all, we can not see what there is until we are told.

The only other product that comes to mind is the Index embossers.  These
have been upgraded to include USB and networkablility.  Also, they are
moving towards being able to use several embossers in tandom, so that if
customers needs exspand, then they can just add another embosser in
parallel.  Waht a noise!   Of course they are introducing a cabinet that
will hold four embossers and hopefully forstall those claims for loss of
hearing.

No doubt some of you will have heard George on In touch commenting on the
cost of being at SV now.  To my mind, the guy from QAC didn't really put up
any credible defence, other than its a more exspensive venue to hire.  It
was very noticable how cramped the space for some exhibitors was, and I have
alreay already mentioned the noise spill problem.  All this for a more than
100% price hike to exhibitors?  Well, what do you folk think?  You might
also ponder whether 'charities' should be asking themselves whether they are
in fact a charity or a business.  Are you listening, RNIB?  Oh, sorry, I am
not a member.  Was forgetting.  How silly of me.

Se you at Share the Vision, (smile).

Ray.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 9:10 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Sight Village this year?


Hi,

I normally try and get to Sight Village and do a summing up on this list
for people who could not be there, but could someone do it for me this
year as I was at work all day?

Anything interesting?  Each year I go thinking there won't be much
there, but there is always one piece of equipment which really is worth
looking at.  The two pieces for me this year have been the Pacmate from
Freedom Scientific, and the Quick Look from Ash technologies.  Access to
work got me both pieces whilst starting work, and while the Pacmate is
good as expected, I never thought that an electronic magnifier would
actually benefit me the way it has done!  The down side to the magnifier
is now I have to fax/photocopy a lot of documents, as I can see the
relevant display!

Thanks,
Andrew.
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