[accessibleimage] Re: Yesterday's Blog Post

Chris, you are amazing, you write faster than I can read! <g>
Thanks for responding so quickly. I did not actually ask for
software though, but just audio samples to get a real "feel"
for what you described in your interesting blog entry. Of
course you may have restrictions in offering audio samples as
well, I don't know, but I'm sure lots of people would like to
know how "intuitive" your audio rendering of geometric shapes
will sound. I'll readily admit that "seeing with sound" using
The vOICe is not at all easy to master - a weak point for
which I have no solution in store. If your audio renderings
are intuitive as well as general in their capability to deal
with arbitrary 3D shapes and/or visual images, that would be
a breakthrough.

I was particularly intrigued by you writing

> typically, in a very short amount of time (seconds) the blind
> people who have listened to my audio wireframe image have
> identified it as a sphere.  Also, within seconds they identify
> cubes, pyramids, cones, cylinders and other three dimensional
> primitives.

Thus it would seem most effective and convincing if you could
put these existing audio samples online?

Best wishes,

Peter Meijer


Seeing with Sound - The vOICe
http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm


Chris Hofstader wrote: 
Hi Everyone,

Peter posted a comment to yesterday's Blind Confidential post
(http://www.blindconfidential.blogspot.com) asking me to post some of the
software I have written to generate my audio wireframe images.  As I thought
the rest of this austere group would find both the blog post and the
software interesting, I decided to reply here instead of privately.

I am rapidly working to reconstruct my software that generates the geometric
primitives I describe in the post yesterday.  I am also going to reproduce
the couple of interactive programs I had written for this purpose.  Today, I
do not own the copyright to the software I wrote and cannot, therefore, post
it anywhere.  I am not, however, bound by a non-compete on this work so
will, without a lot of difficulty, be able to recreate it and, this time,
release it with source code included under a modified GPL (similar to the
one used by ViewPlus).

On November 29, my non-compete, non-disclosure and non-disparagement
agreements with Freedom Scientific all expire.  On December 1, I will be
going live with http://www.hofstader.com.  The purpose of h.c will be to act
as a repository for free software written in the blindness arena.  We will
be putting up a wiki about all things making technology for users with
vision impairment as well as tutorials blinks can use to learn programming.
Over time we hope to provide source control repositories and collaboration
tools for open source projects and will be contributing our own work there
too.  I currently have three programs under way that are designed as hands
and eyes free and destined for the automotive safety market, I plan on
releasing free versions to h.c for use by blind people.  There will be
differences between the commercial releases and the open source, GPL
versions but only to the extent that the commercial versions include
expensive third party libraries that do not carry GPL and, therefore, cannot
be distributed freely on our web site.

In other news, while I am working on these projects, I am doing so entirely
without a salary.  I am looking for consulting projects and anything else
that might help pay the bills as the RERC on Technology and Successful Aging
at UF, my employer, had its renewal rejected and I am once again seeking a
home for my brilliant mind, excellent ideas, incredible work ethic and
supremely modest attitude <smile>.  So, if you have anything that could use
my eclectic background on, please drop me a line and I'll do my best to
accommodate your needs and budgets.  I don't come cheap but I am an AT slut
so can probably be convinced to work on some things at a low price.

Enjoy,
cdh


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