[bookshare-discuss] Re: about the optacan
- From: "Ron Miller" <ron@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 14:49:28 -0500
I actually trained on this device for a while when I was in the 6th
and 7th grades. It was called the StereoToner (pronounced "stereo toner"
though I'm not sure if I've got the spelling correct). It was pretty
compact, much smaller to carry than an optacon. The cammera was
cylintrical in shape with the aperature at the "bottom" end of the
cylinter and the connecting cable coming out of the other end. A flat
rotary knob controling the contrast was located at the "top" end of the
cylinder and, I believe, there was another, slider type control along
the side of the cylinder whose use I do not remember.
I found it very possible to read using the tones and stereo
representation of the characters.
Best regards
Ron Miller
-----Original Message-----
From: Kellie Hartmann [mailto:hart0421@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, February 13, 2006 2:28 PM
To: bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bookshare-discuss] Re: about the optacan
Wow! An auditory Opticon! I'm sure I could never have mastered anything
like that. But I have one friend who probably could--and not only that
but he's one of the few people I know who lost all of his vision in
infancy but can visualize very complex objects. I think a person would
almost have to be audio-visually synesthetic to use such a device
because even if you had perfect pitch, characters would probably almost
always be slightly different so you couldn't just memorize a particular
chord for each letter. This might give rise to a crazy new art
form--drawing or writing something such that the result created an
Opticon symphony!
Kellie
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