It's unfortunate. Regretably, I'm not interested in unsupported hardware. -----Original Message----- From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nick Dotson Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 9:40 PM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? They haven't been made for quite some time. The R1D or R1C are what you want as the array consists of 144 tactors, whereas the Optacon II series had considerably less granularity with either 100 or 124 pins. Richard Oehm is the most famous repair person in the US, and has restored and sells units. Others become available as people pass, or they are reclaimed from inventories of agencies and institutions on the way to the dumpster... People lost interest because the learning process requires discipline and practice much like learning a musical instrument, and people wanted something like the instant gratification found in the use of computer-based OCR. Sure OCR lets us go through vast quantities of print, and now with accuracy undreamt of when the talking Optacon was being tested for the Veteran's Administration and Reagan killed it, I was a beta-tester... But you can look at schematics, music, clothing patterns and stains, handwriting, and complex layouts, and it's your hand and brain doing the interpolation--so the limits of what the device can do is in You the User... There are training materials downloadable and printable from Freedom Scientific, as they/or Blazie Engineering bought up the orphaned Telesensory Technology when Larry Israel, formerly founder and CEO of Visual Technologies VTEK for whom I worked 1985-89 killed off the blindness products and center-piece of TSI. Nick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Gibbs" <kevjazz@xxxxxxxxx> To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 9:30 PM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? I never saw or used one. I understand how they work. Do they still make them? How much are they? -----Original Message----- From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Tina E Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 8:34 PM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? Do you know how to use an Optacon? That would get you as close to the print representation as a totally blind person can get! Tina E Please feel free to visit my blog, Tina's Virtual BackPack: http://tvbp.wordpress.com tina-e@xxxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Gibbs" <kevjazz@xxxxxxxxx> To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 7:27 PM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? I never intended to deal with Braille on this thing. I never learned music braille because it was too arcane. -----Original Message----- From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nick Dotson Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 7:30 PM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? I remember using the Compositor tapes to generate Braille stuff in the early 80's, but it still took allot of human intervention. (grin) It was a big day when it started migrating from Joe Sullivan's mainframe and mini-computer Duxbury Braille translation onto micros. David Holladay, and his first blind math PHD lady Karyn Navy ran Braille Edit, on an Apple II+, with translation tables, and later style-based formatting, on Apple II+ and later... Joe used to insist that Braille translation had to be strictly lookup table-based and could only run with the resources then available on mainframes and minis. David contended that algorithms could be used because even though there were heuristics in the code, it was essentially rule-based. Now there was a rather forward thinking but technically premature solution "translation in a box" the Ransley Translator and embosser's that claimed you didn't need a computer-based translator... Well... Nick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Carlson" <dgcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 5:31 PM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? > Interesting. During the late 1970s I worked in a documentation > department in a modern company, and even though the typesetting was > done via a machine and > the data stored on mag tapes, the galleys were delivered to > illustrators who > cut/pasted/glued the text along with illustrations to the cardboard masters, > ready for the camera. No electronic form of the actual page layouts existed > until the mid-80s. > > Dave > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Nick Dotson" <nickdotson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 14:41 > Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? > > > They had compositor tapes for typesetting, and certainly electronic > data storage for typeset books by '79. > > Nick > > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: <albertm13@xxxxxxxx> > Sent: Friday, May 21, 2010 4:27 PM > To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Subject: [ddots-l] Re: O.T. Best way to get print book accessible? > >> I'm a little skeptical about there being an electronic version since >> the book was first published in 69 and the second edition (what I >> have) was done in 79. >> >> Albert >> >> --- Nick wrote --- >> ... >> It would be better to have the copyright holder/publisher give some >> organization the data probably an XTML document and let some >> knowledgeable people deal with it. ... >> >> >> ____________________________________________________________ >> Get Free Email with Video Mail & Video Chat! >> http://www.juno.com/freeemail?refcd=JUTAGOUT1FREM0210 >> PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! >> To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=subscribe >> If this link doesn't work then send a message to: >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type >> unsubscribe For other list commands such as vacation mode, >> click on the immediately following link: >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subjectúq or >> send a message, to >> ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx >> and in the Subject line type >> faq >> > PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! > To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe > If this link doesn't work then send a message to: > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribe > For other list commands such as vacation mode, > click on the immediately following link: > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or > send a message, to > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > and in the Subject line type > faq > > PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! > To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe > If this link doesn't work then send a message to: > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribe > For other list commands such as vacation mode, > click on the immediately following link: > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or > send a message, to > ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > and in the Subject line type > faq > PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! 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