[optacon-l] Introduction from a Long-Time Optacon User
- From: "DAVID PLUMLEE" <knobman@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2010 13:39:43 -0500
I am an Optacon user who began using the instrument around 1980. I obtained my
first
Optacon from the Kansas City Optacon Foundation; and when that organization
disbanded,
those of us who still had Optacons were given letters saying that the units were
now ours to keep. I use mine for a variety of reading tasks such as checking
mail
that doesn't read very well on the scanner, digging through instruction manuals,
and reading some displays on some electronics. Several years ago, I read
Popular
Electronics and even built one or two small projects according to the schematics
given in those magazines.
As I have told some friends, I can read things with an Optacon that no scanner
or
OCR device currently available on earth will touch. Since the "decoder," "motor
controller," and "information processor," if you will, are all contained in my
mind,
I can understand a variety of print material because I can take that camera
anywhere
I want on the page or display.
I hope that a "new generation" of the Optacon can be fabricated. I'd like to
see
an instrument that would do better on modern appliance displays; I'd like to see
some kind of "memory" so that a line could be "captured" and examined. One
problem
in reading modern displays is that the reading flashes off and on. I can
envision
an instrument that is still portable but equipped with a computer interface that
would use computer memory and software to do the "capture" functions of which I
speak.
Also some of the contrast is poor on many displays, so that the current Optacon
models
will not read them. Additionally, some displays are recessed or set at an angle
so that the standard Optacon camera will not read them. I have only the
standard
camera and a CRT lens for my Optacon. I did not obtain the "calculator" lens
for
my unit.
I would be interested in following an email list on the Optacon. I found your
email address in the March 2009 Missouri Chronicle. I
look forward to hearing from you.
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