[optacon-l] Re: Introduction from a Long-Time Optacon User
- From: "Wilna Turnbull" <WTurnbull@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2010 13:08:46 +0200
Yes, the Optacon may be of the old generation of technology, but nothing
can replace it yet. Especially if the layout of a document is familiar
it beats a scanner by far.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of DAVID PLUMLEE
Sent: 05 July 2010 08:40 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Introduction from a Long-Time Optacon User
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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