Re: a couple of observations
- From: "Linda Gehres" <ljgehres@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 12 May 2006 13:08:37 -0700
Hi Nick and list,
Thank you for putting so elegantly into words many of my own feelings
relative to this subject. It seems to me that the majority of those still
using Optacons are a lot more technically oriented than I am and probably
one heck of a lot brighter, lol! The real crem de la crem of the blindness
community! You put it well by stating that many found the Optacon too
difficult to use, and I suspect that initial expectations were that those
who would learn to use the Optacon would be able to read far more quickly
and do more with it than many of us end users were actually able to
accomplish. That scenario did occur in my case while working at Social
Security Administration. I eventually learned to look at certain fields of
computer printouts to access specific information, thus learning only to
spot read rather than learning to read as one would do with a book or in
reading straight text. I've also gotten the sense that most of us who still
use Optacons use them in order to accomplish specific tasks which would be
nearly impossible with scanners, and that the reading done is a very
different kind of reading than one would generally hope to accomplish with a
scanner. Seems to me that the kind of information being gained as a result
of the surveys is very important if indeed a new product is to be developed.
Thanks for your cogent thinking on this subject.
Linda Gehres
----- Original Message -----
From: "W. Nick Dotson" <nickdotson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: R: Re: R: Re: a wish list
> As a person who's worked on product development, all I can tell you is
> that "wish lists" need to be grounded in reality. Those requiring
> development of as
> not extant technologies, aren't going to acquire attention of those who
> can bring product ideas into being. Basic Research, and engineering are
> two
> different things. We, in the blindness community, particularly the small
> subset using an out of production device, which most educators,
> rehabilitators, and
> blind people found to difficult to use to be practicable, are a small
> universe indeed. It seems to me that Treticoff's (spelling?) vision
> didn't get very far
> because the focus was too loose. The closer one can come to formulating
> the equivalent of "pseudo code" for a hardware device, the more likely one
> is to
> find someone willing to put forth the time energy and money requisite
> necessary to bring forth a product. It is extremely disappointing that
> here, where I
> would've expected realism to prevail, as we know the sweat and persistence
> it takes to use this device effectively, we are still contending with a
> lack of
> realism with respect to what it takes to bring a product into being. We
> can look realistically at how lack of ongoing cash flow, and the
> combination of
> unrealistic hopes and market hype worked together to kill this most useful
> of devices. Dreams are necessary, but we're not talking about dreams
> here, if our
> efforts are to be of use--rather we're talking about refining an idea of
> product design down to a set of parameters which can be considered by
> those with the
> engineering talent to assess the extant technology on-the-shelf, design
> criteria, and cost of manufacture on a certain quantity of units.
> Nick
>
> On Fri, 12 May 2006 17:59:22 +0200, Francesca Diodati wrote:
>
> I think we shouldn't focus on the hopes that were not fulfilled, but
> rather
> on those which have. Failures are important - they teach us to be cautious
> and not to build our life on dreams. But if inventors weren't far sighted
> and lost the ability to dream, they would give up any new idea that most
> people would label foolish, or a mere waste of time. History is full of
> failures, but also of successes. The subject of this very list is a device
> that would have been unthinkable at the beginning of the century.
> Remember that Dr. Barnard was called insane by his colleagues when he
> attempted the first heart transplant. Now heart patients get a brand new
> life with a new heart.
>
> The wish list we compiled is full of dreams, I know. But let's keep
> brainstorming and discussing, and even if just one item of that wish list
> comes true (provided the new optacon is produced) that would be in itself
> a
> dream come true for all.
>
> Fran
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "W. Nick Dotson" <nickdotson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 5:15 PM
> Subject: Re: R: Re: R: Re: a wish list
>
>
> > First of all, you err in your assumptions about me. I have been working
> > professionally in the field of blindness since 1978, as an educator and
> > rehabilitator,
> > and in the fields of product development/training/sales/and support
> > since
> > 1985. That should encourage you to inhibit tendencies toward assumptive
> > logic
> > and statements pertaining to others based on insufficient data regarding
> > their perspectives...
> >
> > Next, prognostication is risky. Engineering systematic. The less
> > knowledgeable one is about any area, the more prone they are to "leaps
> > of
> > faith" or
> > misapprehension and the more seceptible to the yoyo of hope and
> > deflation
> > of that hope/or depression, when some problem not taken into account,
> > or,
> > minimized difficulty causes a redefinition of a problem and the
> > necessity
> > to rework it's apparently easy and overy hyped solution. I've been
> > reading about
> > replacements to Pizo-electric braille displays since 1972, and none have
> > come to market. To hype an as yet unmanufactured, preprototype proof of
> > concept
> > technology is a disservice to the technologically naive and ingnorant.
> > Similarly, to discuss problems and their solutions outside the practical
> > capabilities of
> > available technologies engineers can forge into a manufacturable and
> > potentially marketable wolution is a waste of time and energy--except
> > possibly for
> > accademics, or engineers gathered at a bar after 5:00pm. Similarly,
> > without a saleable business case, all the good ideas and intentions
> > don't
> > generate
> > requisite venture capital to bring a device into production and
> > distribution. This doesn't mean being dour--merely methodical. (grin)
> >
> > Several of the companies mentioned in the article you reference have
> > been
> > working toward where they are now for nearly 2 decades. Ray Kurzweil
> > and
> > others at Xerox invisioned a paperless office, which has never come to
> > fruition, while other of their technological efforts have. However,
> > they,
> > and others
> > rarely remember those prognostications which haven't come to fruition,
> > rather, they crow about those which have...
> >
> > Nick
> >
> > On Fri, 12 May 2006 15:24:25 +0100 (GMT+01:00), Francesca Diodati wrote:
> >
> > eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=51200440
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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