[access-uk] Re: (BrailleSense)Re: Re: Sight Village - my review
- From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:47:38 +0100
Hi Adrian. Some well observed comments there.
It may well be that Steve Nutt at Computer Room Services will be distributing
the BrailleSense in the uk, but do not quote me on that. Rather drop him an
emaill at Computer Room Services.
You are right of course. Children and younger folk are very 'coool' conscious
these days so if the appearance can be changed to meet this perception, no harm
done, and so much the better.
I will comment perhaps a little more about OpolecOptolec, or however its spelt
in another message which can waite. Enough to say here that I have my
suspicians or rather fears around what battery replacement cost might be with
their portable CCTV devices. Total cost of ownership is very important to me.
Quite apart from the obviously 'high tech' high end stuff, I found the steady
release of simpler aids to reading by the Daylight Company, demonstrating with
Optima, very noteworthy. Their soon to be launched portable flurescent light
was one that caught my eye. Another thing I noticed was the introduction of
higher mag reading glasses with the built-in LED, which now go up to 14x, and
they are not so tiny as you must squint and use them like a microscope either.
Ray
Personal emails: Email me at
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adrian Higginbotham" <adrian.higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Hi Ray, all.
A pity in deed that I didn't stay longer and take a closer look, just so much
to see. If I had stayed I might have been swayed, however the feel and
appearance put me off so I didn't.
The features you list sound worthy of closer investigation and the ability to
add a screen particularly so for an educational setting.
Obviously physical appeal is a very personal thing and in the grand scheme of
things shouldn't matter all that much in comparison to functionality and price
but the reality is that it does. A device which is stigmatising will be hidden
away and for exampel to continue our classroom sinario a child will avoid using
any equipment they don't feel comfortable putting on the desk in front of their
classmates. Whether one unit is or isn't more attractive to use than an other
is very personal I did feel that the Braille sense was a little larger than for
example the mPower or the paqmate, has a rather "clacky" sounding keyboard, and
that the white colour doesn't add anything to it's generally in your face
appearance.
Re suppliers:
Not sure who is the UK supplier of the Braille sense but you can find out a
little more at www.braillesense.com
The optelec easyLink - optelec is the renamed tieman group which now
incorporates the telesensory business - see http://www.optelec.co.uk/ phone
01923 231313.
The caretec equipment including the Nano notetaker are available in the UK from
SW retail Telephone: 0114-221-1665 Email: swretail@xxxxxxxxxxx or theoreticly
via their own website www.caretec.at although I couldn't currently find the
nano listed.
Adrian Higginbotham
-----Original Message-----
From: Ray's Home [mailto:rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Another useful SV review. Pity that Adrian didn't stop long enough to look at
the BrailleSense properly, beyond its appearance. That is surely quite a
subjective thing. Don't know that I am impressed or much taken with the
appearance of any of the Braille notetakers! This one is certainly no worse.
For a start, it runs under Windows 2003. For another thing, the Braille output
is good. It has excellent audio facilities too.Uniquely, as far as I am aware,
it has the little LCD display which to be frank is too small really, but would
allow, I daresay, a sighted person to take, say, a phone number straight off it
once (you) had found it. Also, though, it has video output for a monitor.
Many blind people's reaction will be, "I don't need that", and 'It puts the
price up.' Etc, etc.
A little imagination would tell you though that using such a device in a mixed
environment, such as education for example, would certainly be an advantage.
Not all blind people inhabit an exclusively blind world.
As for the price, it might just be competitive as far as these things go, if
the usual currency conversion handicap doesn't kick in that is. So I'd say all
the more reason to consider it alongside the Mpower. Either of these has to be
a better alt than the FS offering.
Ray
Personal emails: Email me at
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adrian Higginbotham" <adrian.higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2005 3:23 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Sight Village - my review
Cheers for that andrew, and for comments from others.
I made it along on Thursday and here's some thoughts and comments on specific
products.
What was particularly noticeable this year is that there are 3 very different
approaches to provision emerging each which balance ease of use and cost in
different proportions. The easiest most powerful and flexible products on
offer are the most specialised and the most expensive. The opposite is
products which offer access to mainstream products and these tend to be the
lowest cost solutions. In the middle and this is the area which is pretty new
is specialist add-ons to highstreet products which introduce ease of use at a
lower cost. These type of division can bee seen in various product types,
mobile phones, PDAs, and to some degree screen readers.
Mobile phones:
Vodafone seem to be virtually giving away Talks if you buy it from them
including via any highstreet Vodafone store for exampel you can get a nokia
6600 on a pay as you go contract including Talks for £130. Talks is a
screenreader allowing access to whatever features are on the given handset thus
in the first of those categories identified above.
The most specialist offering inthis arena is the Oacis available from RNIB and
the middle ground products are those such as mobile speak, e.g a proprietory
solution installed on a highstreet handset but which only allows access to the
softwares own features.
Note takers - andrew as you say, this is probably the area of most development
in recent years and looks likely to be so for a while to come.
Dolphin are continuing to work on Pocket Hal, a screen reader for PDAs which
use the Pocket PC operating system. It's still in private beta with no date as
to when it will be on sale and there are still a few real fundamental problems
to get over such as if the hoste PDAs battery runs flat the screenreader will
need to be re installed when the machine is re charged and switched back on.
This can be done via the PC so doesn't necessarily require sighted assistance
although when the PDA is switched on the display has to be set-up which does
require use of the touch screen and may be something which can only be done
with sighted assistance although this isn't yet a finished product so we'll
have to wait and see. Like other touch screen devices this one is dependant on
text in via a bluetooth keyboard and voice output. The touch screen isn't
disabled but rather is rendered difficult to accidently disturb by filling the
active area with the screenreader application window which i
s touch insensative. The logic been that if 95% of the screen is the pocket
hal window which doesn't respond to touch you are unlikely to cause any
unintended action by accidently touching the screen. If you do one feature of
pocket Hal is an alt tab like app switching function that can get you back to
where you wanted to be.
In specialist offerings, the new Braillenote mPower is basicly the latest
update to Braillenote with anew name. some useful new features but basicly in
the same old box. Interesting but not all that exciting. Personally I'm not a
fan of braillenote or paqmate as they're all too big and ugly and use
proprietory software which you need to learn too many new keystrokes to be able
to use effectively. The Braillenote PK range is basicly the braillenote in a
smaller package which I find more flexible and attractive but still not quite
enough to make me want to buy it. Not yet anyway.
The HIMs note taker, I think that's the one called Braille sense but might be
confusing 2 different products I thought was the most plasticky bulky ugly
"special needs" product I've seen in a long time and I didn't wait around long
enough for a demo of what it can do.
New, to me at least was the caretek nanno notetaker which is smaller in size
than a bar of chocolate all be it lindt chocolate which is considerably larger
than something like say a yorky or galaxy. No bells and wistles here, notes
input via the braille keyboard are stored as plane text (txt) files and
transferred to the pc by a hardwire connection I think serial although
certainly it wasn't the 32 pin variety. The unit can also be used to record
voice notes which too can be transferred to the pc. Output is audio, synthetic
for navigation keyboard echo etc and also playback of audio notes. Memory is
farely limited with I think 8mb of onboard memory and no support for additional
memory but for around £300 it's an excellent pocket sized instant on device.
Optilec easyLink note taker is another offering for highstreet PDAs but this
one is a proprietory package e.g it allows you access to the function built in
to itself not the features of the hoste PDA. Input is via the braille bluetooth
keyboard and output is audio. Similar issue to pocket hal above although the
PDA used in the demo had a flip lid over the touch screen so less of an issue
there. The software isn't infact installed on the PDA itself but rather auto
runs from a memory card so that issue too is by-assed. Up side is it's more
stable. Down side is that is is more proprietory so has some limits of
functionality for example it can't send out email even if the PDA allows it, it
can only sync messages with outlook on the desktop machine from where they can
be sent. Software on the memory card and back-up on CD with bluetooth braille
keyboard and mains charger is I think around £600. plus PDA of course.
Other:
Voice Over, the screen reader and magnifier for the Mac which comes built in to
the latest OS was very interesting and and far better in real time than demos
I've heard over the Web would suggest although difficult to get a real handle
on it in this busy environment.
Sara is the new reading machine from freedom scientific and is a brave move as
it is really a modernised version of the old kurzweil machines. The unit is
quite nice, buttons obvious and distinctive without being too bulky, and the
ability to play daisy CDs on the unit as well as scan and read books makes it
more useful however the inability to save data in a way which can be removed
from the unit for later listening is an extremely significant draw back.
Caretek had a couple of other products as well as the notetaker above which
looked interesting but were quite pricy for example a talking 5m tape measure
accurate to 2mm for £60 and kitchen scales accurate to 2 grams for £70.
Donkey of the show for me was the wireless locator beacon, a 2 unit device
which activates a buzzer on one unit when you press a button on the other. A
slight improvement on the old wistle to find your keys devices in as far as it
works on rf frequencies so works through walls and doors etc but to my mind at
least £65 for a single pair of units which incidently are pretty bulky, too
much so to attach to for example a keyring is very expensive.
The ultra cane, a white cane with add-on which gives tactiel warning of
upcoming obstructions for up to 4m at a quite reasonable price was interesting
and they are apparently working on a similar device for attaching to a guide
dog harness which can spot over head obsticles, and things that dogs sometimes
miss such as chest high single bar barriers.
With regard to the venue I'd say yes it's better than QAC but still very
crouded, which is probably unavoidable but disappointed that there is still no
number system for stands and some signs lack signage of any sort making them
very difficult to identify.
Best wishes
Adrian Higginbotham
Accessibility and inclusion adviser
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency - BECTA
Tel: Direct dial 024 7679 7333 - Internal extension #2287
Email: Adrian.Higginbotham@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.becta.org.uk/
BECTA, Millburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ
-----Original Message-----
From: Andrew Hodgson [mailto:andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 19 July 2005 18:26
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; bcab@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Sight Village - my review
Hi all,
Since I actually took time off to go to Sight this year - thought I would give
you a small review for those who were not able to make it - here are some of
the product highlights. Note I only went round a few sights, and these were
mainly ones I had heard about before. Although Cobolt were showing some new
products, I just couldn't get in without a major attack from dogs and people,
so didn't bother.
I did, however, manage to get a quick look at the note detecter, which I found
to be very small and compact. Unfortunately, however, I did think that it
would take a bit of getting the note into the device, since it had to go in
quite a long way into it. I had imagined something you could just pass the
note through or put the note on in order for it to work. However, I can really
see a target market for these devices, especially if you have a lot of notes
you want sorting.
One of the companies I think we can see some good inivations coming in the next
year or two is called Code Factory. They first came out with the Mobile
Accessability package, which is still being sold today, which gives VI people
using a series 60 phone a comfortable interface with which to perform specific
key tasks. However, they have now got out a few more products, including
Mobile Speak and Pocket Mobile Speak. These two products are screen readers,
mobile speak being for series 60 and pocket mobile speak being for any pocket
PDA. Mobile speak comes with some extra tools, and there are add-ons which can
be purchased, which include a colour detector/light probe, as well as a product
which allows you to use your PCs keyboard as a phone keyboard. They also have
a user friendly installation system, but I didn't see this in operation. The
Pocket PC version works with any PDA, as long as you have a bluetooth keyboard
for input. A company called Optilec also do a bluetoo
th braille keyboard, which certainly works with the Mobile Speak product,
but I didn't use it with the PDA product. I certainly think it's a good thing
to have a good competition in this area, especially since Pocket Hal was the
only PDA product which worked on a _standard_ PDA, and Talks was the only
product you could get as a screen reader for a mobile phone.
Code Factory's site is at http://www.codefactory.es/.
I also looked at the new media system from Portset. Now those who remember the
teletext systems they did and loved those will love this product. It is a
talking audio described freeview receiver, which speaks the EPG facilities
(including 7 day EPG) as well as providing a hard disk recorder (and live
pause), time record facilities and also talking teletext. The product is in a
prototype state at the moment, and as such I couldn't really explore it. It
also has a DVD drive, although this facility is not working currently due to
accessability of DVDs. I must say a few things about this product, because I
think Portset have been very brave in designing a product which [A] replaces
the old teletext reader, [B] provides a modern equavilent of the television
receiver (where no license is required) and [C] gives a VI person a small box
with all these features installed. They have a battle with teletext currently,
since in the Freeview world each operator has really their own c
hoice over how things are done, and there is no standard in making these
accessible or presentable to anything other than a standard Freeview box.
If you were going to Sight Village this week, I would definitely give this a
look.
I also met up with Blazie who explained about the new version of the Pacmate
software, and they were updating current units whilst there (although I was
very early in the morning, and it was very quiet in the stand). Unfortunately
I did not have my unit with me, and when trying to download update from FS
direct, it told me my serial was not allowed!! Will need to get that sorted.
At Steve's stand I looked at the new System Access from Freedombox, which I was
very impressed with. There are two versions available for portable use - one
on a CD and one on a USB key. The USB key version I think came in at just over
£300, including all the software. I am not sure whether you need to keep a
Freedombox subscription up with that as well yearly. I was very impressed with
the plug in, use it, remove it and no trace being left approach, which
unfortunately is not the same with the Dolphin Pen (although the Dolphin Pen
has magnification, and needs no yearly subscription). The system also has a
recovery option, which means if the contents gets damaged, you can re-install
the contents if you have an active Internet connection. Unfortunately, due to
no connection being available, we were not able to look at the Freedom Box
itself. I have downloaded a copy, but am only able to look at the desktop bit,
and not System Access, so can't say how well the screen rea
der performs. There was also the GW Micro notetaker there, but
unfortunately I got so swampt with notetakers today, I didn't get to memorise
what the specialities with this one were.
I also saw the Oacis (spell) mobile from RNIB, which although has only basic
features, is smaller than any series 60 phone, and the battery also lasts a lot
longer.
This had been my first Sight at the new venues, and overall I found them
slightly better than the old stuffy venue of QAC, however, I think that
companies like Cobalt would do a lot better with larger stands, where they
could get more people in. I certainly think that notetakers will be an
interesting development over the following years, with even bets on whether we
loose the specialist models for blind people approach and go with standard PDAs
with bluetooth accessories, or wether these go altogether.
Thanks.
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