There have been rumours of multi-line Braille displays, even full page displays, so I hope this anouncement won't prove to be raising peoples' hopes too high. If it comes to pass then Braille could have a brighter future. Ray Personal emails: Email me at mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Duran" <brlinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <comments@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 3:22 AM Subject: [BW] Press Release: Multi-Line Braille Displays PRESS RELEASE January 18, 2005 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE BRAILLE DISPLAYS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE! Peter Duran, VP Sales & Marketing Tactile Dynamics, Inc. 110 Commerce Drive, Suite 210 Fayetteville, GA 30214 Toll Free: 877-993-4994 E-mail: comments@xxxxxxxxxxx Save your money! Don't buy a single-line braille display when you can have access to a multi-line or full-page braille display in the near future. Single-line braille displays are still too expensive even though two of the leaders in braille technology recently announced price reductions. Freedom Scientific announced 2 new Focus refreshable braille displays: Focus 40 with 40 braille cells at $3,495 and Focus 80 with 80 braille cells at $6,995. Freedom Scientific also announced lower prices for its PAC Mate 20 and 40 braille displays: PAC Mate 20 with 20 braille cells at $1400 and PAC Mate 40 with 40 braille cells at $3200. Optelec announced 2 new braille displays: Braille Voyager 44 with 44 braille cells at $3,495 and the Braille Voyager 70 with 70 braille cells at $5,995. Moreover, current braille display technology offers minimal text presentation a major drawback of all refreshable braille displays currently on the market. Fortunately, Tactile Dynamics, Inc. (TDI) has a solution to both problems. With its recently patented refreshable braille display technology (US Patent #6819228) TDI will lower prices significantly and radically increase the amount of text displayed. This revolutionary new technology makes multi-line and full-page braille displays feasible and truly affordable. TDI will initially offer two text-only refreshable braille displays (trbd's). Braille Messenger(TM): A trbd for 6- and 8-dot braille with display area 20 characters wide by 6 or 5 rows high able to display 120 characters in 6-dot format or 100 characters in 8-dot format priced at $2,650. Braille device manufacturers can bundle this trbd with their proprietary software and hardware (via a USB 2.0 port connection) to provide devices suitable for refreshable braille text messages. Braille Book Reader(TM): A trbd for 6- and 8-dot braille with display area 40 characters wide by 25 or 21 rows high able to display 1000 characters in 6-dot format or 820 characters in 8-dot format priced at $5,260. Braille device manufacturers and DAISY book developers can bundle this trbd with their proprietary software and hardware (via a USB 2.0 port connection) to provide computer output devices and full-page braille book readers. These 2 trbd's will permit manufacturers of assistive technology to offer innovative products with affordable braille text displays. They will encourage mainstream manufacturers of appliances, cell phones, etc. to provide braille add-ons to their products. TDI will present a paper on this innovative braille technology at the 2005 CSUN Conference. Here are the conference details: Conference Dates and Locations: March 14-19, 2005 at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport and the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotels Paper Presentation Schedule and Location: Session ID: C05G2179 Title: Portable Full-Page Braille & Tactile Graphics Display Presenter: Larry Jenkins Day/Date: Friday, March 18, 2005 Start Time: 3:20 PM; End Time: 3:50 PM Location: Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel, Denver Room www.csun.edu/cod Please forward this announcement to any pertinent Internet lists, newsgroups, braille advocacy groups, foundations, or potential braille product developers. Urge your braille vendor to contact us about reseller participation. You may get further details about TDI's braille technology by sending an e-mail to comments@xxxxxxxxxxxx Put "trbd" in the subject line. <*> To contact the moderator, send an email to: blindwebbers-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindwebbers/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: blindwebbers-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ** To leave the list, send a message to:- ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq