[access-uk] Re: Penfriend and PTX1
- From: "Ted Martin" <tedmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 15:54:26 +0100
I agree with Carol. but regarding the Pen friend, I can't help wondering:
how does a totally blind person, or blind couple manage to identify objects
in order to label them?
I'm lucky, I have a sighted wife, to whom I am being especially nice at the
moment, but presumably this needs sighted help, which will be an ongoing
problem. Are shop assistants going to be willing to stand by while
groceries are labelled? Please don't think I am knocking the pen friend, I
think it's terrific. Just curious about how some folk cope.
Ted
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carol Pearson" <carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 3:31 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Penfriend and PTX1
| Jackie,
|
| I definitely think you should take a look at it at some point ... because
| you could even be converted! <Smiles>
|
| I definitely think it has a good place in a home where there's a blind
| person and certainly when you have no sight at all! <Smiles>
|
| --
| Carol
| carol.pearson29@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| On Twitter: http://twitter.com/songbird49a
|
| ---- Original Message ----
| From: "Jackie Cairns" <jackie.cairns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
| To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
| Sent: Monday, August 03, 2009 1:43 PM
| Subject: [access-uk] Re: Penfriend and PTX1
|
| > Well done John for the explanation, I'm kind of warming
| > to it! (smiles).
| >
| >
| > Jackie Cairns
| > Braille Specialist
| > Email: jackie.cairns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
| > Sight and Sound Technology Ltd
| > Welton House North Wing
| > Summerhouse Road
| > Moulton Park
| > Northampton
| > NN3 6WD
| > Tel: 01604 798024
| > Mob: 07887 883815
| > www.sightandsound.co.uk
| > -----Original Message-----
| > From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
| > [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John
| > Sent: 02 August 2009 13:24
| > To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
| > Subject: [access-uk] Penfriend and PTX1
| >
| > Hello Everybody,
| > Here's some comments on the latest Access UK digest I
| > have read. I subscribe to the list through the digest
| > version and I don't get to read it everyday so I won't
| > always be able to comment quickly but I'll give
| > information to help the debate wherever I can. For those
| > who don't know I am on this list as a private individual
| > using my home email address but when I'm dressed I'm Head
| > of Products and Publications at RNIB and a long cane
| > carrying blind person.
| >
| > First the PTX1. The player has the capability for
| > wireless and wired connections. You can use the USB slot
| > to connect to a PC if you want to and the player becomes
| > a drive just as if you had directly connected a stick or
| > card. The capability is currently disabled. This is
| > mainly because we are waiting for the international daisy
| > consortium to define and agree something called the
| > "Online Daisy protocol". Now don't ask me to describe
| > this in technical details to all the techies but
| > basically we're looking for a standard that will work all
| > around the world to permit a whole range of different
| > daisy devices to "talk to" the content that is
| > downloaded to them. The international agreement is taking
| > much longer than we had hoped but we are keen to get
| > everybody to agree and use one standard rather than lots
| > of incompatible standards in different countries. We also
| > currently have our technical experts focused on
| > re-developing our website and e-commerce functions so
| > there will nee d to be some further work at our end after
| > the protocol is agreed before any of us can download and
| > buy daisy books. We had originally hoped that everything
| > would be ready for this November but right now I haven't
| > been given a timetable so I can't promise a launch date
| > to you. but when i can, i will.
| >
| > Now the Penfriend.
| > Well, first I'm so pleased that some of you have actually
| > received your penfriends and that overall the response is
| > very positive. I really like the great ideas that have
| > come in for inventive ways of using the product and
| > labelling all sorts of things. Don't be surprised to see
| > some of these played back to you in future product
| > instructions or on our website. You can either say we've
| > nicked the ideas or you could see us as learning from the
| > "early adopter" customers. I don't know of any company or
| > organisation who ever gets any product or service right
| > first time. For one thing there never is a "right" as
| > discussions on this list show - one person's meat and all
| > that. We all know that if you are among the first to buy
| > anything you will find yourself in a position where next
| > year or even next month, somebody else has bought
| > something remarkably like what you bought but that works
| > better, has more features and is cheaper. Well I
| > certainly won't say you will find people buying the
| > Penfriend cheaper next year but certainly by our learning
| > from what customers actually say, we will have improved
| > things about it.
| > You might ask why we couldn't get things right before
| > customers get things? do we not test or ask people? well
| > of course we do but it is a fact that what comes out in
| > tests never quite matches with real life when people
| > start using things regularly outside the test
| > environment.
| > The volume issue will be sorted and as soon as I know how
| > and when I'll let you know.
| > I am just sorry and distressed to hear about the Braille
| > mistakes on the sheet explaining the problem with the
| > sockets. I will get a copy tomorrow and read it myself
| > and get it sorted. I won't comment further now as I'm
| > not sure what the nature of the mistakes are but they
| > shouldn't be there. It is just true that too few people
| > involved in services for blind people actually read
| > Braille. This doesn't just apply to RNIB. I have just
| > visited a very big organisation that provides products in
| > another country and they don't even offer Braille
| > instructions for anything. You may like to know that in
| > most other countries people look very enviously at the
| > RNIB for providing letters, statements and instructions
| > in Braille, large print and audio. However I'm not
| > offering an excuse. no point in offering Braille if it's
| > poor quality.
| >
| >
| > The issues around the other penfriend modes is an
| > interesting one. For most of the people who will buy the
| > Penfriend it will just be a low cost (simple labelling
| > device with a straightforward use at home. That is partly
| > why the compartment with the mini USB and headphone and
| > microphone jacks is covered up. As soon as you mention
| > MP3 or connecting the Penfriend to a PC you literally do
| > scare off lots of people. However we have another quite
| > different customer group - represented very articulately
| > by people on this list - who will want to squeeze every
| > bit of use they can out of anything and will try out all
| > sorts of different ways of using something. So the
| > Penfriend has its"mode" button which can be left well
| > alone by most users but for some opens up a couple of
| > options.
| > The MP3 player is simple and it's basically there because
| > it just can be. But if you want to you can copy a book or
| > music onto it. You move through tracks by holding down
| > the volume up for forward and down for back buttons but
| > it won't resume where you left off if you turn it off but
| > if you are travelling somewhere you could, if you wanted,
| > plug your penfriend into a USB connection and put some
| > music or spoken word MP3 onto it.
| > Some people will wonder why anybody would want to do that
| > but one thing I have learned in my job is that there is
| > no such thing as something some people won't want to do.
| > Folks just are different and think and act very
| > differently. So the people I have come to ignore are
| > those who state with great confidence that they know
| > exactly what all blind people want because there is no
| > such thing as a standard blind person and I know i just
| > can't please them all all the time.
| > The publications function isn't ready yet. I think we may
| > have been better to just not mention it but we knew that
| > some people would lift the cover to plug in a headphone
| > and then find the USB connection and speculation would
| > run wild about what it was for. But the little clue in
| > the text on the website is in the phrase "RNIB are
| > developing..." in other words we haven't yet actually
| > developed anything. We are working on it. So there is no
| > content there at present.
| > But one potential publication could be a diary in large
| > print or braille with dates on and with Penfriend
| > "labels" on the paper where people can make notes of
| > appointments on that date. We all know that for both
| > Braille and large print bulk can be a problem. For people
| > to be able to write in big enough print you need lots of
| > blank space so you have a big diary that won't fit easily
| > into a bag. for braille not only do you need big bits of
| > paper you also need a device to write with which, before
| > our little Braille King would have to be a Perkins or a
| > back to front fiddly frame. So a Penfriend diary could be
| > very small and hidden right next to the printed or
| > brailled date would be two "hotspots" (that's a
| > penfriend label not stuck on but actually embedded in the
| > paper). One hotspot would contain pre-recorded
| > information which you download from us and which would
| > have things like saints' days, moon phases and all the
| > other stuff you get in diaries and the other would be
| > blank f or you to make your own appointment notes. So
| > touch one and you know that day is St. George's day and
| > the other to remind you to meet fred in the George and
| > Dragon at 7 o'clock.
| > How would your individual Penfriend be able to read the
| > label created by us? Because the penfriend reads a unique
| > number code from each label and associates it with a file
| > stored on it. We will reserve whole ranges of numbers
| > (into the millions) for us and other organisations to
| > create pre-recorded publications.
| > That is why you have to buy pack A and Pack B (and no
| > doubt pack C and D) label packs so you never have the
| > same number twice on your pen.
| > The technology the pen uses isn't actually RFID - that
| > would be much more expensive - but something called OID
| > or optical identification. I imagine we will see many
| > more devices in everyday life using this technology soon.
| > If we can do it cheaply enough we will produce our next
| > year's product catalogue using Penfriend hotspots. So
| > you can have a publication which is quite small and just
| > has key informationn in Braille or giant print and then
| > further details read by the pen. Just to be clear,
| > anything like this will be an additional option for
| > customers. As I read through my words here it struck me
| > that somebody out there will start to see a conspiracy
| > for getting rid of Braille and forcing everybody to buy a
| > penfriend so we can line our pockets with the profits!
| > Well, fooey! I can't guarantee of course that some mad
| > idiot somewhere won't say something like "blind people
| > won't need braille any longer because they've got this
| > penfriend thing." When I was registered blind in 1964
| > they debated about teaching me Braille because there was
| > a fantastic new technology called the compact cassette
| > which would mean I'd never really need Braille but I
| > think i read as much if not more Braille now than I di d
| > back then and RNIB has just spent £1,000,000 upgrading
| > our braille embossing equipment. Anyway, back to the
| > Penfriend ...
| > So we also hope that as people get used to the pen that
| > some museums and other places people visit will begin to
| > produce guidebooks with hotspots or lend out penfriends
| > to visitors who could read information by touching
| > penfriend labels stuck to exhibits.
| > So there is the option of being able to download content
| > and read it with your own pen as you go round somewhere
| > or borrow a pen at the information desk and use that. I'm
| > sure some places will adopt one method and some another
| > and I'm equally sure some users will say one method is
| > the only right one and others will take different
| > stances.
| > For things like small restaurants they could buy a pen -
| > after all they aren't blisteringly expensive) and stick
| > labels to a menu and just make their own local recordings
| > which customers could read. They could use different
| > shaped labels for different bits of the menu or indicate
| > vegetarian options by using a square label for example.
| > We created the different sizes and shapes of labels so
| > that all the different folks and organisations out there
| > could play around and choose for themselves what works
| > for them. In our tests some people found the little round
| > labels very easy to use, others thought they were fiddly
| > so we have provided some variety.
| > You may stick two different labels on to one item to
| > denote different kinds of information. For example, a
| > little round label on a CD just gives the basic album
| > title and the big square label gives all the track
| > information - or you may think that's daft. Perhaps
| > somebody like Barry will impress us all with a use for
| > the different sizes and shapes that none of us had dreamt
| > of but which we all think is brilliant. Well if we don't
| > give you the choices to play with we won't get the
| > inventive ideas!
| > As more and more feedback comes to us we may find that
| > there is a pattern of responses and preferences that we
| > can turn into different options to sell but I want to
| > wait for a bit to see what people say and in the meantime
| > give everybody some choice.
| > Finally the comments about the Penfriend packaging. We
| > hadn't anticipated that people would do anything with the
| > packaging other than take the penfriend out and then just
| > leave it on one side so it isn't designed to be
| > particularly robust and certainly not for keeping the
| > Penfriend in or carrying it around. As we get more
| > feedback we will re-design it. The plastic box is just an
| > off the shelf product which is cheaper than designing a
| > special item but if enough people comment unfavourably on
| > it we'll look at changing it. I just think it's too big
| > but that's just me.
| > Sorry this has been long but I hope it has helped to
| > explain some of our funny old ways.
| > John
| >
| > ______________________________________________________________________
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