[access-uk] Re: Sight Village this year?
- From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 16:43:58 +0100
Hi,
Ok, thanks for that, I really don't think there was much really there new then,
or maybe it is because I have just got a load of stuff in (smile).
Regarding Windoweyes, yes, it can be ran without Windoweyes on a computer, for
both speech and braille. You can do this in a number of ways, depending on the
environment. You can make it so that the sound from the software synth is
redirected to the thin client on the PC or whatever, however, this is quite
bandwidth intensive, and the quality is a lot poorer. You can also use
hardware synth/braille displays. Dolphin also allow you to do this. Was any
JFW mentioned - i.e, new version, terminal support, and the famous activation
via Internet?
My Quicklook - well it is a small magnifier with a LCD screen on - you plonk it
onto a book or whatever, and it enlarges the image. There are options for
contrast and colour settings, and the display is very crisp. Where it comes in
very handy is where you have a LCD screen with no backlight, where the
magnifier lights up the screen effectively. Downsides are that in small
confined spaces it is slightly difficult to use, for example, on the
photocopier which has a screen with sides around it for paper etc, then you end
up not being able to fit the magnifier in the space provided. Also on small
objects it is interesting also. I was able to read my credit card with it
earlier, though, so I was quite surprised at that!
Job - its going ok, though as you can probably tell by what I am doing now, I
don't have an awful lot of interesting work to do.
Thanks for the review,
Andrew.
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Ray's Home
Sent: Fri 16/07/2004 11:09
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Sight Village this year?
Hi Andrew.
Trust the new job is going OK. I am surprised that no one as yet seems to
have weighed in with their thought on Sight Village, and I'll only give you
a few impressions here.
The venue. If I had to come down for or against, I'd say, marginally, its
an improvement on QAC. For me the main downside of the layout of the
exhibition was that the main hall, or halls, were next door to one another
and there was a lot of noise spill-over which made speech products very hard
to hear. Really what is needed is for exhibitors with speech/hardware
products to have screened off areas, while those displaying mainly
information and quieter products could be together in a larger area.
The whole thing was more compact though, even though it was spread over
three levels if you include the mezomine area. Seminar rooms were good
though.
Speaking of seminars, GW Micro's presentation was a little lack-lustre. Dan
Weirich hammered home the stability advantage with W-E and someone got a
baseball cap for recognizing that, but I thought he could have demonstrated
the private beta there, as well as downstairs. I could also be wrong here,
but he didn't seem to make anything of the fact that a remote computer
running Window-Eyes could be accessed with a machine that (doesn't) have
Window-Eyes on it. No, I do not think I have got this wrong, for as far as
I know, you can access W-E with a thin client if it has sound attached.
Someone put me right if I am wrong on this, please.
On the portable magnifier front, I found the 'tin can' cameras demonstrated
by New Vision quite acceptable for the price and they were very portable.
The idea is you hook up to a SCART on a TV, or via a box to a computer
monitor where you can switch between the two images. The option including a
small LCD display - which also might be a TV, was selling for £550.00. I'l
post more on that if anyone is interested.
In the crazy, 'you must be joking' class, we had Professional vision
demonstrating an elegant camera on stand to plug into a laptop along with
software for screen splitting. That will be £3,000 sir. Not bluddy likely.
Think it was from a German firm called Steller, who were also there.
Before leaving the subject of CCTV, I was interested in the device Andrew
mentioned in his post, and would be interested in a critical review of it,
if you are still reading this Andrew, (smile).
Braille products. I was interested in the Braillino which seemed a very
neat and sturdy device. Though its a Braille input and notetaking device,
it has no inbuilt speech, but that's not a problem if you are using with a
laptop with speech on board. Sure Steve will come in on improvements, but
of course you can use it with a mobile. Think it comes from Handitech who
may be associated with the software that makes mobiles talk.
I saw the Braillenote PK, and very nice and solid it was too. As well as
being a bit heavy on the pocket - well aren't they always! - you would need
a pretty deep and stirdy pocket to put it in. I didn't see Mr. Mozan, which
was a bit of a disappointment. Whatever you think of Pulsedata, and not all
opinions are flattering to them, I must say they always have a very
professional looking stand and display, and Pedro Pulson was out there on
reception handing out leaflets with Braille and Print summarizing there
products. Didn't see anyone else doing that. It does no harm at all, in my
view, to approach blind people in a civilized way to tell what they have on
show, after all, we can not see what there is until we are told.
The only other product that comes to mind is the Index embossers. These
have been upgraded to include USB and networkablility. Also, they are
moving towards being able to use several embossers in tandom, so that if
customers needs exspand, then they can just add another embosser in
parallel. Waht a noise! Of course they are introducing a cabinet that
will hold four embossers and hopefully forstall those claims for loss of
hearing.
No doubt some of you will have heard George on In touch commenting on the
cost of being at SV now. To my mind, the guy from QAC didn't really put up
any credible defence, other than its a more exspensive venue to hire. It
was very noticable how cramped the space for some exhibitors was, and I have
alreay already mentioned the noise spill problem. All this for a more than
100% price hike to exhibitors? Well, what do you folk think? You might
also ponder whether 'charities' should be asking themselves whether they are
in fact a charity or a business. Are you listening, RNIB? Oh, sorry, I am
not a member. Was forgetting. How silly of me.
Se you at Share the Vision, (smile).
Ray.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Hodgson" <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 9:10 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Sight Village this year?
Hi,
I normally try and get to Sight Village and do a summing up on this list
for people who could not be there, but could someone do it for me this
year as I was at work all day?
Anything interesting? Each year I go thinking there won't be much
there, but there is always one piece of equipment which really is worth
looking at. The two pieces for me this year have been the Pacmate from
Freedom Scientific, and the Quick Look from Ash technologies. Access to
work got me both pieces whilst starting work, and while the Pacmate is
good as expected, I never thought that an electronic magnifier would
actually benefit me the way it has done! The down side to the magnifier
is now I have to fax/photocopy a lot of documents, as I can see the
relevant display!
Thanks,
Andrew.
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