[access-uk] Re: Sight village review 2
- From: "Gary Robinson" <g.robinson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 16:18:00 +0100
Barry,
don't kknow, I remember this being mentioned some time ago as an issue but I
forgot to ask outright if they had fixed it.
Gary
----- Original Message -----
From: "PossAble Consultancy" <lister@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 3:38 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Sight village review 2
> Hi Gary,
> Quick question, the Bat Cane, originally one significant issue was that
you had to be walking fairly slowly for it to work, is that still the case?
I'm a bit of a bull in a china shop merchant...
>
> Barry G
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gary Robinson
> To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 3:08 PM
> Subject: [access-uk] Sight village review 2
>
>
> Hi all,
> I was at Sight village on Tuesday so I'll chip in with some of what I
saw
> and heard.
> firstly like Ray I have mixed feelings about the venue. There were open
> spaces but where it mattered there was still the usual scrum around the
> stands which were cramped. I must admit even my guide found it
difficult to
> find out which stand was which.
> I arrived very early on the tuesday and managed to meet with several
people
> outside the normal stand area to get the latest information/demo.
> So here goes...
> Jaws, I had a long chat with Eric Damery and sat in on one of the two
> presentations which like the Window eyes one were I thought on the low
key
> side especially for Eric.
> The hard facts, Jaws 5.1 (free) will be released at the beginning of
August
> all things being equal. Interestingly though Eric was using a beta Jaws
6
> for his demo, this is expected in sept/october pretty much as usual.
The
> much trumpeted internet authorised version will ship to new users at
this
> stage.
> New features, well not really, Eric spoke and emonstrated very
effectively
> the use of HTML place markers(they came in in Jaws 5) you can get Jaws
to
> automatically speak lines of interest on an HTML page or "virtualise"
i.e
> put the line into a virtual buffer you can read at will. In 5.1 you will
be
> able to export the place markers you have set up for web pages
> and give them to a fellow Jaws user to make a particular site or HTML
> application more user friendly, this isn't affected by screen colour or
resolution settings.
> I spent most of my time talking to Eric
> about Citrix access, which is also coming last quarter this year, but I
> suspect this will be of limited interest to listers so I will not cover
it
> here.
> Ultracane, also known as the bat cane or ultrasonic long cane I along
with many
> others saw it last year in prototype form, but now it's here for real.
The
> current production version has a much better formed handle and very
clear
> vibrating pins, one giving feedback from the upward pointing bean and
the
> other from the front/downward pointing beam. I tried it out within the
> somewhat hostile environment of the exhibition hall and was pleasantly
> surprised at just how effective it was. You can adjust the range
acording
> to how cluttered the environment you are working within is and I was
able to
> clearly pick out the door opening in a wall from several metres away as
well
> as people and most usefully overhanging objects. The downside is that
it is
> nearly £400 not cheap by any standard.
> Mobile phones, by chance I happened to be at the same hotel as Thorsten
from
> Talks so we had a chat over breakfast about some of the issues on
choosing a
> phone. It only served to confirm my view that the Talks screen reader
> approach is by far the best. I understand that WAP browser access is
there
> (in beta at the moment) however you will need a phone with sufficient
phone
> memory(thats not the memory card which you can replace/upgrade but the
RAM
> within the phone itself. If I've remembered correctly the 3650 has 8Mb,
the
> 6600 16Mb and the new 7610(which I saw on Steve's stand) a whopping
64Mb.
> The latter is one very nice phone but expensive. Talking of
Steve(Computer
> room services) he gave me a demo of using Wayfinder(I was amazed how
small
> it is) to plan a route using Talks on a 6600 as the read out device.
> Daisy players, I went along to the RNIB room (it's like In Touch, you
feel
> you should in case you miss somethingbut afterwards you wonder why you
did).
> They had 3 of the "over sized bap" style portable DAISY players, the
VIBE
> from visuaid I think which was almost identical to my Panasonic portable
cd
> apart from a slight oblong molding on one side, the Easy Daisy, which
has
> large buttons and the Scholar. The latter were both significantly
larger
> than the Vibe and unlike it you could not charge your rechargeable
batteries
> in situ (they were also more expensive).
> My personal favourite at the exhibition, the Maestro, a tiny PDA based
on one of the HP IPAQ
> units. It's barely larger than a pack of 20 cigarettes but very
impressive.
> They also have a Braille/Perkins style keyboard for it, which uses Blue
> tooth or you could use a standard QWERTy mini folding keyboard. It's
not
> yet available expect to see it around last quarter of this year, price
not
> yet fixed but possibly around £800 ish. Interestingly I was told that
once
> it comes out the Trekker will be based on this PDA as opposed to it's
> current larger unit. I could go on about this unit i want one, it just
> feels right, the speech was good and of course it runs mainstream
Microsoft
> Windows Ce applications.
> If anyone wants to know more I'll try and rack my brains for more
> information.
> Gary
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