I don't know how to contact him, but the Optacon helped me through some trying times in my life. I had friends who used it for just little, simple things. But I read books and magazines (for the first time I knew what advertising looked like in a magazine), checked out statistical symbols (X-hat), learned the shapes of Greek letters and which ASCII symbol to use to mean "divided by" in an equasion. I no longer have an Optacon (mine died years ago), but I would still use it if I did. There are so many things it did that all this other technology (wonderful as it is) doesn't come close to doing.
I hope the Optacon 2.0 is developed. Many people may consider it a relic of the past, but it is still unique and useful!
Sandi----- Original Message ----- From: "Tracy Carcione" <carcione@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 8:09 AM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] OT: article on Optacon and Jim Bliss
I know there are other Optacon users on this list. There may be some who don't know that Dr. Jim Bliss, one of the Optacon inventors, is terminally ill. I'm sending along this article about the Optacon and Dr. Bliss that appeared yesterday on an NPR website. The Optacon allows blind people to "read" complex visual material through their fingertips. Dr. Bliss: As so many on this list have already said, the Optacon changed my life.I thank you for your tremendous contribution and may God be with you. - G. This week, James "Jim" Bliss announced he is dying. In an email message Bliss, an MIT Ph.D. electrical engineer who developed technology for the visually impaired, wrote that he has "terminated all treatment" for his multiple myeloma and "joined Hospice" after battling cancer for eight years. Bliss developed a life-changing device for blind people that few outside that community have ever heard of. The Optacon, which Bliss created with Stanford Professor John Linvill (who first dreamed up the idea to help his blind daughter, Candy, read) looks like a clunky, 70s-era tape recorder with a cable attached not to a microphone, but to an optical sensor. By enabling users to gather visual information through touch, the machine has been a game-changer.Many report the Optacon is the single best device that allows for a life of independence, to learn foreign languages, become an engineer, read music orsimply peruse one's own mail. Indeed, Bliss's posting about his terminal cancer on a listserve devoted to the device, Optacon-L, generated scores of responses from blind people all over theworld describing how the device transformed their lives by allowing them to"read" complex visual information through their fingertips, rather than with their eyes. In contrast to Braille (which expresses letters as simple raised dot patterns) or speaking machines (which perform optical character recognition and read text aloud), the Optacon, (or OPtical to TActile CONverter) senses dark-and-light areas of ink and paper, converting them into a vibration pattern that can befelt with the fingertip and, with experience, interpreted by the brain. Thedevice can also be used to "read" information directly from a computer display.What's startling about the notes to Bliss is that so many blind people haverelied on their Optacon devices for more than 30 years. Some recount having two machines on hand to make sure at least one is available when the other undergoes repairs. Many report it's the single best device that allows for a life of independence, to learn foreign languages, become an engineer, hold a job, read music, finally understand capital letters or simply peruse one's own mail. Here's a sampling: Dear Dr. Bliss, I'd like to add my voice to all of those many who have praised the Optacon and its incredible life changing impact on all of us who use it.In my opinion, not even the enormous impact that today's most proliferate and productive technologists like the late Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others can in any way measure up to or compare with the positive good and many blessings that your tireless efforts and the work of pioneer John Linvill have brought about via the Optacon. This remarkable instrument.is an example of humanity at its very best. Or this from a woman in Wales:Yes, thank you for all you've done in promoting the Optacon. I taught myselfcursive writing in Russian and English using it; began transcribing books into Braille; as well as studying New Testament Greek and Biblical Hebrew in graduate school. Countless other things, too, but those stand out for me. God give you strength, Dr. Bliss. "As a software engineer," one man writes, "I have found it to be the most useful tool I have to do my job."Bliss apparently took his role as a creator of the Optacon quite seriously,according to Don Bishop, who writes: I received my OPTACON in 1972 and your wife was one of my original Optacon training teachers at the motel on El Camino where the classes were held. At the time I lived just across the bay in Fremont and I distinctly remember that you personally carried the big box containing the OPTACON out to our car. How many CEO's do that? I appreciate all you have done in the creation and marketing of the OPTACON as well as your participation in our list here where you've provided valuable input over the past few years. One gentleman writes that the Optacon "still ranks as the best Enabling Technology invention that has helped so many people around the world have the freedom to read the printed word," and another woman says the device "gave me my job atIBM." A New Yorker writes of seemingly small but astonishing breakthroughs:Before I got my Optacon, I knew nothing about print. Now, I know, for example, that often in books, the first word is written in capital letters, or the first letter of the word can be very big. I now know what italics looks like. Amazing. And here, a user remarks on the dignity such a device offers:Dr. Bliss, I have only one thing to add to all that has been said about theOptacon and that is that it is the one piece of technology which I would never give up. I could live without all the other gadgets, but giving up my Optacon would take away one of the very few links we as blind people have to the sighted world of print information. The Optacon is still the best device in terms of its versatility and its reliance on the user's own intelligence. Thank you for giving us a device that boosts our dignity by its very design. Earlier this week I emailed Bliss to get his response. He wrote back saying that what surprised him most were the amazing things that long-time Optacon userssaid they were able to do with the device. "I suspect this is the result ofrewiring of the brain to use parts normally used for vision," Bliss wrote. "Thatis why I've proposed a new Optacon be developed that has higher resolution,greater field of view, and displays more attributes such as color, intensity, etc." When I asked for more details about Optacon 2.0 a day later, Bliss said he was too ill to write back. He expressed hope, though, that a new team of researchers working on a modern Optacon would soon find success. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.
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