Dan,
The problem with using Google is well beyond 80% of blind cell phone users
are still using IOS.
----- Original Message -----
From: <dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 9:44 PM
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Hi, Optaconers
I think you might be overcomplicating things. Any new optacon would
probably have to have zoom features just like the ones you find on phones
and are used in computer magnification software. NO doubt the best
platform for a new optacon would be Android mobile. A mobile device is
very portable and easy to update. Android is the most open software
platform for development. App updates don't need to be approved by Google.
The only certification would be the initial certification of the optacon as
a trusted device to Google.
Having the optacon be a mobile device would offer the most flexibility.
It's also the type of device most people are familiar with.
Dan
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of David
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 3:03 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Carolyn <4carolyna@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Hi, Optaconers
Eh, do we see one of the few cases, where we could wish for an electronic
feature of the next generation Optacon?
We have been talking of the benefit of the Optacon leaving all the
interpretation to the human brain. And yet, what if you got a new Optacon.
you sit down and do your reading, and come across a part of the text in
thick print. You now press a button on the Optacon, and a tiny piece of
software kicks in. It does no interpretation, no reshaping, no nothing.
What it is all about, is that it will scan the picture of the character,
and rip off all the thickness. What is left for you to feel, is a true
copy of the character, but with thinner lines.
The basics of the technology could be described as follows.
Scan the image;
Look for continuous lines in the image, where three or more needles next
to each others are active; Cut off one of the needles in such cases.
Your shape-lines of the character, now will be one needle thinner. If you
press the button once again, the software will go one step further, taking
the shape-lines down to one needle - the thinnest and most crisp you could
get.
Of course, there are the moments, when you find yourself wishing there
would be a chance to thicken some text. That could specially be, when a
font type has very thin lines in the top and bottom of the characters.
In such cases, there could be a second button, leaving you the chance to
activate extra needles on the thinner parts of the image.
What do you think. This would be no interpretation, but more a bit of
assistance in "seeing" the shape more clearly, leaving you the better
chance to perform the recognition of the characters. Promise you, when
dealing with things like electronic diagrams, I've been wishing for some
kind of ways to make the lines thicker, just as frequently as I wish there
would be ways to make shapes thinner.
As a bit of a sidenote here, which goes along the same line of ideas, how
about when you read text that vary between bold (emphasized) text, and
plain characters. Or, where you would have a mix of fonts, some more
outstanding than others. Great if you are eager to know the outlook of the
page. And necessary whenever you are to deal with certain features of the
material you read, like recognizing and distinguish the very number, in a
mathematical formula. But it often leads to extensive thumbling with the
knobs of the Optacon, raising and lowering the intensity and thickness of
the displayed image. What if the next Gen Optacon had a feature, that
could be turned on, which would attempt to give some mild equalization
through out the text. It would attempt to reduce the boldness of the
boldest print, somehow making it close to the rest of the text. A trained
user would still feel a slight boldness to the print, but it would be no
more than what still would be readable, without any furth
er adjustment. Kind of a
"This is my reading level"-setting.
This level of adjustment could be saved, and brought up, whenever the user
wants to do a plain reading of text. You then can go for the raw reading,
like we have to day, if you need all the whistles and bells of the text
layout. But in most daily activities, when you do not care much about the
layout, only want to get to the info, the levelled-reading could be
activated.
And yes, of course any such settings should be divided into as small steps
as possible in practical terms. Having only one or two steps of adjusting,
may prove unacceptable. Again, blowing the Optacon with 129 steps for
adjusting, will likely be little practically beneficial, and rather prove
frustrating. Something between 8 and 12 steps, either direction, might be
useful. You then could go from minus 12, to plus 12
- 0 being the standard, or Raw mode. Raw mode, would be what we already
have on our current Optacon models.
Technically, these features are possible, and not too difficult to
implement in the software - I would conclude. It is all about algorithms,
and is being done in photo handling in dedicated applications on your
computer and cellphone already. Without me having checked it up, I am
ready to think there might be some freeware algorithms available on the
net already, that could be used for such up and down scaling of the
thickness and boldness of scannings of the printed text.
Lastly, one more thing that I find myself often wishing for, is the chance
of bi-derectional scaling of the image. You all are familiar with the
slider on top of the camera, leaving you the chance of adjusting the
magnification of the character a bit. But it seem to only change the hight
of the character. I wish there would be ways, to adjust the magnification
either direction. Sometimes it would have been nice to widen the character
a bit, other times it is nice to lower the hight.
And there would even be times when you need do a bit of adjustment to both
the hight and width of the character, to have the best reading experience.
Specially this comes true, when you deal with symbols, icons and things
like diagrams of different sorts. If the slider had been replaced with a
four way button, like the arrow-button on some old-style cellphones and
remote controls, you could have stepped up and down in either hight or
width. Press Up-arrow to raise the hight, Down-arrow to lower it. Press
Right-arrow to increase the width, and left-Arrow to decrease. Even some
users might find that they would read better, if the character could be
centered more to the point on their finger, where they hold the highest
sensitivity.
Don't know, what the rest of you think. Got a few more ideas here, but
we'll save them for later.
On 3/25/2020 6:34 PM, Carolyn wrote:
I agree about thick print, as opposed to thin and sharpthe quotes) in the message subject.
print.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
harlynn@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 3:18 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Hi, Optaconers
This is Bob from Brooklyn, NY. I have been using my optacon
to go over
mail: I read part with the optacon, and part with my Sara.
I like how they work together. I find that my main problem
is still that I often think I know the next word in a
sentence, and then realize I guessed wrong, and have to go
back and figure it out.
Very thick print is challenging for me. But regular print,
I can do pretty well.
I hope all of you are safe, and perhaps using some down time
to use your optacons!
Kind regards,
Bob
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