I know very well about reading paperbacks with the Optacon. I have one or two
electronics books I bought in the early 1980s, and I read them so much that I
ruined the bindings. One of my friends said he had no doubt that those books
were "well used." I even established a guideline for myself: Do not read a
paperback book unless I own it! I courteously declined one or two offers from
friends who would have loaned me a paperback to read, thanking them and
explaining my reason for declining their offers. If I were equipped with
needed tools, I would have made myself a jig with a spring-loaded glass panel
to place on top of a book to render both facing pages readable. Such a jig
would be problematic for reading in the "gutters" over the binding.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Jyrki Voutilainen
Sent: Thursday, 17 March, 2016 1:36 PM
To: Optacon User List <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon and books, edge of line
On Thu, 17 Mar 2016, Jyrki Voutilainen <jykke.voutilainen@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
But if I'd had a book weight, I would have succeeded as well as you did.
On Thu, 17 Mar 2016, Evan Reese <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It's a great solution most of the time, but even that won't work all
the time. Some paperbacks I've seen are bound so tightly that they
just throw off the book weight and close themselves. The only thing
you can do in that case is to bend the book hard to make it stay
open. This puts one or more creases in the spine, which definitely
brings down the resale value if you're planning on selling it, but sometimes
that's the only option.
Fortunately, my book weight works most of the time.
Evan
-----Original Message-----
From: Jyrki Voutilainen
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2016 1:24 PM
To: Optacon User List
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon and books, edge of line
OK. It is — or would have been — that simple (smile).
On Thu, 17 Mar 2016, Evan Reese <mentat1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
You can buy a book weight to keep the book open. It's a leather
strap with two metal thingies, one on each end. You lay it across
the book, either above or below where you're reading depending on
which part of the page you're on. That helps to keep the book open.
Evan
-----Original Message-----
From: Jyrki Voutilainen
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2016 12:42 PM
To: Optacon User List
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Optacon and books, edge of line
That's a good question, because I do remember me having the same
problem too when reading books with the Optacon.
I just tried to keep the book as open as possible with the palm of
my left hand while holding the camera in the same hand. Not very convenient
(sad).
Jyrki the Man
On Thu, 17 Mar 2016, Dan Weiner <dcwein@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So a quick question, when reading a book, how AM I going to get in
that tight spot where the book bindinng is tight, any suggestions
on how to keep the book as open as possible so I can get that, say,
first word if ith's the right hand page, or last word if it's the
left one?
Dan the man
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Jyrki Voutilainen
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2016 10:31 AM
To: Optacon User List
Subject: Optacon and books, edge of line
I also doubt if a scanner even together with the best OCR software
could have coped with the handwriting.
It's "ages" since I've tried to read handwritten text with my Optacon.
On Thu, 17 Mar 2016, Tracy Carcione <carcione@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I used my Optacon yesterday to look at a form with the resultsbeginning.
handwritten in. The results were all numbers, so it was easy for
me to read the handwriting, but I really doubt a scanner could
have done it.
Tracy
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Judy Jones
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2016 7:41 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: My optacon helps me
Absolutely.
Judy
-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Feinstein
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2016 12:17 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] My optacon helps me
This is Robert in NY. I was reading something on my scanner, and a
sentence began, Magically, animal abuse . . . I said to myself, that
makes no sense. I went to my kitchen table where my optacon is
and I looked at the page. I found the word easily because it was
near the
The word was tragically. My reading machine had mistaken the trseriffs.
for an m and I could see why: the print was a bit fancy, and had a
lot of
So, once I knew that word, the rest was read correctly.quotes) in the message subject.
Small thing, perhaps, but I had no idea what the word magically
was doing in what I was reading. I never would have guessed that
word had I not used my optacon.
Do some of you use scanners but rely on the optacon when something
is misread?
Robert
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