Totally electric - Optacon with battery removed. You keep it connected all the
time that you use it.
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Benjamin Blatter
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2022 12:08 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training
Hi Pamela, what happens when an Optacon is modified to be totally electric?
What is the advantage?
By the way, if it's of interest to you all, I got my first Optacon at my school
when I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. The principal herself taught me. And I felt
and was told too that being able to read with an Optacon wasn't just something
every one can do. As far I know no one else was given this chance, at least as
long in these about ten years I attended this school.
My Optacon sounded a bit different than the principal's one. While hers was
totally silent when a blank space was under the camera, mine always had a
constant sawtooth tone, as soon I turned the upper dial up, even there was
nothing to be felt on the tactile array.
When I was about 15 the battery had to be replaced. I could just bring it to
school and the principal took care of it.
Maybe 20 years later I wanted to read something with my optacon again after
some years of not using it very often. I noticed that a portion of the tactile
array didn't work anymore. There was like a black hole which didn't respond at
all. I had just the right man for this in mind, a Swiss engineer who developed
audio mixers for the public radio 30 years ago. He had a look at it and removed
the battery of the Optacon, so it wouldn't leak. But he wasn't able to open it
up further. He was quite disappointed himself. He told me that fixing the
tactile array would have been an easy thing for him to do. Too bad, I had to
pay about 100 Swiss Francs and didn't get anything out of it. So, I did what
other people did as well, I trashed my first Optacon with a heavy heart.
Last year I became desperate enough to look for an Optacon on Ebay. I found one
and got it - only to read about VideoTIM a few days later and find this mailing
list eventually. Wish I had found it before and maybe could have asked how to
open up the Optacon further.
In hindsight it's a bit a sad story I guess, and I admit there is a little
black hole in my heart like on the tactile array because I threw my first
Optacon away. But I think it's wise to go forward and learn from the past,
whenever it's possible.
Ben
Am 09.02.2022 um 22:09 schrieb Pamela Drake <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
I was certified as an Optacon instructor at TSI. I taught a friend in
Philadelphia through the Associated Services program. If I rememberu correctl
her training was $500, including the Optacon. I stayed with her during the
training. And it was great! She and I had been friends for years, so I simply
stayed with her and bought food. It was a great time! As it happened, she did
not use the Opticon as much as she thought she would, so I purchased it from
her along with two others from friends. Even though I have Aira and we have a
scanner and software, I still enjoy my Optacon. I would never want to be
without one. Richard Oehm modified one to be totally electric.
On Feb 8, 2022, at 2:21 PM, Margaret Ricciardi <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I received my Optacon training from someone who came to my house. One of my
friend's refused to buy it because training was a requirement in order to
purchase it. I agreed with him, but I wanted to be able to read print so
much, that I did the training. Another friend had an Optacon that someone
gave her. She ended up giving it to me and since I really didn't need it and
it needed to be repaired, I sent it to Richard Oehm so that he could use it
for parts. The Optacon has allowed me to read knitting patterns that are
written out in charts. Something that a scanner would never be able to read.
Peggy & Dixie Marie
Sent from my iPhone
On Feb 8, 2022, at 3:16 PM, <dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx>
<dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This discussion about sawtooth waves is interesting. When I was a
music student in college I had to take a physics of sound course and
we talked about which instruments emit sawtooth waves. Now I can't
remember which ones.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Behalf Of Benjamin Blatter
Sent: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 2:00 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: Training
Charles, this is amazing. I can somehow imagine the Sawtooth being
the best suited waveform for this It probably has the correct bite to
make things sharp and clear.
What did became of the Optacon III project? and what would have been
different in the Optacon III you were considering in difference to
the previous models?
Ben
Am 08.02.2022 um 19:40 schrieb Charles ("wpg67")<dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
time. It's sad that your people felt disturbed by the sounds of the Optacon.
allow me to amend a part of my previous message. More accurately, a
sawtooth waveform felt the best. it most closely resembled the
optacon's squarewave when its pulse width was at 50%. My apologies.
Charles
On 2022-02-08 1:36 p.m., Charles (wpg67) wrote:
I had experimented with sine waves and other waveforms when
attending to an optacon III project, but either because of training
and experience or because of something intrinsic to the optacons R1
and II,, or to human perception, its driving square wave felt best
and it gave the clearest tactile and audio information.
As for the painful finger picking which limited reading time, I
used polymer reeds rather than copper wire reeds. Like fine
fishing line with a good stand-up coefficient. So, whoever
develops an optacon display, a mechanical one at any rate, should
not ignore the texture of the fine tactile pins.
Charles
On 2022-02-08 1:24 p.m., Benjamin Blatter wrote:
Dan, it was very interesting to read from you how things worked at
your
I read or heard somewhere that the developers of the Optacon would
have changed the sound to a less disturbing sound curve like par
examples sinus wave. But the Optacons where progressed already way to far
for this.
their optacons in the trash. I'm sure I could find someone to use itWhile I had joy with my Optacon the constant picking needles made
me tired after maybe 30 minutes and so I didn't really want to
read whole books this way. I for sure couldn't have kept up during
my musical education with an Optacon. In this time book scanners
and OpenBook came up and I got many materials presented on floppy
discs
:-)
Ben
Am 08.02.2022 um 18:20 schrieb dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx:
When I got my optacon in high school there were limited options
where I could get training and an optacon to keep. I got my
training at a school for the blind and my optacon was loaned to
me by the U.S. Department of Education with the understanding
that I would need to return it when I graduated from college.
Some people I know went to Associated Services for the Blind in
Philadelphia for training which I think included an optacon. I
wonder how much the training cost. The fact that I would not be
able to keep an optacon was a disincentive for me to ever become
a fluent user. I did not get much pleasure from the device and my
family hated the noise. I was always having problems keeping
paperback books and magazines open. Maybe my skills would have
improved if I had spent more time with the optacon. In college I
wasn't able to keep up without hiring readers. Recently A friend
gave me an optacon and I need to get around to fixing it. It
isn't my highest priority. If we ever get a new type of optacon
with more features I probably would be more interested in
developing my skills using it. If I don't get around to fixing
the optacon then I will donate it to someone on this list. I
wouldn't do what some friends did by throwing
if I decide getting it fixed wouldn't justify my using it.
research and development. It is a sad situation.
I know my comments sound negative but this is an example of where
I would want more modern technology to interest me more in an
optacon. I think the device should be essentially the same but
with newer components and a digital interface so software could
be updated. We have the technology except for a practical tactile
array which is a real shame. The worst of it is that we don't
have enough interest in an optacon where we could obtain funding
for
the quotes) in the message subject.
Dan
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