Hi Charles,
I think you would want to write software using a mainstream operating system.
This would allow users the option to configure an optacon to their individual
needs. It would also be easier to provide tech support for an optacon if the
software is written in a mainstream computer environment. Not everyone knows
C++ or Assembler. The goal should be to develop a device which could be used
by the largest market of blind people. Some may not like that, but this is the
present reality in the assistive technology field.
Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of C. Pond
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2016 7:15 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: a question regarding the ergonomic design and
mechanics of the optacon III
Personally, if I had my druthers, I would like just a simple, small,
straightforward, uncomplicated optacon without these extras. However, although
I have done no formal studies, it just seems by all accounts that such a
preferable device would not take serious flight. So, it seems that an optacon
must be a modular part of an access device, with the default mode being the
nice and straightforward optacon mode.
I wouldn't say things are speeing up; I'm simply working with what I have, when
I can, until more favourable winds blow. I meet soon with a certain bank to
take steps in finally setting up a legal/financial accountable entity to
receive money to take the optacon/braille display to the finish line.
Production and sales is a different matter, of which I know basically nothing.
The main technical challenge is reducing the power consumption, and making the
power pack smaller than its at least 6 D-cell batteries minimum. There is a
completely suitable alternative energy solution which I have developed for such
things as transportation, but at this point there might be legal issues which
prevent me from dropping it very simply into the optacon and easily doing away
with the portable power problem m. Although several materials are being
studied to improve the displays' efficiency (which would not be noticed by the
user), these efforts and strategies are to reduce power consumption, and even
if they don't happen, I'm not worried about the displays; they work fine as
they are.
The basic optacon software itself is straightforward, and it could be
programmed or written to be run on anything really: a tablet, a smartphone, a
handheld computer. I'm thinking that rather than using an off-the-shelf, small
motherboard and with the braille display and optacon as its peripherals--in
addition to the board as a standard computer--why tie the purchaser to one's
version of the computer, when one cann simply use a prefered tablet or
whatever. I have not yet tried to program the basic optacon functions in
Android or use them with a tablet or smartphone. I have bypassed any operating
system, and programmed two boards using C++ and the required assembler. I kind
of wonder about the need for these portable O/S platforms, when well-designed
software can drive the computer boar directly and with far, far less resource
fuss.
Of course, if there ends up being one module as the braille display, its
keyboard, another for the basic optacon, and then one fits in their prefered
portable computing device for its own accessible use, this raises the issue of
streamlined ergonomics--the form factor.
The use of a touch tablet, however, would open up some interesting
possibilities, not to mention making the device more in line with consumer
products and more easily updated.
In and of themselves, the braille display and standard notetaking functions,
and the optacon, do not require a standard computer mother board or even a
tablet or smartphone, although they are useful and convenient. Something like
the French "Essytime" (it is called something like that), which is a braille
display built directly into a standard portable computer with a perkins
keyboard, and so their accessible computer, not needing a built-in display as a
lid, and with no qwerty keyboard, is quite portable and smaller than the
standard laptop but with the power and portability of a laptop.
The French use a standard computer motherboard, so it can be easily updated and
consumer compatible save for the braille display. Several decades ago now, I
took the design of Smith-Kettlewell's "Note-A-Braille", refined it, added to
it, and gradually migrated it from a hardware bench device to mostly software
using C++; it was a test project for academic purposes, not an intended
product, So, the braille display module and its software / optacon combo can
easily be done without the need for a standard computer as part of the consumer
package.
So, back to the modular approach: the software for the notetaker, the braille
display module and perkins keyboard which contains the notetaker software (its
board is like a small cracker) and advanced optacon bells and whistles, the
autonymous optacon module and its nifty camera...and then
what: must there be an obligatory computer so it will sell because one would
have the full use of a fully accessible computer? It is becoming too
convoluted for my personal comfort. All of this stuff so that our
irreplaceable optacon will have a market? Yes, one could use the
braille/optacon combo as a peripheral for whichever computer they have and this
as it should be of course, but this again raises the ergonomics issue.--does it?
Personally, if I had my way, why not just a simple, nicely updated and
straightforward optacon and that would be that. It appears that reality
requires a more encompassing solution.
Chuck
-----Original Message-----
From: Debby Franson
Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2016 3:34 PM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optacon-l] Re: a question regarding the ergonomic design and
mechanics of the optacon III
Hi Chuck!
I'm glad your progress is speeding up. That's exciting.
I agree with you about tacking on the smart display would probably make a
clunkier design, being the worst of the options.
Could a cover be made to put on to cover the "fat domino" space, similar to the
cover that is placed over the spot on the optacon II when the battery pack is
removed? That cover would protect whatever the opening leaves exposed and keep
dust out.
I agree that one versital unit would be best.
Debby
At 02:13 AM 12/12/2016, C. Pond wrote
An optacon III ergonomic mechanical question if I may in order to make
it marketable, accompanied by a pre-amble for its context:
As things stand now, the optacon III’s display has evolved from a
mere dumb display (a mere vibrotactile output device which feels
something like a fat domino)) to a stand-alone display into which the
nifty camera and power and whatever can be plugged. This way, the
camera and the smart-display can be mechanically connected to form a
crude one-handed optacon with room for improvement, or they can be used
each in one hand as we traditionally have done. Although I am still
really concerned about the power monster, and I’m working with tuflon
and a few other experimental strategies to reduce power consumption,
I’m not worried about a vibrotactile display. We have a two-handed
optacon---even in its basic form—and since Mr. Noel Runyan
recommended a one-handed option, we now have that as well. So be it.
Having said these things, it is my “sense†or belief that a simple
up-to-date small optacon simply will not sell, take wings and fly. no matter
the zeal of present optacon
users. I could be wrong, given proper education of blind people,
especially children, but that is how it looks realistically from this
user’s vantage. If no new optacon users come along, ten years from
now will show a very different optacon-user landscape compared to
today. Therefore, from this line of reasoning, I have combined the
basic optacon III with a small, standard computer (around the size of
a Braille Sense U2 32-cell model; smaller than a Braille Lite 40) and
a built-in 32-cell braille display (which unfortunately and to my
chagrin and sincere regret and wish for the contrary is proprietary at
this time, and this goes against Every sentiment and wish within me to
have it so!). The braille display can be built by hand for a few
hundred dollars, and likely would be less costly if produced by
automation and in numbers greater than 99 per batch. At this point,
the optacon III’s display fits nicely behind the spacebar and
between dots 1 and 4 of the device’s perkin
s keyboard. So, along one long edge at the front is the 32-cell
display (built with banks of 4 braille cells per bank, smaller than
bimorph-based cells), and the optacon III’s display is right at the
back edge, between dots 1 and 4, and therefore in the middle of the
edge. The device has as many useful functions as any hand-held
computer with a robust braille display and good accessibility.
However, if the optacon III’s vibrotactile display is built into the
hand-held computer with its inexpensive and robust braille display,
several questions come to mind for which I do need feedback.
1. Although the smart display could be made mechanically to slide in
and out of its place, like the old PCMCIA cards, when the display is
removed and connected to its camera, a rectangle-like void about the
size of a fat domino would be left in the hand-held computer with its
braille display. So, what to do in order to prevent this mechanical
oddity or use the empty display space?
2. Is there a better way to design the mechanics of the device?
The only reason why I’m evolving toward solidifying the optacon
III’s design as part of an encompassing system is that on its own, a
new optacon likely would not sell, so other things must be added.
Likely enough, most people would use the braille display and computer
more often than the optacon III’s vibrotactile display. The only two
reasons I can see for being able to detach the optacon III’s display
from the hand-held computer are:
1. To connect it to its camera for one-handed use.
2. To use it as a stand-alone, small, versatile optacon.
Otherwise, and if a stand-alone optacon would indeed sell, this stuff
about a hand-held computer with a built-in braille display would not be
an issue.
If the smart display were merely tacked onto one end or the other of
the hand-held computer, that would solve nothing and would make
ergonomic design and use even worse.
I doubt a market exists for two optacon III versions: a one-handed
optacon and a two-handed optacon, and also not likely for a simple,
stand-alone optacon III. If I had my way, I would build the detachable
optacon III into an encompassing system, and find a good use for that
fat domino void, or find a way so it doesn’t happen in the first place.
So, please, any thoughts and suggestions? No doubt the mechanical
solution for this is simple and straightforward.
Chuck
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