Honestly, I've played around with a decent number of hacks and
sort-of OK portable approaches, and they're all theoretically
feasible but in practice kind of not worth it. The battery is one
issue. If I have to carry around 2-3 things in addition to my
phone, I'm probably just not going to bother, realistically, as it
would likely just be easier to take my laptop. And I can
notionally have Emacs on an Android phone, but the experience is
underwhelming and costly from a setup and maintenance perspective.
I actually bought an Android with an attached keyboard (the name
of the company escapes me now), and honestly Emacspeak is hard
enough to get working on a full desktop, and it was pretty much a
non-starter with the phone. I also bought an Intel Computestick,
but at that time the device couldn't be run headless due to issues
in the firmware, which was pretty enraging and goes to show how
narrow people's use cases are when they design hardware and
software. I guess I should dig it out and update the firmware,
maybe I will sometime.
At this point I'm a professional who still likes to tinker with
software, but not so much with hardware or software + hardware. My
experience with the Pi is that I constantly have power issues and
constantly have issues with the drive getting wiped or corrupted.
I'm sure these are pretty straightforward for many or most of you
on the list, but I'm not a hardware person, really, and I found
them frustrating. I was excited by the 400, but really turned off
by the lack of a headphone jack.
I just think the route of making devices not designed to be
portable into being portable is a dead end for me. I beleive that
there are people (and some or many of you) who can make that kind
of setup work and tolerate it. But basically I want something that
isn't a toy, and if it's a hack I want it to be a relatively
reliable hack. I'm not price sensitive, but if the thing powers
off in the middle of some writing even once or twice I won't be
able to trust it.
Anyway, thanks for indulging my portable Emacs fantasy. I think it
is still a fantasy. I go to Emacs meetups and lurk on places like
these and while I've seen some neat hacks, I haven't really seen
anything practical from my limited perspective. But the dream
lives on.
Best,
Patrick
Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
If you have an Android device, you may be able to rig Termux up===========================================================
to do that, of course it'd have
to use Fenrir or another screen reader, or Emacspeak with
ESpeak, but I think it'd doable.
Devin Prater
r.d.t.prater@xxxxxxxxx
On Tue, Mar 30, 2021 at 9:52 AM Patrick Smyth
<patricksmyth01@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Devin,
This is a really interesting and encouraging thread. I do most
of
my day-to-day in Emacs and have always really wanted to some
way
to take Emacs with me and use it on the go, especially since I
feel I keep about 10% of my brain in org mode. Is there a
modern
device that would let me do this in some form? What's your
recommendation? Or will I forever need to sit at my computer to
do
certain kinds of work?
Best,
Patrick
Devin Prater <r.d.t.prater@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> And I fondly remember the Braille Plus, that lovely Linux
> powered PDA. I
> loved that thing, and it's where I first found Emacs. :)
> Devin Prater
> r.d.t.prater@xxxxxxxxx
>
> On Tue, Mar 30, 2021 at 4:50 AM Tamas Geczy
> <gt1991@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone,
>>
>> I now see what Ken has said on this mailing list and can
>> agree
>> with it
>> 100%. There are two new equipment purchases which lead me to
>> this
>> conclusion.
>> The first is one of the new Humanware Brilliant BI 40x
>> displays. APH
>> is selling the Mantis, but unfortunately (for me ) this has
>> QWERTY
>> input, and I wanted the standard 8-key type. It's clear to
>> me
>> that the
>> Chameleon 20, Brilliant 20 are the exact same display,
>> except
>> that APH
>> is able to provide a lower cost to consumers by providing
>> the
>> Chameleon under their name. This was similar to the PlexTalk
>> /
>> Bookport situation. I burnt out the book port by
>> accidentally
>> plugging
>> in both the AC adapter and USB cable. Not a good idea, kids.
>> Some
>> devices just don't turn off charging on both, and that can
>> fry
>> internal things. So went the Bookport, but I did find a
>> PlexTalk as a
>> replacement for it. So there's that.
>> There is, however, a big difference between the era of
>> yesteryear and
>> the one of today. The Plextalk / Bookport used same firmware
>> structure, but both had different firmware files which could
>> be
>> loaded
>> on your model. The Plextalk was used internationally, so a
>> lot
>> of
>> European countries saw it, whereas the Bookport + was a U.S
>> exclusive.
>> Either way,
>> today we are faced with a world where both the APH devices
>> and
>> the BI
>> 40X models can use the same firmware file. They can run the
>> same
>> build, and each will display their own hardware-driven
>> differences,
>> such as Keysoft Light being used on BI 40X, but Mantis/
>> Chameleon
>> hiding those Keysoft things and presenting people with the
>> right user
>> guide for their model.
>>
>> How is this done? Surprisingly, the firmware for these
>> devices
>> is more
>> open than custom-built Humanware Apex arm platforms of the
>> past, or
>> even the Everest-based bootloader boards used by a
>> BrailleNote
>> touch.
>> They use simple .tar files for the filesystems, but there's
>> good
>> signature verification on these files so you would need to
>> generate
>> with keys you don't have if you were to tinker with the
>> package. From
>> the get-go, the thing I liked and what surprised me is just
>> how
>> much
>> security is still considered in these devices, but we'll get
>> into this
>> later.
>>
>> Either way, I found a few surprises hidden in there. I can
>> tell
>> you
>> that the entire E-Speak speech synthesizer is in the current
>> firmware,
>> indicating to me that they may expand full speech
>> functionality
>> (or at
>> least for book reading if not full speech) using Mbrola
>> based
>> HMM
>> synthesis technology. This is present today, just not
>> activated. There
>> are also a bunch of sample .mp3 files in the root user's
>> home
>> folder,
>> which appears to be used when you get these things in a
>> diagnostic
>> mode. (that part is still hidden to me, which is good as
>> again,
>> it
>> shows how well they can still restrict security on a Linux
>> environment.)
>>
>> This presents a huge opportunity for expansion in the future
>> on
>> these
>> devices. I found out that the way they can code for knowing
>> which you
>> have is simple. These devices are built on off-the-shelf
>> hardware.
>> Specifically the SAMA5D3 Xplained User Guide -
>> Atmel-11269-32-bit-Cortex-A5-Microcontroller-SAMA 5D3
>> breadboard. This
>> is amazing. In fact, you can view the entire spec sheet for
>> it
>> here:
>>
>>
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/devicedoc/Atmel-11269-32-bit-Cortex-A5-Microcontroller-SAMA5D3-Xplained_User-Guide.pdf
>>
>> So, we can tell many specs of the hardware right off the
>> bat,
>> and that
>> standard off-the-shelf parts power them, including a Cortex
>> A5
>> chip
>> and at least a gig of Ram. In their Linux implementation,
>> there's a
>> /dev/brldsplay (or something similar, perhaps
>> /dev/brailledisplay)
>> which drives the Braille output at all times. This is also
>> how
>> the
>> "recovery mode" prompt can be displayed by the bootloader.
>> These
>> breadboards appear to have either 1 or 2 gigs of ram, and
>> they
>> pair it
>> with various Bluetooth chips in the hardware difference
>> process:
>> Bluetooth 5 for the BI 40x only, 4.2 for Bi 20x, Mantis,
>> Chameleon.
>> What's interesting is that the famously talked about NLS
>> ereader is
>> based off this same series also. This means that the EReader
>> (as it is
>> known internally) has a 20-cell display (just like
>> Chameleon,
>> Bi 20X)
>> and an exactly identical interface / firmware to these
>> devices.
>> The
>> difference? Only the BARD online service will be accessible
>> on
>> them
>> with the "online services" menu.
>>
>> That's right, here we get into more interesting things. The
>> Chameleon
>> right now excludes the BARD service, and it's a curious
>> omission.
>> Perhaps agreements had to be made since the NLS product will
>> have that
>> service, and it's exactly the same looking device. Either
>> way,
>> all APH
>> would have to do is to flip the switch on the menu item for
>> Mantis and
>> Chameleon users, and they would get BARD listed. But at this
>> point,
>> this could also undercut Humanware's products, although the
>> Mantis
>> never will as it's the QWERTY brother to the BI 40x.
>> However,
>> today,
>> the Chameleon is about $300 cheaper over the Bi 20x, and the
>> only
>> thing you miss out on is the BARD service. I've heard
>> rumblings
>> from a
>> few people that BARD support may still ultimately arrive on
>> the
>> APH
>> devices, and I think it should considering how many students
>> may need
>> that support for their textbooks.
>>
>> The other device I was able to acquire is an embosser. I'm
>> still
>> looking for tactile graphics to use which are good to print,
>> but this
>> can open up a bit more opportunities for me as well when it
>> comes to
>> creating diagrams of things. One device that came with the
>> embosser is
>> the GoBraille
>>
>> You might be a bit surprised to know that the GoBraille is
>> built on a
>> Raspberry Pi. That's right. When I saw the layout of the
>> board,
>> I
>> instantly knew. It has 4 USB ports + ethernet on the left,
>> Micro-USB
>> in the back, standard HDMI in the back. Oh, and it announces
>> its IP
>> address from the headphone port. How cute.
>> In a way though, you're also paying for the formatter and
>> embosser
>> interface + custom drivers all that could require to print
>> Tiger
>> graphics. Certainly making it air-print compatible over
>> CUPS,
>> configuring how the embosser's Graphics VS text mode will
>> work,
>> all of
>> that requires a bit of custom coding. The frontend to the
>> LibLouis
>> translator through the GoBraille web interface, it being
>> able
>> to
>> translate text when it comes across wireless printing, and
>> configuring
>> the Wi-fi over Wi-fi direct + other extras that make that
>> device user
>> friendly. Still, it's built on off-the-shelf hardware. And
>> that's a
>> bit remarkable.
>>
>> So Linux does have a huge place to carve out in the future
>> of
>> assistive technology. I think many more things to come will
>> be
>> built
>> either atop Linux or Android, and this will propel them into
>> the
>> future where more modern hardware can e used within these
>> devices,
>> rather than hardware that's a few years old already by the
>> time
>> they
>> get to design all the custom motors and servos and whatever
>> else to
>> interface with it. I know they have built .so Linux
>> libraries
>> which
>> drive some of this now, which opens up a potential of re-use
>> or
>> easier
>> re-configuration to fit a wide range of Linux hardware.
>> Just don't be surprised, because that Linux revolution is
>> already
>> here, and we live among it. Now I just wish I could somehow
>> localize
>> or help localize the Chameleon's or Bi X series firmware
>> into
>> Hungarian. That would be amazing.
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Tamas
>>
===========================================================
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>> Administrative contact: <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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>> Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are trademarks of the
>> Raspberry Pi
>> Foundation.
>>
>> This list is not affiliated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation
>> and
>> the views
>> and attitudes expressed by the subscribers to this list do
>> not
>> reflect
>> those of the Foundation.
>>
>> Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013
>>
>>
>
>
>
===========================================================
> The raspberry-vi mailing list
> Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/raspberry-vi
> Administrative contact: <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi logo are trademarks of the
> Raspberry Pi Foundation.
>
> This list is not affiliated to the Raspberry Pi Foundation
> and
> the views and attitudes expressed by the subscribers to this
> list do not reflect those of the Foundation.
>
> Mike Ray, list creator, January 2013
