Hi Tim, A braille display shows the contents of your computer’s screen in real time. Modern displays are also full braille controllers, because they allow you to write braille on the display and have it show as print on the screen, and also perform all functions of the computer direct from the display.
Braille displays come in sizes 12-20 cells, 32, 40, and 80 cells at a time. The average cost of a 40 cell braille display is $3000. The more cells, the higher the cost. 40 cells is the length of one standard line of braille on 11 inch braille paper, while 32 cells is the standard for a4 8.5 inch braille paper. 80 cell displays are not popular even among very proficient braille users because of their cost, $8500, and because they are 80 cells long or double the width of 11 inch standard braille lines. This makes the hardware enormous and uncomfortable to use. The very best display on the market right now is the vareo connect ultra 40. It is made by baum and has 40 cells. It can connect up to 1 usb and 4 bluetooth devices symultaneously and switch between them on the fly and is the only display that has this feature. Other unique features include a vibramotor to alert users of incoming notifications, and an executive style note taker carrying case. It has note taker features similar to the ones found on the hims braille edge which is also an excellent display. It is $3500 or so, making it more expensive than most 40 cell displays on the market, but the case alone is a $100 add-on to any of the other popular 40 cell displays. Focus 40 bt from freedom scientific is your cheepest display at less than 2800. It has a limited feature set and a medioker build quality, but does fine for the bare bones. The worst display on the market is the alva bc640. I’m not sure what they are charging for the things now, but they are built like crap, and they used to be super expensive, like in the $4500-5000 range. Avoid with a capital A. I would tell you more about smaller displays, but I feel like any one who is up for a braille embosser is probably more interested in a 40 cell. Hope this helps, Erik Burggraaf On Nov 19, 2014, at 4:30 PM, Tim Kilburn <kilbu...@me.com> wrote: > Hi, > > Thanks Scott. What exactly does a Braille display do? > > Later... > > Tim Kilburn > Fort McMurray, AB Canada > >> On Nov 19, 2014, at 14:27, Scott Berry <sb356...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> Yes there are also braille displays. You can get those through Humanware >> and Freedom Scientific. You can also get them through Baum. There are >> others but this is the one that come to mind right now. >> >> >>> On Nov 19, 2014, at 2:23 PM, Tim Kilburn <kilbu...@me.com> wrote: >>> >>> Hi All, >>> >>> Thanks for all your answers so far. I’m assuming from your responses that >>> Duxbury is software and Eileen and David offered two embossers, the >>> Juliette and the Tiger. Doing some Internet searching resulted in this >>> site >>> >>> http://www.cucat.org/projects/louis/ >>> >>> about the Louis Braille package which appears to have a Mac version, >>> although I’m not sure of it’s quality. >>> >>> By the sounds of things, I’ll need to either purchase a Windows machine, >>> not what I really want to do, or put BootCamp onto a Mac and go from there. >>> As long as the embosser will connect. Scott, at this point, they haven’t >>> given me much info on what specifically they wish to do, so, I’m not sure >>> that I can properly answer your questions. >>> >>> Are there other options when using Braille other than a physical embosser? >>> Sorry, if this is a dumb question as I’ve not dealt much with Braille >>> peripherals. I was a stubborn child, didn’t learn Grade 1 Braille until I >>> was a teenager, but really have only used it for playing card games and >>> demonstrations to various groups. >>> >>> All help is appreciated. >>> >>> Later... >>> >>> Tim Kilburn >>> Fort McMurray, AB Canada >>> >>>> On Nov 19, 2014, at 14:04, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> My current favourite braille embosser is the Tiger from View Plus. >>>> Unfortunately, it only works with Windows. Tiger has the best tactile >>>> graphics I have used. >>>> >>>> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA >>>> Email: dchitten...@gmail.com >>>> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 >>>> Sent from my iPhone >>>> >>>>> On 20 Nov 2014, at 05:51, Tim Kilburn <kilbu...@me.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> Hi All, >>>>> >>>>> I have been asked to recommend a Braille Embosser and necessary >>>>> translation software for a student in one of our schools. Do any of the >>>>> Braille users on this list have any recommendations for me? >>>>> >>>>> Later... >>>>> >>>>> Tim Kilburn >>>>> Fort McMurray, AB Canada >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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