David, with all due respect, you're making a lot of suppositions here. I understand that you didn't feel the device you tested worked well, but you can't extrapolate from that and say that because that device didn't, this one won't either. they're different devices, designed by different people. I remember trying to use a Mac with Outspoken back in the mid nineties. I found the experience frustrating and the Mac at that time barely usable. Obviously I would not say the same about the current Mac and Voiceover. One thing you seem to have missed, is that this device does provide haptic feedback, according to the article, to help users navigate. If that's the case, it would seem to be fairly similar to the optacon in terms of how a user would navigate with it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling it the blindness device of the future. But I'm also not going to dismiss it off-hand without ever seeing what it can actually do. I understand you feel that it holds no promise, and you're entitled to your opinion, but me, I'll wait and see. My hunch, assuming it ever gets developed, is that it will have a niche. Best, Donna On Feb 27, 2014, at 1:42 AM, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> wrote: > No, your supposition is flawed. I also had am opticon when I was younger, and > I became fairly proficient with it. > > The optican provides direct tactile (haptic) stimulation on the finger. You > use that stimulation to correct your camera placement whilst scanning the > line. Even the fastest optican users had a minor amount of drift whilst > reading. > > The OCR system does not provide immediate tactile feedback. It provides > audible feedback once the buffer is full and processes. During that time, you > have no idea what your camera is doing on the line. In fact, the narrower the > camera from top to bottom, the worse this aspect becomes. > > Also, the Opticon had the ability to adjust camera magnification on the fly > for adjusting to different text sizes. With this system, you do not know the > size of each line of text, so you do not know how far down to drop for each > line to be scanned. > > David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA > Email: dchitten...@gmail.com > Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 > Sent from my iPhone > > On 27 Feb 2014, at 12:03, Donna Goodin <doniado...@me.com> wrote: > >> Actually, David, I'd have to disagree. This may be one of those subjective >> things that's different for different people. But I used an Optacon as a >> kid, and with a little practice had no problem moving the device across the >> page. I think that for me, having the physical page as an anchor would be >> easier than just figuring out where in the air to let my iPhone hover. But >> again, this may be a subjective thing. >> Cheers, >> Donna >> On Feb 26, 2014, at 2:14 PM, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Actually, it would be much more difficult to focus than the iPhone. You >>> need to know where each line of text starts, and you need to track each >>> line precisely whilst keeping the text with as little skew as possible. If >>> you think the iPhone is difficult for OCR, you would find this device >>> virtually unusable. >>> >>> David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA >>> Email: dchitten...@gmail.com >>> Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 >>> Sent from my iPhone >>> >>> On 26 Feb 2014, at 12:09, Donna Goodin <doniado...@me.com> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi Erik, >>>> >>>> I don't think anyone would ever read War and Peace with either device, but >>>> it could provide an interesting alternative for short documents. Probably >>>> similar to Prismo and Text Grabber, but it seems it might be easier to >>>> focus once you got the hang of it. >>>> Cheers, >>>> Donna >>>> On Feb 25, 2014, at 11:47 AM, erik burggraaf <e...@erik-burggraaf.com> >>>> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi Donna, I've personally been intrigued by the Ectaco C-Pen 3.5 for >>>>> over a year now. I haven't bought the thing because my business started >>>>> to impload last year around my personal problems and there was never >>>>> enough resources to expense the $150 unit. The reviews on it are >>>>> extremely mixed and I have not been able to reach the company to set up >>>>> an evaluation but the promo material looks pretty awsome. >>>>> >>>>> Best, >>>>> >>>>> Erik Burggraaf >>>>> Ebony Consulting toll-free: 1-888-255-5194 >>>>> or on the web at http://www.erik-burggraaf.com >>>>> >>>>> On 2014-02-25, at 11:45 AM, Donna Goodin <doniado...@me.com> wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>>> Hi all, >>>>>>> >>>>>>> First, forgive the cross-post and the OT post., but as I know reading >>>>>>> is a subject that occupies much space on both lists, it seemed >>>>>>> appropriate to post to both. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Below is a link I received to an article about a new product under >>>>>>> development. It's a device that you wear on your finger, and then scan >>>>>>> across a line of text to hear it read out loud. It obviously has a >>>>>>> ways to go before it would be practical to use, but wow, what cool >>>>>>> possibilities it could open up, if the OCR capability is decent. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> http://news.discovery.com/tech/gear-and-gadgets/finger-computer-reads-books-aloud-140221.htm?utm_source=TW&utm_medium=DNews&utm_campaign=DNewsSocial >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Cheers, >>>>>>> Donna >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> -- >>>>>> 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/groups/opt_out. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> -- >>>>> 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/groups/opt_out. >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> 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/groups/opt_out. >>> >>> >>> -- >>> 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/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> -- >> 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/groups/opt_out. > > > -- > 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/groups/opt_out. -- 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/groups/opt_out.
