Re: Linux for humans that differ to averaged people was - Re: Subscription [OT]
On 12/06/11 20:46, Lisi wrote:
> On Saturday 11 June 2011 16:42:12 Scott Ferguson wrote:
>>> On Sat, 2011-06-11 at 10:27 +0100, Lisi wrote:
> [snipped]
>>>> That is not sarcasm incidentally. I would genuinely like to know how
>>>> you can use braille to read things on the Internet.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_Braille_display
>>
>>
>> Literally interpreting your question
>> (I used to build machines for people with vision problems)
>
> Thanks, Scott. :-)
>
> I meant it literally. I had never come across or heard of a tactile computer
> display.
The nicest one I ever saw was an image display - a beautifully crafted
Huon timber box with a tight grid of holes in the top. Each hole has a
stainless steel rod sitting in it - each rod can be raised and lowered
by a small drive - at rest they are flush with the top of the box, but
can be raised about 1cm. A screen display is scanned and converted to a
grayscale which is then analysed. The screen is "gridded" with blocks of
pixels represented by individual rods - the darker the colour of the
pixel block - the higher the rod is raised. The result is a 3D
representation of the screen image. Very cool and beautifully made. When
unpowered the rods sit flush with the surface of the box, making it easy
to clean.
The unit was completely designed by a blind person - including the
software! Build by a sighted person using parts from an old SCSCI
scanner and drives from a bunch of old, old, floppy disk drives (the
really floppy sort).
>
> I am intrigued that they exist, but the RNIB (Royal National Institute for
> Blind people) doesn't sell them and doesn't seem to know about them.
>
> I have googled, but am clearly asking the wrong question.
>
> Scratch that! I have tried again with Scott's search parameter and have
> finally found them mentioned on the RNIB site. But they are, as you say,
> prohibitively expensive. One is obviously not expected to want them, because
> I had even searched the RNIB shop with "braille" and not found displays, only
> inputs of various kinds.
>
> There must be some multi-millionaires who are blind!!
> Lisi
>
>
Dunno about blind multi-millionaires - but selling JAWS must have made
more than a few millionaires.
Cheers
--
It's just a ride and we can change it any time we want.
It's only a choice.
No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money, a choice, right now,
between fear and love.
The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your door, buy guns,
close yourself off.
The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.
~ Bill Hicks
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