Hello everybody. Today I’ve had an opportunity to play with a couple of Orbit’s new devices. The Orbit Reader 20 I already had here as it’s on loan from my hospital radio station so that I can assess its suitability for our needs over there.
But the exciting device is the Orbit Graphic, think I have the name correct. Essentially, what it does is to connect to any computer, phone or tablet, (via Bluetooth® 5.0 or as a replacement for a monitor, via HDMI). The devic include slab similar to a TrackPad 2 from Apple. Except that it uses an array of 2437 pins to provide a tactile representation of items on the screen. The entire device is touch-controlled, allowing a blind person to directly interact, for the very first time, with a native interface, without the need for any screen-reader or assistive software of any kind. Using it is a skill which one must master and, at first, it isn’t that easy. I had it on my desk for a couple of hours and it was only when the demo ended that I was starting to get the hang of navigating the screen by touch. Being able to feel the contents of the screen, not just by lines, and not only in textual format, was an incredible feeling. Where there is text, so text appears. But where any form of graphical image appears on the screen, you get a true-to-life tactile graphical representation of the screen or a specific window. I believe that the device is still in its final dealer testing phase, but I will most definitely be looking buy one when I can. Regarding the Orbit Reader 20. This device is probably the best portable Braille display I have ever had the pleasure of using. The Reader 20 is the first display in the world to support the new USB HID standard, developed as a collaboration between Orbit Research, Apple and Google. Basically it means that there is no software required to interface between the operating system and the display. So gone are the days of installing drivers, on any platform. It’s widely expected that other developers of assistive hardware, such as EliTech Group, VFO Group, and other manufacturers, will implement the standard in the near future. Meaning that Braille displays will be compatible right out of the box with just about every platform there is. The Reader 20 is a small, rugged and compact device, supporting the new Bluetooth® “Just Works” protocol. It can seamlessly connect to multiple BlueTooth devices, and it can be used in Remote mode and stand-alone mode absolutely seamlessly. So, if you have something noted down on your Braille display’s SD. Card, and you want to transfer it to your remote device, it’s seamless. You can also setup the display’s SD card as a mass storage device on your PC or Mac if you’re using USB. The only slight issue seems to be the absence of router keys. There are ways of moving the cursor, but it does take a little getting used too. The Braille keyboard is not quite standardised, resembling that of the Seika Braille Minis. So, you have keys 1 through 6 where you’d expect them to be. And dots 7/8 located either side of the spacebar. There are two rocker switches, (one at east end of the display), which allow you to move the cursor by line, sentence or paragraph in stand-alone mode, or as your scree-reader dictates when using the remote mode. There is also the now standardised menu keys, so the up/down/left/right arrow keys are located in a circle around the “Select” button. These keys are really the heart of your display. You can use them to read through files, navigate your screen-reader in remote mode, or perform a number of menu functions when switching from or two either mode. When the device is in remote mode, you can easily jump back to the internal menu system and, therefore, to edit/read modes, just by pressing the up-arrow and OK/select buttons simultaneously. On the rear surface of the display there are, from left-to-right: • On/Off power button. • Full-size SD card slot • USBMicro slot for charging the device, or connecting to a remote computer. The battery in the device is user-replaceable. So no need to worry about having to return it to base if the battery gives out. In conclusion, I would say it’s a very portable, light-weight, rugged and functional Braille device which, in some respects, out-performs even the most pricey competing devices. The Braille cells are a little noisy, but not obtrusively so. I’ve using the device quite a lot in the 24 hours or so I’ve had it hear, and the battery is still 80% charged. So it would appear that it’s a very efficient little device. My only slight quibble is that the price has increased by almost 50% since its initial release in 2018. Retailing at $699 in the US, and £699.00 here in the UK, it’s quite a lot more pricy than it was when it was first released. But still, it easily beats the price of the competition. The closest approximation I can make to this device is the Focus 14 by Freedom, and you could almost buy 3 of these displays for the price you’d pay for one Focus 14 Blue, (Fifth generation). The Braille itself is extremely sharp, and the cells are very robust, not being as perceptible to dust and damage as conventional Braille cells on other devices. In short, an excellent competitor to the Focus and, it has almost 33% additional Braille area, for less than a third of the cost. I plan to acquire one shortly as it would take the place of the external keyboards for my portable hardware. I hope that somebody found this an interesting and possibly informative read.
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