As i said yesterday, i did talk to the maker of this device on phone for
about 22 minutes and told him about our views on the same.
he said that the device with recording ability will soon be out. he also
told that their intention is just to assist blind students living in rural
areas with their studies. he admitted that there are much advanced devices
in developped countries and they are not interested in any international
market.
it's good that at last, he agreed that more hours of recording can be
achieved in MP3 format using the memory card of same storage capacity (2 GB
here). but again, he said the copyright thing etc and tried to prove that
wave, being an open format, in particular bitrate is feasible and 60 hours
capacity is quite enough to cover all subjects of a particular standard.
even if it is lacking in many things, what i appriciated was the thing that
it is so far used by about 75 students and their study life is much easier
now in terms of using a small instrument with a card, no need of carrying
whole lot of cassettes with them wherever they go. another strong point i
felt was its power backup of 8 hours. this is quite useful in remote areas
where electricity (or rather, scarcity of it) is big hurdle in their
studies.
Finally, with his permission, i give his E-mail and cell number to the list.
he is ready to listen to the suggestions.
here it is:
His name is Mr. Shirish Darvekar, i call him Darvekar Kaka. his mobile
number is 09890073287 and his E-mail is
[email protected]
Bye and take care.
Regards.
Sandesh G. Narayane
10 Harikrupa,
Near Nasardi bridge,
Pune road,
Nashik 422011
Phone: 0253-2595155
Cell: 9270056753
MSN ID: [email protected]
Yahoo ID: sandeshnarayane
Skype: anjalisandesh
----- Original Message -----
From: "Asudani, Rajesh" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2009 4:14 PM
Subject: Re: [AI] audio book review:
I have, in this forum, endorsed shortcomings of ABR.
I have also personally interacted with its makers in the past, being in
the same city.
I have, time and again, brought its shortcomings to their notice as well.
Agreeing with points raised here, I would like to add, however, that we
better refrain from scoffing at the persons who wish to do something for
VI.
Maybe, their thinking is different, or they are not fully aware of
happenings.
However, the ABR has proved useful in substituting cassettes and making
study material available to quite a few students. Study material is
recorded, or converted from analog audio recording by this NGO and
provided to students on MMC in ABR.
DAISY is surely the standard audio format internationally recognized,
however, lack of affordable daisy player surely limits its benefits to
common students etc.
Hopefully, we will see an affordable daisy player with other features,
very soon.
However, the fact that a daisy book can be played in any mp3 player, and
also the fact that ABR is not equipped with any recording facility or
speed varying modality coupled with its limited playing capacity for wav
files recorded at a particular sampling rate makes it an instrument of
private use by an NGO for distributing study material to students and not
something to be promoted nationally.
The accessibility angle is misplaced, as merely pronouncing chapter or
book names does not serve the purpose.
Duration part is also not logically justifiable, as similar compression
can be achieved in mp3 or daisy also.
Regards
Rajesh Asudani
Assistant General Manager (PPS),
Reserve Bank of India
Nagpur
09420397185
O: 0712 2806676
Res: 0712 2591349
Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?"
John Milton
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of govind reddy
Sent: Wednesday, September 09, 2009 9:30 PM
To: accessindia
Subject: Re: [AI] audio book review:
Dear list members:
Based on Prashant's review, I tried to speak to some of the
manifacturers and this is what they have to say.
Dear Govind
Thanks for your feedback to Anna on the Audio Book Reader created by
'SAKSHAM' (I have received the forwarded copy).
As regards your opinion about the selected wave format I (as one of
the inventors) would like to clarify that the wave file format with
lower attribute has been deliberately selected with an aim to
accomodate large number of tracks on the MMC.
That is why it was possible that about 60 hours duration data is
available on a 2 GB MMC.
You are not wrong when you say that MP3 is a dominant format now a
days but when you go for designing a new audio player the copywrite
issue for MP3 comes in the way. (one can create as many files in MP3
without need to seek authentication but if one undertakes designing an
MP3 player one has to seek authentic license from MPEG)
Secondly though being a compressed format the audio duration may not
be available to extent of the capacity mentioned.
We have attempted to design The ABR as an exclusive tool for visually
challenged to undertake their study with more ease.
You have also mentioned that 'The keys do not have a voice promt
attached to them, they just give a beep'. I think perhaps the demo
might have missed some details (sorry for that) but in fact the
embossed buttons are defenitely supported by voice prompt that is
amongst the special features of the device.
Lastly I would like to say that how far we should depend upon foreign
countries for solutions suited to people in our country.
I call upon intellegent people like you to come forward and inspire
and encourage our technical experts in India and abroad to use their
resources to comfort the life of visually challenged in our country.
The DAISY format though convenient to have access to a pinpoint
portion you may agree that the large number of visually challenged in
our country are deprived of Daisy Players or Computers to play the
books due to non affordable cost individually. At least ABR is
affordable to the sponsorers.
By the way I would like to inform you that we are already on job to
produce a model with recording facility and random access to the
tracks.
With best wishes waiting for your response and suggestions.
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