Lee, interesting. I was in Louisville last month for the ACB convention and didn't notice anything like that, but I wasn't looking for it either. Are you sure the guy didn't have a Trekker or some other personal GPS device?
Bill Stephan Kansas Citty MO Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (816)803-2469 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lee A. Stone" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Friday, August 1, 2008 7:52 am Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] A possible mobility aid > > > > > > > I cannot give you a electricians answer Bill but I can tell you > that > maybe find someone who lives and or works in someplace like > Louisville > where they do have the talking signal button and one that tells > you > what intersection you are at. I wish I could remember the mans > name > but he was walking from work in Louisville with his guide dog and > I > could hear the street/ intersections being announced and he said" > no > that is not mine" and they continued. then when it said something > like " > baker and stone". well at that intersection I believe the man > pushed > the pole button as you said you wanted to do Bill. I got that off > from > blind cool tech some time ago. Lee > > > On Thu, Jul 31, 2008 at 03:10:27PM -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > wrote:> All: > > Hopefully Tom or one of you electrician types can answer this, > or laugh or whatever. > > I have a friend who occasionally sends me posts from one of the > O&M Lists he's on. Yesterday he sent one dealing with the > necessity of always pressing the activation button on traffic > signals that cycle based on the presence of vehicles as opposed to > a fixed time increment. > > The problem is that at least here, there's no way to tell for > certain what actually causes a given traffic light or signal to > cycle. So, presumably, the safest course would be to always press > a button when one was present (they usually are BTW). > > The difficulty is then, to find the buttons to press where > there's no audible signal, (which is of course generally the case. > > > > I work a dog, so naturally, the dog's going to treat a pole with > a button just the same as it would treat any other obstacle, and > avoid it. I understand there are "sonic guide" type devices that > you could perhaps use that would beep or vibrate when they passed > a pole, but that would probably give too many hits, since it would > see trees, sign posts etc. as well as light poles. Flailing > around with a cane or in my case, a whip antenna isn't really a > satisfactory way to do this either. > > Finally, I've been told there are devices which emit a sound > when they're locked on to an electrical current, presumably this > is because of the presence of a magnetic field. Would it be > possible to modify such a device so that it would beep or vibrate > or whatever when it "saw" poles with electric current present > inside them? > > > > My thought is that you probably wouldn't carry something like > this around all the time, but it would be useful for finding poles > and then knowing where they are, I could certainly train my dog to > find them again. > > > > Any thoughts? > > > > Bill Stephan > > Kansas Citty MO > > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Phone: (816)803-2469 > > -- > He's just a politician trying to save both his faces... > Come and chat with me at #quietzone on irc.newnet.net >
