Yeh, and I think the real benefit won't come, until they make available good and reliable 3D scanners. Or, if they will make ready for download the blueprints. Yet, maybe still a few years of dreaming. Some manufacturers may simply prevent such blueprints from being too easily available.
Just for the fun of it, they did a program on the radio over here, a little while back. The guy from the radio, wanted a new cover for his cellphone. First he went to a company, who had specialized on the 3D printing. He had to pay a fair amount, and came out with a cover that did not exactly look much nice, and definitely did not fit. Next, he decided to go to some hobby computer club, and have one of the people there do the job. This time, he ended up only having to pay the material - something like a couple of dollars - and walked home with a brand new cover, that fit just fine. And, this is where I think one of the biggest issues will be, for a non-sighted user. Basically, if it was just to get hold of a blueprint, and then send it to the 3D printer, well then it may be fully possible to work something basic out for the screen reader. But from the program on the radio, it seems as if you have to perform a good amount of modification on the screen, before you can send it to the printer. I dare say, all of that is done one-hundred percent graphically, and hence will likely never be possible with a screen reader. So, unless you can get hold of perfectly exact blueprints, or they would let you have access to a fully reliable 3D scanner, I'd say chances for the low-vision user will be rather small. At least the way technology stands for now. Yet, what did they say back in the 80s? Many of the things we are using today, and even relying our very independency on as disabled people, would be told to be silly dreams, only a few years ago. 20 years ago, noone would have thought that cellphones would ever be accessible in full. When I started to operate a computer, things like OCR and scanners, was something only the people in the labs had fancy ideas about. And, I still do remember the day when the CD was introduced to the market. Even, a couple of decades ago, I knew people that told Windows would simply never be accessible for anyone who could not see the fancy graphics of the screen. So, who knows, one day you and I will be printing all our 3D gadgets. Once the manufacturers realize it is much cheaper to release a blueprint, and then let you do the "production" - or, should I say printing - the market will see a boost. And, likely it will be fully possible for us to send a blueprint to the printer, just as well as you are able to send a downloaded document to your standard printer today. In one way, both exciting and interesting thought. Yet, I don't really know. Maybe starting to get a bit too old for all that fancy fun. Smile. ----- Original Message ----- From: RicksPlace To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2013 3:03 PM Subject: Re: Anyone working with 3D printing software Apps Hi: Allot of the things rely on cad type software, likely not accessible. Most of the cool stuff requires blueprints to make parts for things like screws and other parts that require exact fitting based on the design. Anyway, it may become a means of building things like replacement parts for objects you have and dont want to lose and much more me thinks. Rick USA ----- Original Message ----- From: David To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2013 8:48 AM Subject: Re: Anyone working with 3D printing software Apps Don't think there will be much for 3D printing - at least not if you don't happen to have a fair amount of sight left. I have never touched a 3D printer, or any of its software. Yet, I do know, they are slowly coming down in price, and also becoming available for the general user. Yet, the whole nature of 3D, may not be much easy to produce in a way that makes any sense to a person with little or no vision. Of course, you could have the speech tell you a good amount of information, or the Braille display throw a number of messages on your fingers, to let you know what you are about to do - or even, what has already started to take place. :) Really, we are already working with 2D. And see how much chatter the computer is throwing at us already. Not sure, if I want to try imagine - based on a chattering synthesizer - what my end product will look like. it is kind of hard enough with the two dimentions, leave the third one alone. :) OK, if you, or anyone else want to shoulder the task of making something work for me, then I am quite interested in seeing your results. I just have my doubts, if it will be much convenient to work with. Of course, one way to get around it, would be to use certain sound effects along with the speech, to illustrate the things taking place in the different dimentions. Just don't know really... :) ----- Original Message ----- From: RicksPlace To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2013 2:31 PM Subject: Re: Anyone working with 3D printing software Apps Thanks and Merry Christmas Bruce to you and your family big time! Rick USA ----- Original Message ----- From: LB To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2013 7:20 AM Subject: Re: Anyone working with 3D printing software Apps Hi Rick, Yea, I was hungry and made a slice of pizza with it! Just joking, got to leave, but want to wish you and everyone a Merry Christmas. Besides, I think our government spent millions using or trying to use a 3D computer to make pizza for the astronauts, or Washington D.C. Astro nuts! Merry Christmas Bruce Sent: Tuesday, December 24, 2013 6:08 AM Subject: Anyone working with 3D printing software Apps Hi: 3D printing is nuts futurable and will, I think, get tied into the internet for communications, transport, of items between home computers some day (Can you say StarTrek?) if not today. I started looking into 3d printing but it seems to use allot of cad type software among other styles of designing objects along with scanning. Has anyone started playing with a 3d printer / scanner and is there any potential of using a DeskTop App or even mobile App with WindowEyes to have accessibility to template design software? Rick USA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active.
