Boy, I hapen't heard anyone mention the Optacon in ages! I have one also. It seems that if they can use that technology for producing Braille dots, that would be terrific.
Bob ----- Original Message ----- From: Gordon Smith <[email protected]> To: [email protected] CC: Date: Friday, August 29, 2014 11:28 am Subject: Re: The Future's Bright; The Future's Braille! > > > Hi Martin This problem is already solved, it isn't a case of seeing if they can solve it any longer. I'm told that the way they do it now is totally different from the way it has been done in the past. They use what was, believe it or not, used way back in the mid 70s on the old "Optacon" reading machine, (One of which I have here. They use electro-stimulation instead of mechanical dots, pins, or what ever they now use to produce accurate Braille dot patterns. Thus, the challenges of producing a cheap to manufacture and often unreliable technology based on the "Blocks" that they currently use for cells, does not exist. The technologies have been here for decades, just not implemented in this way until now. The developers have been given a mandate to go ahead and produce a display and, judging by the reports we're seeing, they are confident that they will be able to unveil the device in 2016 for immediate sail across the globe. I personally will be buying one, that is for sure. I currently have a Mini Seika display to give me portable Braille with my mobile. But the keyboard is clunky and not always easy to use. I can use the thing, and have done so portable on numerous occasions. But all the same, I'm really looking forward to when this thing hits the streets. On 27 Aug 2014, at 21:41, Martin G. McCormick <[email protected]> wrote: I sure hope they are successful as tactile displays to this point are simply outrageously expensive and I think most of that cost is due to the nature of the technology. So far, each dot in a tactile display is some sort of mechanical assembly that requires precision manufacturing and individual attention for want of a better word. Normal print displays don't have individual light sources carefully soldered in to place but instead are matrices in which each pixel is a square or rectangle formed by the intersection of horizontal and vertical lines. The electronics to control a Braille display have been with us for decades now, but the mechanics of actually raising and lowering each dot are troublesome when it comes to cost and precision. It will be interesting to see how they solve this problem if they are successful. ======================================= The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> --------------------------------------- r Sent from Bob's Braille Sense U2 ======================================= The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> ---------------------------------------
