Jerry, Well, not to be nasty, but you spent too much time saying not very much and not enough time on asking what you really wanted. <GRIN>
However what i assume, always a questionable practice, you want is access to stand alone music syhthesizers similar to what sightlings have. I don't say it can't be done, but it is entirely non trivial the basis of the problem lies in the fact that commercial synthesizers use proprietary microcontrollers which run proprietary displays. The info you want exists in the proprietary programming of these devices and is just not available in any way that's easilly interpreted for us. A number of years ago, at least ten I think, folks from Tim Kranmer's old bureau for the blind of Kentucky labs took a commercial synth and got in between the controller and the display. They built an entirely new microcontroller system whose job was to re-interpret the signals that drove the display and send text equivelents to a speech synthesizer. so far as I know it worked fine, but since the life span of commercial synthesizers is short, it didn't stay out there long. Unfortunately if we wanted such devices we'd have to re-invent this very difficult wheel every time manufacturers changed models. the "right' way would be to convince manufacturers to provide equivelents to displayed information on some standard port for external interpretation. I've been spending much of my 25 year career as a rehab engineer trying to do just that job and look where it's gotten me! Nowhere at all! If you wanted to become an electrical electronics/computer/musicsynth engineer, you could homebrew one, but it would cost you many times what a commercial synth would cost and probably never be as good. The answer is computer based systems, period others can tell you far better than i which such software/hardware is most accessible, but unless Jay Williams or someone else more knowledgable tells me different, that's the answer. We've tried convincing manufacturers of electronic equipment to make the needed info available via some standard port for years, they just don't care. We've worked on devices to read displays with a camera, it is not technologically feasible yet. the answer is computers whether we like it or not Tom Fowle Embedded Systems Developer/ Rehab engineer Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center The Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute 2318 Fillmore St. San Francisco, CA 94115 415-345-2123 (Voice) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Net-Tamer V 1.13 Beta - Registered To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
