Hi Dark, I'll have to look around for a penfriend and try it out. I've never seen one before, and you are the only person I know of who has one. So perhaps they aren't widely in circulation here in the States. However, I'll admit, for the sake of argument, it does sound easier for someone to manage. Especially, for someone who has recently lost their sight and doesn't know braille to begin with.
However, as for the full sized braille display I would love to see something like that. I remember in college having to create charts in Microsoft Excel for various classes, and it use to drive me up the wall not being able to instantly get access to it. A braille display that could display a full spreadsheet or a chart would be my very best friend. As you pointed out the applications of such a display are nearly endless. Being able to bring up a map of units and cities in Time of Conflict in braille and being able to examine the entire map on a braille display would absolutely rock. Unfortunately, Freedom Scientific and just about everyone else who produces braille displays don't seem to be in any hurry in developing a full sized display. Quite the opposite in fact. For example, back in June Freedom Scientific just began shipping their new Focus braille displays. They now can interface with smart phones, computers,etc via blue tooth. One of its selling features is that it is being marketed as a portable hand-held display with a carrying case and is pocket sized. So instead of making bigger and larger displays Freedom Scientific is now making smaller more portable braille devices. Obviously by shrinking the size and weight of the unit there is little hope they will create a display large enough to display an entire page of text in braille. Not at least for a price you are willing to pay for. If they charge $2,795 for a basic 40 cell display I hate to think what a full sized display would cost. Probably not anything less than $5,000. Cheers! On 8/7/12, dark <d...@xgam.org> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > Up until recently I would've fully agreed with you that despite advances in > > computer technology, the instant access braille provides for lables and > other bits of information is absolutely irriplaceable. However, the > penfriend has largely for me replaced the function braille used to perform, > > sinse all I need to do is stick a sticker on something, touch the penfriend > > to it hit record and speak, which is actually far easier than writing, > cutting and correctly sticking a braille lable on something, and in terms of > > cost, the penfriend machine itself cost less than a brailler and it's lables > > are less expensive. It also takes far less time and can be done with a none > > braillist, indeed I paid my research assistant for an hour's work and got my > > entire unlabled dvd and cd collections done, ---- including all 7 seasons of > > star trek voyager and several rather large box sets. > > Undoubtedly, the penfriend labeling system isn't perfect. You can't for > instance avoid it speaking out the lable it reads, which would make playing > > cards with it say pretty difficult, but I'm fairly certain a version with > headphones is just around the corner, also a version with different levels > of tactile labeling so that you could mark squares on a board for basic > layout and use the penfriend for specific square reading. > > of course, if braille technology can catch up, then this situation might > change. For instance, the current braille display designs of about a line of > > text represented by motorized pins are pretty much the same as they were > when first developed in the mid nineties. A few years ago however, I did > discuss with several engineers of specialist tech (it was at the Uk vi tech > > sexhibition site village), the possibility of the developement of a plastic > > which would tense when an electric current ran through it. > > A sheet of this could be used with correct internal programming to create an > > A 4 sized tactile display comparatively cheaply. under those! circumstances, > > with large, relatively cheap displays able to show an a full screen of > infomation in tactile form i could see braille very muh making a come back, > > sinse then any and all spacial information woule equally available to a vi > computer user, and in a far more efficient method than with a screen > reader. > > Imagine playing chess on a computer with a real tactile board, or better > still, having a game like time of conflict where you could run your hands > over aa dynamic map overview and read the identity of labled units as they > moved around. > > That sort of developement would be a total change, and not just in games, > sinse graphs, tables, pie charts, tree diagrams and other forms of spacial > representative data would be just as accessible to a vlind user, which would > > have great applications for business, science, and goodness knows what > else. > > Failing this sort of developement in technology though, I can see braille > being made completely obsolete in the next 20 years or so, sinse with the > rise of scanning and coding technology like the penfriend, even it's > essentially fast labeling functions will soon be things which can be done > far more easily via electronics. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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