MEMORANDUM
To: Members And Friends
NFB R&D Committee
From: T. V. Cranmer, Chairman
Subject: Of mice and turtles
Date: October 17, 1994
Two or three times a year I get calls from "inventors" who want to
make a "mouse" with one braille cell. These well meaning callers
believe that a device of that sort would enable the blind to read
computer screens and other electronically stored text.
I patiently explain that good braille readers need to see large
areas on a braille page in order to obtain format and other
information essential to scanning.
This braille mouse idea is not new. I recall seeing one many years
ago. More recently, one was shown at the International conference
is D.C circa 1991. I believe that one is actually commercially
available in Germany.
I am vague on details about this technology because I do not think
it offers an acceptable access method.
If a single cell mouse is of little use, would one with two, three,
or four be incrementally or exponentially better?
It seems to me that we need something bigger than a one-line mouse
if we expect to glean the cues essential to good reading. Perhaps
a group os braille cells arranged in three rows and three columns
atop a free floating carriage could be used to move about a virtual
page whilst three or more fingers actively examine the changing
braille display.
How many rows and columns do you imagine it would take to
approximate the reading facility you enjoy with hard copy braille?
You will recall the braille module shown by Piezzo Systems at our
February 1993 committee meeting. That module has four columns and
four rows. It didn't work at the time it was brought to our
meeting. Now it does.
Piezzo Systems is in the last year of their funded project to
design a large display. They promise to bring a 4-line 40-cell
unit to our 1995 meeting. Is this too big for a mouse? A two-
handed mouse?
I suggested to Wayne Thompson that we could not call it a mouse if
we decided to build a scanning device that large. I thought maybe
"turtle" would be a better name. Wayne, always the humorist,
suggested "See Turtle."
Back to business.
What would you think of adding a See Turtle (or something a bit
smaller,) to the Speaqualizer? Or a Turtle Port on the Braille'n
Speak.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 02 2012 - 01:30:03 PST