MEMORANDUM
To: Members And Friends
NFB R&D Committee
From: T. V. Cranmer, Chairman
Subject: Braille and rodents
Date: October 20, 1994
At lease few of the responses to my post on the See Turtle was
misunderstood. It is not proposed that this movable braille
scanning-reader would have any of the functions of a mouse of the
sort used with GUI displays. It would be nothing more than a
reading device with the smallest useful number of braille cells.
It is a compromise based on economics.
The best braille display would be in the form of a flat panel with
rows and columns of braille characters resembling a paper page.
The next best would be a scrollable part of a page consisting of
four or more braille lines. The moveable braille display that has
been referred to as the See Turtle is at the bottom of my priority
list--but the question remains:
How many braille cells would be required to make a good movable
screen reading device?
There are other factors than size of the braille cluster. In my
original post, I referred to a "free floating" device. Probably
not a good idea. Tracking skills would have to be consciously
applied at the same time braille recognition is occurring. For me,
and maybe you, that is too much to process. Would it help to put
the movable cluster on tracks; perhaps between detents. or on a
surface with embedded magnetic bars.
What say you guys suspend your strong opinions long enough to
conduct some serious thought experiments. Then, if we have
consensus, we can build one or forget the whole thing.
What's the largest member of the rodent family? Squirrel?
opossum?
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