MEMORANDUM
To: Members And Friends
NFB R&D Committee
From: T. V. Cranmer, Chairman
Subject1: Comments to Steve Jacobson
Subject2 Capsule paper project
November 23, 1994
Steve, I also remember the drawing machine you describe in your
note of November 15. It seems to me that its name included the
word Quill. The thing worked okay, but it was just a manual device
with an electrically driven pin for embossing. It would have been
of much greater interest if it could be controlled by a computer
using some standard graphic file to guide the formation of the
embossed image.
The other machine you mentioned, which used a laser printer to
produce a drawing which could then be run through a machine to form
a tactile image, continues to hold our interest. This machine uses
special paper coated with a film bearing tiny capsules of heat
sensitive material. The capsule paper is white and the drawing on
it is black. When this sheet passes under a heat source, the white
portion reflects most of the heat while the blackened areas absorb
enough heat to cause the encapsulated material to expand to form
raised lines.
Mr. Jaquiss is in hot pursuit of application of this technology.
He is directing this project on behalf of the R&D Committee.
As others have observed, it is usually necessary to do considerable
editing of graphic files to obtain satisfactory tactile images.
We have approved purchase of a supply of capsule paper and the
machine used to process the raised line drawings.
The next step will be to settle on a CAD or graphics application
that can be used to alter maps and other drawings from a CD-ROM
library of images. Similarly, photocopies of hotel lobbies, city
streets and similar drawings could be scanned into the CAD
application to be optimized for tactile presentation. Any graphics
package that we use must be capable of accessing a braille font for
labeling drawings.
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