The following should be of interest to most addressees. Someone should
strip out this preliminary note and surplus header information and then
pass it on to EASI and blind-l. Tim Cranmer
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 95 13:23:14 EST
From: David Lunney <CHLUNNEY@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU>
To: "Dr. Tim V. Cranmer" <tvc@iglou.com>
Subject: using the BNS with lab instruments
Tim, I hope you are healthy, prosperous, and having fun. I thought you
might like to read a draft of a little article that my colleagues have
put together. While I wasn't even watching, they went into the lab and
plugged a Braille 'N Speak to various instruments, including a Fourier
transform infrared spectrophotometer! They were able to run a spectrum
and get the BNS to speak the peak table from the instrument. (They were
using the Perkin Elmer model 1600, a superbly designed instrument which
can be operated entirely from an external control computer after it is
set up with a few keystrokes on its keypad.)
Meanwhile, David Wohlers, one of our consultants, was using a BNS to
read electronic balances, so they put it all together in a little
article. You might already have seen a copy of the article, and if
you have, please forgive the duplication.
Happy holidays!
best regards,
David Lunney
Department of Chemistry
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858 USA
VOICE: 919-758-6453 919-328-6713
FAX: 919-758-0967 919-328-6210
CHLUNNEY@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU (internet)
THE BRAILLE 'N SPEAK AS A LABORATORY TOOL FOR BLIND STUDENTS
by Margaret M. Gemperline, Angelo Sonnesso, and David Wohlers
Sixth Draft, December 14, 1995
Many instruments used today in educational science laboratories
provide data in digital format. Frequently these instruments
have an RS-232 serial port so that the digitized data can be
easily transferred to a computer in ASCII format for automatic
data logging. Many of these instruments also can be externally
controlled by sending ASCII commands entered on a keyboard or
computer connected to the instrument's RS-232 port. The Braille
'n Speak, a "personal data assistant" (1) for blind people,
manufactured by Blazie Engineering, can be used by blind students
as a means of independent access to the instrumental data and as
a means of controlling the instrument in such a case. We would
like to make readers of this list aware of the success we have
had in obtaining 2-way RS-232 communication between the Braille
'n Speak and the laboratory instruments listed below.
For readers who may not be familiar with the Braille 'n Speak, it
is a truly portable device which contains a speech synthesizer, a
Braille keyboard, serial (RS-232) port for interfacing
capabilities, and memory. Text entered on the Braille keyboard
can be sent out the RS-232 port in standard ASCII format. ASCII
text coming in through the RS-232 port can be immediately spoken
by the Braille 'n Speak. The Braille 'n Speak has long been used
by blind students and professionals as a note-taking device, and
more currently, as a speech synthesizer for a computer.
Although our interfacing experience only extends to the Braille
'n Speak, other Blazie Engineering products, namely the Type 'n
Speak and the Braille Lite, which are capable of 2-way RS-232
communication using standard ASCII code, also seem to be suitable
for this task. Besides the Blazie Engineering products mentioned
here, we are also aware of Braille note-taking devices from other
manufacturers which have serial RS-232 ports and which should
also be capable of being interfaced to laboratory instruments.
The list is too long to include here. (2)
In addition to the instruments listed below, the Braille 'n Speak
has also been interfaced to a Fluke digital multimeter equipped
with a serial RS-232 port. (3) Certainly that application is
also useful to blind science students. One of us (Wohlers) hopes
soon to extend the list below to include a digital pH meter. If
successful, that information will be the subject of a future
posting.
We have achieved 2-way RS-232 serial communication using the
Braille 'n Speak with the following laboratory instruments:
BALANCES
Ohaus CT200 top-loading balance, centigram accuracy (Gemperline &
Sonnesso)
Ohaus TP200 Precision Plus balance, milligram accuracy
(Gemperline & Sonnesso)
Fisher Scientific XT-400 DR balance, milligram accuracy (Wohlers)
Sartorius Analytical A 200 S balance, tenth of a milligram
accuracy (Wohlers)
Mettler PE3600 top-loading balance, milligram accuracy (Wohlers)
UV-VISIBLE SPECTROPHOTOMETERS
Spectronic 2OD Spectrophotometer, manufactured by Spectronic
Instruments, Inc. (Gemperline & Sonnesso)
FTIR SPECTROPHOTOMETERS
Perkin Elmer model 1600 Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR)
Spectrophotometer (Gemperline & Sonnesso)
In order to use the Braille 'n Speak with this equipment you must
turn on the serial port (chord-34 & F), and use the Braille 'n
Speak as a dumb terminal. For specific interfacing information,
please contact authors Gemperline, Sonnesso, and Wohlers at the
addresses listed below.
This work was supported in part by National Science Foundation
Grant #DUE-9254330, David Lunney, Principal Investigator.
FOOTNOTES
1. Blazie Engineering Catalog of Products for Blind and Visually
Impaired People, Fall '94, p.7.
2. Dan Mackison, North Carolina Assistive Technology Project,
Greenville, NC office, personal communication.
3. T. V. Cranmer, "Accessing the Fluke PM2525/623 Multimeter,"
Smith-Kettlewell Technical File, Vol. 10, No. 4, Fall 1989.
AUTHORS' ADDRESSES
Margaret M. Gemperline, MS
Research Associate
Department of Chemistry
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
(919) 328-1648 (voice)
(919) 328-6210 (fax)
CHMGEMPE@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU
Angelo Sonnesso, Rehabilitation Counselor
Services for the Blind
404 St. Andrew Drive
Greenville, NC 27834
(919) 355-9016 (voice)
(919) 355-9019 (fax)
71237.3525@COMPUSERVE.COM
Dr. David Wohlers, Professor
Division of Science
Northeast Missouri State University
Kirksville, MO 63501
(816) 785-4625 (voice)
(816) 785-4045 (fax)
DWOHLERS%NEMOMUS@NEMOSTATE.EDU
Dr. David Lunney, Professor
Department of Chemistry
East Carolina University
Greenville, NC 27858-4353
(919) 328-1648 (voice)
(919) 328-6210 (fax)
CHLUNNEY@ECUVM.CIS.ECU.EDU
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