Hi, Braian suggested I tell the list that several members of my group
will be attending the convention and exhibiting our new Tiger
Embosser. He has also kindly invited me to the R&D Committee meeting
on Thursday. I will not arrive until Tuesday morning due to problems
in making a return flight from Europe, but Peter Langner and Goran
Karapetrov will be there for the whole meeting and exhibiting Tiger at
an Oregon State University Science Access Project booth.
They will be showing a prototype that is slower and probably looks
relatively little like the eventual commercial model but can, in
principle at least, do everything the final one can. The printer
driver software is not complete, and right now I don't know whether it
will be able to print smooth horizontal and vertical lines or not.
The consultant who is helping us with the driver software had to
finish a book, so what we expected to happen months ago is only just
now being done. Sorry.
Even if nothing else is completed, the Tiger can now:
1. print braille just like any braille printer from DOS or Windows 95,
2. emboss line graphics from Windows 95 applications with a resolution
of 20 dots per inch,
3. Convert text fonts and print them in the user's choice of computer
braille code -presently both American and European codes are available,
If stages 3 and 4 of the Windows 95 printer driver are completed in
time, it will also be able to:
4. emboss smooth lines in the vertical and horizontal directions,
5. convert and print DotsPlus or DotSix symbols for any Windows 95
screen font.
Peter, Goran, and I are principals in the company that is developing a
commercial model of the Tiger and are looking for venture capital and
orders. With enough funding, the Tiger could hit the market within a
year at a cost comparable to current braille printers.
I presume you know that tektronix has recently introduced a version of
their Phasor printer that produces printouts comparable to the old
Pixelmaster. Blazie and Robert Jaquiss were showing it at CSUN, and I
presume they'll be showing it in New Orleans. Hope you get to look at
it and compare to the Tiger. Each has advantages and disadvantages
compared to the other. I consider both to be important breakthroughs
and am hopeful that the tactile graphics bottlneck has finally been
broken.
I look forward to seeing you all in New Orleans.
John
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