[bksvol-discuss] Re: OT: article on Optacon and Jim Bliss
- From: "Larry Lumpkin" <llumpkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:04:57 -0500
I'm impressed. I never got that good.
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Debby Franson
Sent: Sunday, October 09, 2011 11:20 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: OT: article on Optacon and Jim Bliss
Hi Sandi and everyone!
I have had an optacon since 1981 and can't imagine life without it. I felt
like a kid in a candy store and would by books and magazines.
Some of the interesting things that come to mind that I have done with the
optacon in no particular order are:
I've read the complete Bible.
I read "Windows '95 for Dummies" so I could look ath the screen shots, which
helped me visualize the various screens.
I've read German, Spanish, and French, looked at the Greek alphabet in one
of my husband's electronics books, Japanese, Chinese, which are too hard to
read because of their writing systems, took the optacon to a ten week adult
education Russian class and read aloud when asked to,
I have looked at a few computer programming languages to see what they
looked like.
I looked at the front and back panels of various electronic gear and learned
how to use them after learning the location and function of the controls.
It was easiest to learn a small thing such as an mp3 player this way.
Debby
At 01:16 PM 10/8/2011, Sandi Ryan wrote
>I don't know how to contact him, but the Optacon helped me through some
>trying times in my life. I had friends who used it for just little,
>simple things. But I read books and magazines (for the first time I
>knew what advertising looked like in a magazine), checked out
>statistical symbols (X-hat), learned the shapes of Greek letters and
>which ASCII symbol to use to mean "divided by" in an equasion. I no
>longer have an Optacon (mine died years ago), but I would still use it
>if I did. There are so many things it did that all this other
>technology (wonderful as it
>is) doesn't come close to doing.
>
>I hope the Optacon 2.0 is developed. Many people may consider it a
>relic of the past, but it is still unique and useful!
>
>Sandi
>
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Tracy Carcione"
><carcione@xxxxxxxxxx>
>To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 8:09 AM
>Subject: [bksvol-discuss] OT: article on Optacon and Jim Bliss
>
>
>>I know there are other Optacon users on this list. There may be some
>>who don't know that Dr. Jim Bliss, one of the Optacon inventors, is
>>terminally ill. I'm sending along this article about the Optacon and
>>Dr. Bliss that appeared yesterday on an NPR website.
>>
>>The Optacon allows blind people to "read" complex visual material
>>through their fingertips.
>>
>>Dr. Bliss:
>>As so many on this list have already said, the Optacon changed my
>>life.I thank you for your tremendous contribution and may God be with
>>you.
>>- G.
>>
>>This week, James "Jim" Bliss announced he is dying.
>>
>>In an email message Bliss, an MIT Ph.D. electrical engineer who
>>developed technology for the visually impaired, wrote that he has
>>"terminated all treatment" for his multiple myeloma and "joined
>>Hospice" after battling cancer for eight years.
>>
>>Bliss developed a life-changing device for blind people that few
>>outside that community have ever heard of. The Optacon, which Bliss
>>created with Stanford Professor John Linvill (who first dreamed up the
>>idea to help his blind daughter, Candy, read) looks like a clunky,
>>70s-era tape recorder with a cable attached not to a microphone, but
>>to an optical sensor. By enabling users to gather visual information
>>through touch, the machine has been a game-changer.
>>
>>Many report the Optacon is the single best device that allows for a
>>life of independence, to learn foreign languages, become an engineer,
>>read music or simply peruse one's own mail.
>>
>>Indeed, Bliss's posting about his terminal cancer on a listserve
>>devoted to the device, Optacon-L, generated scores of responses from
>>blind people all over the world describing how the device transformed
>>their lives by allowing them to "read" complex visual information
>>through their fingertips, rather than with their eyes.
>>
>>In contrast to Braille (which expresses letters as simple raised dot
>>patterns)
>>or speaking machines (which perform optical character recognition and
>>read text aloud), the Optacon, (or OPtical to TActile CONverter)
>>senses dark-and-light areas of ink and paper, converting them into a
>>vibration pattern that can be felt with the fingertip and, with
>>experience, interpreted by the brain. The device can also be used to
>>"read" information directly from a computer display.
>>
>>What's startling about the notes to Bliss is that so many blind people
>>have relied on their Optacon devices for more than 30 years. Some
>>recount having two machines on hand to make sure at least one is
>>available when the other undergoes repairs. Many report it's the
>>single best device that allows for a life of independence, to learn
>>foreign languages, become an engineer, hold a job, read music, finally
>>understand capital letters or simply peruse one's own mail.
>>
>>Here's a sampling:
>>
>>
>>Dear Dr. Bliss,
>>I'd like to add my voice to all of those many who have praised the
>>Optacon and its incredible life changing impact on all of us who use
>>it.In my opinion, not even the enormous impact that today's most
>>proliferate and productive technologists like the late Steve Jobs,
>>Bill Gates and others can in any way measure up to or compare with the
>>positive good and many blessings that your tireless efforts and the
>>work of pioneer John Linvill have brought about via the Optacon. This
>>remarkable instrument.is an example of humanity at its very best.
>>
>>Or this from a woman in Wales:
>>
>>
>>Yes, thank you for all you've done in promoting the Optacon. I taught
>>myself cursive writing in Russian and English using it; began
>>transcribing books into Braille; as well as studying New Testament
>>Greek and Biblical Hebrew in graduate school. Countless other things,
>>too, but those stand out for me.
>>God give you strength, Dr. Bliss.
>>
>>
>>"As a software engineer," one man writes, "I have found it to be the
>>most useful tool I have to do my job."
>>
>>Bliss apparently took his role as a creator of the Optacon quite
>>seriously, according to Don Bishop, who writes:
>>
>>
>>I received my OPTACON in 1972 and your wife was one of my original
>>Optacon training teachers at the motel on El Camino where the classes were
held.
>>At the
>>time I lived just across the bay in Fremont and I distinctly remember
>>that you personally carried the big box containing the OPTACON out to
>>our car.
>>How many
>>CEO's do that?
>>
>>I appreciate all you have done in the creation and marketing of the
>>OPTACON as well as your participation in our list here where you've
>>provided valuable input over the past few years.
>>
>>One gentleman writes that the Optacon "still ranks as the best
>>Enabling Technology invention that has helped so many people around
>>the world have the freedom to read the printed word," and another
>>woman says the device "gave me my job at IBM." A New Yorker writes of
>>seemingly small but astonishing breakthroughs:
>>
>>
>>Before I got my Optacon, I knew nothing about print. Now, I know, for
>>example, that often in books, the first word is written in capital
>>letters, or the first letter of the word can be very big. I now know
>>what italics looks like.
>>Amazing.
>>
>>And here, a user remarks on the dignity such a device offers:
>>
>>
>>Dr. Bliss, I have only one thing to add to all that has been said
>>about the Optacon and that is that it is the one piece of technology
>>which I would never give up. I could live without all the other
>>gadgets, but giving up my Optacon would take away one of the very few
>>links we as blind people have to the sighted world of print
>>information. The Optacon is still the best device in terms of its
>>versatility and its reliance on the user's own intelligence.
>>Thank you for giving us a device that boosts our dignity by its very
>>design.
>>
>>Earlier this week I emailed Bliss to get his response. He wrote back
>>saying that what surprised him most were the amazing things that
>>long-time Optacon users said they were able to do with the device. "I
>>suspect this is the result of rewiring of the brain to use parts
>>normally used for vision," Bliss wrote. "That is why I've proposed a
>>new Optacon be developed that has higher resolution, greater field of
>>view, and displays more attributes such as color, intensity, etc."
>>
>>When I asked for more details about Optacon 2.0 a day later, Bliss
>>said he was too ill to write back. He expressed hope, though, that a
>>new team of researchers working on a modern Optacon would soon find
>>success.
>>
>>
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Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don't have. Just dreaming
about nice things is meaningless; it is like chasing the wind.--Ecclesiastes
6:9 NLT
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