I know this isn't directly the list to start a thread on this subject, but the very last quote I find problematic. Why can't you ask someone to buy a pc? I imagine a pc which would be capable of playing a digital book can be had for what? $50 maybe less? so in 2005, what kind of outdated but easily obtained cots hardware might be hanging out for next to nothing? what if these things could be played on a gameboy or something? doesn't thenew on have decent sound? how cheap would unit price be on 2000000 gameboys for the government? I'm not proposing this as an actual solution, but an analogy of a solution In a way, linux is a great example of using very outdated hardware to still do very useful work. a p250 with 32mb ram doesgreat sound effect stuff in real time with free linux software. for next to nothing in cost. a powerbook (old model) running linux oughta be able to play digital books and plenty more as well. and people are throwing them away. just a though. Joel -----Original Message----- From: blinux-list-admin@redhat.com [mailto:blinux-list-admin@redhat.com]On Behalf Of Janina Sajka Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2002 3:43 PM To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca; blinux-list@redhat.com Subject: All Ears: Library Service Seeks New Digital Player >From today's Washington Post regarding the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped here in the U.S. and its progress toward serving patrons with Digital Talking Books: washingtonpost.com All Ears: Library Service Seeks New Digital Player By Linda Hales Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, June 15, 2002; Page C01 For 71 years, the Library of Congress has served as the nation's guardian angel of literacy, ensuring the blind and reading-disabled free access to millions of talking books and magazines. Now the digital revolution is about to make that task easier -- or harder still -- depending on how well the library succeeds in its new role as design patron. The library is planning a $75 million, three-year conversion from cassette tapes to microchips -- the audio program's first technological update in three decades. The goal is to trade 23 million cassettes for memory cards, just as vinyl was supplanted by tape back in the 1970s. To do so, the library, which supplies special playback equipment, will need by 2008 a new digital device to serve 730,000 reading-disabled people. As many as 3 million people may be eligible for the program, which is operated by a branch of the library known as the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Director Frank Kurt Cylke calls this "the greatest challenge NLS has ever faced." Consumer electronics are among the most evolved of modern designs, incorporating the latest technology, dazzling aesthetics and user-friendliness. But those involved in the talking-book program believe the library's next-generation machine will need features not available in standard off-the-shelf products. While PCs and cell phones are becoming throwaway equipment, the library is focusing on the kind of durability that has enabled its current machine design to survive so long. "We can't afford to go through massive, wrenching changes like this very often," explains Michael Moodie, NLS research and development officer. To figure out what such a machine might look like, and how it might work, the library enlisted the Industrial Designers Society of America, headquartered near Dulles airport. IDSA turned the quest into a contest involving industrial design students across the country. June 7 was judgment day. More than 140 prototypes were spread out on tables in a conference room at the NLS offices at 13th and Taylor streets NW, in Petworth. There were pocket-size players and tabletop entries. Some models resembled silvery boomboxes and retro phones. One device was shaped like a football. Another looked like Darth Vader's helmet. A silvery "Lady Bug" had all the sleekness anyone could expect in the 21st century but broke the contest rules by requiring a separate docking station. Students had been asked to incorporate real-world needs of users: tactile markings for sightless readers; large controls for arthritic hands to manipulate; portability, but also extraordinary stability. All were supposed to be impervious to spilled drinks and able to withstand occasional shipping in little more than a Manila envelope. Agile young minds responded with a mind-bending array of buttons, levers, hinges and even a zipper that could activate functions. Most of the youthful designers had taken inspiration from the tools of their environment: PC gaming gadgets, MP3 players and contemporary "blob" architecture. But as the jury of six professional designers and senior library staff members worked their way around the room, a clear preference emerged for something familiar. First prize went to a prototype in the shape of a book. The winner was "Dook," a rectangular device that opened like a standard volume. Designer Lachezar Tsvetanov, a junior at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, put the controls in one half, speakers and memory card in the other half, and volume regulator in the hinge. Tsvetanov, who grew up in Bulgaria, chose the form for two reasons. He thought a book would be immediately familiar to seniors, who make up half the program's users and are seen as wary of new technology. The designer was also determined that people who needed talking books be able to blend into the world around them. "Users want to be like anybody else," he said. "If you see a young blind person walking down the street and holding an odd-shaped product, it would really stand out." Tsvetanov will be awarded $5,000 for ingenuity at the industrial design society's annual conference July 20-23 in Monterey, Calif. And his device will be displayed at the library's Madison Building on Capitol Hill, along with four second- and third-place winners. The contest was not intended to produce a design for manufacture. The NLS hoped merely to glean ideas for the next step in the process before asking Congress to put millions into the 2005 budget for a total upgrade. Director Cylke estimates the cost of converting to the new system will be "an additional $25 million a year for a three-year period." The current NLS budget is about $48 million. Design innovation has empowered the audiobook program from the start. According to the NLS, the long-playing record was invented for the talking book program in the 1930s. In the 1970s, the library developed a special player for its four-track tapes, which can play for six hours. (Copyright law requires that NLS materials be usable only by program participants.) The 1970s-era tape player, which is large and ungainly by today's standard, is still in use today. Throughout the judging process, Moodie worried aloud about the potential for breakage, the difficulty of manufacturing, and the cost. Fellow judge Brian Matt, an industrial designer from Boston who teaches at MIT and the Rhode Island School of Design, held out for something smart and aesthetically pleasing. Thomas Bickford, an NLS senior reviewer for audiobooks, couldn't see and didn't care what color the buttons were, only whether he could feel his way around the controls. Jim Mueller, an industrial designer in Chantilly and an IDSA expert in universally accessible design, was taken with the idea of a digital book. "I can't think of anything that could be a more eloquent format," he said later. The NLS began on an experimental basis transferring cassette titles to digital format last year. By the library's own count, at least 1 million digital machines will be needed. There is also a move to make use of PCs. A software-based talking book player is being tested on a PC. Some eligible readers have DSL lines or cable and are asking for Internet delivery, which the NLS hopes to begin in a limited fashion in 2003. But Moodie believes there will be a need for a playback machine for a long time to come. "You can't say to somebody, 'You have to buy a PC if you want to read,' " he says. © 2002 The Washington Post Company Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list --- Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.368 / Virus Database: 204 - Release Date: 5/29/2002