Folks, Here's a note from the project leader of Mylinux. It's a nice development. Anyone wanna join me over there to throw ideas at him? :) ----- Forwarded message from Rob Wehrli <rwehrli at azpower.com> ----- To: "Buddy Brannan" <davros at ycardz.com> Buddy, The key to input for the blind using this device is to determine what method of input would be preferred! Simply ask yourself, how would I want to give this device input. Then, rather than asking whether or not the device supports it, we can easily find an implementation or produce an implementation to tackle the job. I'm starting to believe that this should be a pet project of mine, too, and will continue to support this/these goals as much as is possible from my position as Project Director. Give me what you want to do with the device as I am in the unique position to ensure that we get your needs met! ..but, hurry! ...if you want it in anytime soon. I'll take a look at the chip set you mention, however, chips cost more money. We should really start talking about how we can do it in software, since with our team of contributing developers, we simply pay for it once and everyone benefits for the life of this product and all the others we produce. We can populate a limited number of boards with a DSP version of the processor, however, it isn't currently something we're planning for the first set of boards. I may be able to get some support from other blind people for convincing our sponsors that this is now a humanitarian effort (and additional funding!) to build a few units designed for the blind...if you can give me some decent feedback about how you would like to input the device. We can add the sound components necessary on one or two boards the "manual" way, however, we're really thinking that it won't be until the next board spin that we do it for all of the boards. Take Care. Rob! > Hi, > > Ah! This is excellent, excellent indeed! I'm blind too and am interested > in similar goals...although I have quite a *lot* less experience. While > I've been watching Linux for several years (at least six), I haven't been > able to run it myself until about a year and a half ago. Ironically, by > the time I could afford to have an extra computer to act as a terminal, > software that I could use on the console became available. Couldn't use > Emacspeak as I had no DECTalk. ... I use Speakup (www.linux-speakup.org), > which is a screen reader patched into the Linux kernel. The author, Kirk > Reeiser, says it's still in alpha, but with that, it's pretty stable and > usable. In fact, I use it exclusively, unless I *have* to use Windows for > something. > > From what i can tell about the Mylinux PDA, access *might* be > difficult. Might not, too, but its interface is a touch > screen. (Blech!) Rob seems to indicate that units with no LCD could be > manufactured fairly cheaply, as the LCD is probably the most expensive > component, but input might be a knotty problem. Output also, for that > matter. Maybe a Doubletalk board (or a board with that > chip...www.rcsys.com) could be used, it's fairly inexpensive, $145 in > single quantities and only requiring a speaker and power connections, with > built-in serial, parallel, and I think a bus connector...) External > keyboard and synth could be used, since I understand the design will have > a serial port and USB, but more stuff to carry around would be > difficult. If we could figure some way for braille input, that'd make the > size still fairly small though, but not sure how we could accomplish the > thing. Certainly don't see why we couldn't start with a keyboard with a > USB connector though. In any case, it's probably the best shot at a fairly > inexpensive platform to start with, short of designing another one...I > don't have the head for that, I'm afraid. > > Anyway, glad to see another one of us here! > > > -- > Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV | And if the ground yawned, > Email: davros at ycardz.com | I'd step to the side and say, > Phone: (972) 276-6360 | "Hey ground! I'm nobody's lunch!" > Voice mail: (877) 791-5298 | --Eddie From Ohio > ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV | And if the ground yawned, Email: davros at ycardz.com | I'd step to the side and say, Phone: (972) 276-6360 | "Hey ground! I'm nobody's lunch!" Voice mail: (877) 791-5298 | --Eddie From Ohio
