The more we talk about this, the more I remember things long forgotten ... Appropos a stand alone box for Speakup ... APH once sold a device called a Speakqualizer. It was a PCI card that grabbed VGA and, if memory serves, ran OCR on it---all on a PCI card. Janina Tom Fowle writes: > The idea of a stand alone screen reader hardware box with video input is > intreaguing and has > been tried by several folks including Dean Blazie. but that was years > ago. > I suspect actual screen text would be no problem, if perhaps a bit slow, > but > finding focus and defining/dealing with actual graphics could be a real > headache. > > I think you'd need at least two processors, one to do the OCR and the > second > to run the screen reader and speech. Don't guess the Raspbery pi would > have > the "MIPS" for the ocr task. > > BTW, the optacon actually connected to a mac's serial port and you could > read the screen directly with some kind of reader that Berkeley systems > had > as a prototype. the company died before it could be brought to full > operation <SAD> > > For many years I kept seeing brags about optacon being restarted, but so > far as i know none ever came to reality. > > Tom Fowle > wa6ivgtf@xxxxxxxxxxx > > > On Thu, Oct 9, 2014, at 08:49 AM, Glenn wrote: > > I do a little of that. > > I do know a little, enough to know what is possible. > > I studied and got a HAM license a long time ago. > > Glenn > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Mike Ray" <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > To: <speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2014 10:32 AM > > Subject: Re: a little sysadmin story > > > > > > > > Get your soldering iron out then Glenn :-p > > > > > > > > On 09/10/2014 16:28, Glenn wrote: > > > What we need is a piece of hardware that does OCR directly from the video > > > port. > > > It seems like that would be a relatively easy device to produce, given > > > what > > > we have these days. > > > Glenn > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: "Al Sten-Clanton" <albert.e.sten_clanton@xxxxxxxxxxx> > > > To: <tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." > > > <speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > > Sent: Thursday, October 09, 2014 9:52 AM > > > Subject: Re: a little sysadmin story > > > > > > > > > First, I thank Janina for raising certain issues better than I could. > > > (I also thank others who've made valuable points from different angles.) > > > > > > Second, where is the equivalent code for kicking in the monitor when we > > > boot up? Shouldn't the aim be to treat our access technology in the > > > same or an equivalent way, to the degree possible? > > > > > > Al > > > > > > On 10/09/2014 09:55 AM, Littlefield, Tyler wrote: > > >> I also wanted to point out that most companies and organizations are a > > >> bit weird about installing anything. The fact that Speakup is in the > > >> kernel, but the entire idea of installing a special program which > > >> they're not sure of, be it screen reader or magnification bothers most > > >> people, so this isn't just an issue of Speakup possibly being better. > > >> There are reasons and there obviously is a need for speakup to get > > >> better, perhaps that means coming out of kernel space. But a sad story > > >> from once upon a time with a moral unrelated is not quite the point. > > >> On 10/9/2014 9:46 AM, Littlefield, Tyler wrote: > > >>> This whole story sounds like it needs another couple of bears to make > > >>> it all interesting. So speakup crashed the kernel. I've had issues, > > >>> but apart from known bugs I've never seen speakup panic the kernel all > > >>> the time. Speakup caused a system to crash? Perhaps. People should > > >>> also backup their work. > > >>> On 10/9/2014 9:34 AM, Deedra Waters wrote: > > >>>> Janina, > > >>>> > > >>>> speakup was the cause because when bossman came down to hook up a > > >>>> monitor and look, the panick messages had something to do with speakup. > > >>>> > > >>>> As for backing up their work, they were trying to fix their fuck-up to > > >>>> begin with. The initial problem wasn't with speakup. However when i was > > >>>> helping them debug it, speakup made the kernel panick and crash. > > >>>> > > >>>> Debian i dont think likes people with root access on their box to begin > > >>>> with, but i think they kind of didn't like speakup in their kernel to > > >>>> begin with. > > >>>> > > >>>> I suspect on the other hand that if speakup was a user-space app, it > > >>>> wouldn't have mattered to them so much. If a userspace program crashes > > >>>> it doesn't take down the whole box. When speakup does though, it takes > > >>>> down the whole box. > > >>>> > > >>>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >> > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Speakup mailing list > > > Speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Speakup mailing list > > > Speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > > > > > > -- > > Michael A. Ray > > Analyst/Programmer > > Witley, Surrey, South-east UK > > > > The box said: 'install Windows XP, 7 or better'. So I installed Linux > > > > Interested in accessibility on the Raspberry Pi? > > Visit: http://www.raspberryvi.org/ > > From where you can join our mailing list for visually-impaired Pi hackers > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup -- Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.443.300.2200 sip:janina@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Email: janina@xxxxxxxxxxx Linux Foundation Fellow Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup: http://a11y.org The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Chair, Protocols & Formats http://www.w3.org/wai/pf Indie UI http://www.w3.org/WAI/IndieUI/ _______________________________________________ Speakup mailing list Speakup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup
