Blind News Digest # 1007
Bill McGarry
Issue # 1007
Friday, November 05, 1993
Today's Topics:
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OCR for English and Cyrillic(Russian)??
Braille bank notes in France
study
Unified Braille Code status
German and the blind
PCMCIA Speech Cards
lost pen pal sought
German Braille help sought
Home Security Systems
Re: OCR for English and Cyrillic(Russian)??
WindowsBridge
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Subject: OCR for English and Cyrillic(Russian)??
From: pcw...@cyclone.mitre.org (Philip Wood)
Does anyone have any opinions of OCR for pc's eg Kurzwiel,
Arkenstone,any other.? how easy was it for you to learn, train to
maqterials read, to use. any comments to select right sized
computer.
Also does anyone know of an OCR packages that converts Cyrillic to
an ASCII file. PC and MAC comments solicited for this question.
Thanks, PC Wood pw...@mitre.org
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Subject: Braille bank notes in France
From: da...@cac.washington.edu (Dan Comden)
The following item was taken (with permission) from the Whiteboard news
service, which reports amusing and unusual news.
WhiteBoard News for October 20, 1993
==========
Paris, France:
France's central bank unveiled a user-friendly, high-tech
50-franc bill Tuesday bearing the portraits of Antonine
de Saint-Exupery and his celebrated fictional hero, the
Little Prince.
Designed to be more practical and to foil counterfeiters,
the new bill going into circulation is smaller than it
predecessor and more in line with other European bank
notes.
It is the first in a series of notes planned to
gradually replace existing 100-, 200- and 500-franc
bills in the next three years.
The new bill is printed on specially treated cotton-
based paper manufactured by the Bank of France and
expected to be used widely in new European currencies.
It features oversized letters and numbers for the
sight-impaired as well as raised symbols for the blind.
The paper is stronger than in the past to make the
bills better suited to the increasing number of
automated transactions.
To foil counterfeiters, it incorporates a metallic
band, colors that veer when the bill is tilted, and one
picture visible only under ultraviolet rays.
The 50-franc bill is currently worth $8.68 (American).
============
Chow
SuperChef
WhiteBoard News Service Bureau Chef
To subscribe please email:
JoeHa (Joseph Harper)
jo...@microsoft.com
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Subject: study
From: GGR...@pstcc.cc.tn.us (George Graham)
I have several visually impaired students in my classes. And they
introduced me to a new study aid perfect fotr this group.
They found a cassette with the parts of the human body set to music. They
can study human anatomy with their ears. And the students using these
cassettes (sighted and impaired) have seen grades go up an average of 15-20
points.
One of my students told me that a 7 year old in the same room while he
was listening to the cassette learned the digestive system without even
paying attention. She just listened and learned the song. She doesn't
understand everything she knows ... but she knows it.
The company is a non profit raising money for scholarships
They are
February 9, Educational
118 Carter Dr
Loudon, TN 37774
(615-458-2749) please excuse my bad word processing !!!!
Dr. George Graham
ggr...@pstcc.cc.tn.us
PS they also have a goood fund-raising program
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Subject: Unified Braille Code status
From: Dux...@WORLD.STD.COM (Joe Sullivan)
[This is from the Blind-L mailing list]
from: Joe Sullivan, Chairman, Unified Braille Code Committee II,
c/o Duxbury Systems, Inc.
435 King St., P.O. Box 1504, Littleton, MA 01460 USA
tel: 508-486-9766 fax: 486-9712 Internet: dux...@world.std.com
Date: October 30, 1993
This is in response to an inquiry from Jason John Griffin White
<jas...@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au>, relayed to me by Tom Wesley
<T.A.B....@bradford.ac.uk>, regarding the status of the
Unified Braille Research Project in general and in particular the
November 1992 report issued by the technical committee on
extending the base code (Committee II).
I am pleased to say that we are all still working towards the UBC
goal, using the November report as a general starting point,
though not a rigid one. In other words, revisions to that report
are very much in order as well as progress beyond it.
The internationalization of the UBC Project in general, and our
Committee II in particular, was approved at the International
Committee on English Braille (ICEB) meeting in Sydney, Australia,
this past June. A new committee on contractions, and other
organizational aspects appropriate to the international status of
the project, were also set in place at that time. In addition to
the original four Committee II members from the US, the committee
now has members from the UK, South Africa, New Zealand, and
Australia. The work of the committee has been going forward via
the Internet since June, although for obvious reasons much of the
early work has been more organizational than technical. Committee
II expects to report again in the Spring of 1994.
The Braille Research Center in Louisville has set up a "list
server" for general information on the progress of Project and
its other activities. The server is being managed by Emerson
Foulke <E0FO...@ULKYVX.BITNET>; you can subscribe by sending a
SUBSCRIBE BRCTR message to <LIST...@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU>.
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Subject: German and the blind
From: kimb...@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Kimberly Morrow)
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
I am a totally blind graduate student in the Department of Germanic
Languages and Literatures at the University of Kansas. I am
interested in corresponding with the following types of individuals:
1. totally blind German majors at the undergraduate, graduate and
post-graduate levels; 2. People who have knowledge of the German
(grade two) Braille code; 3. Totally blind people from Germany,
Austria or German-speaking Swistzerland; 4. People who know something
about guide dog quarantine laws in Germany(e.g. entering the coutry as
a foreign tourist with a guide dog); 6. Anyone who is interested in
carrying on correspondence in the German language. Please note: My
voice synthesizer has a difficult time reading internet addresses
precisely enough for me to comprehend them. Therefore, it would be
helpful if those wishing to reply to my message could place spaces
between each element of their address. My address is:
Kimb...@Kuhub.cc.ukans.edu. Sincerely, Kimberly Morrow
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Subject: PCMCIA Speech Cards
From: SC48%NEMOMUS...@ACADEMIC.NEMOSTATE.EDU (David Wohlers)
Does any company manufacture a speech card for the PCMCIA card slots on
notebook or sub notebook microcomputers? If so, who and for how much?
If there are any such beasts out and about, would anyone care to comment
on performance. Thanks in advance.
David Wohlers
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Subject: lost pen pal sought
From: kimb...@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Kimberly Morrow)
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
My name is Kimberly Morrow. I am a totally blind graduate student in
the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University
of Kansas. I am interested in renewing correspondence with a
penfriend with whom I lost contact wo years ago. I lost her address
due to a computer failure and have been unable to locate her through
either the National Federation of the Blind or the American Council of
the Blind.
If anyone knows the address of Jane McIver of Cincinnati, Ohio, and is
willing to rpovide me with that information (if you think it is "okay"
to do so) I would really appreciate it.
Thanks so much!
Sincerely, Kimberly Morrow
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Subject: German Braille help sought
From: kimb...@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Kimberly Morrow)
Organization: University of Kansas Academic Computing Services
I am interested in corresponding with people who have knowledge of the
German Grade Two braille system.
I taught myself the German braille code from a course taught by the
Hadley School for the Blind several years ago, but I have not had much
of an opportunity to keep up my German braille skills.
Also, I have several questions about German braille contractions.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Sincerely, Kimberly Morrow
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Subject: Home Security Systems
From: wa...@mce.com (Walt Grueninger)
Has anyone encountered a blind-friendly home alarm system? I'm
having a new one installed and am tired of having my wife be my
interface.
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Subject: Re: OCR for English and Cyrillic(Russian)??
From: ja...@rnib.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: R.N.I.B.
In article <30...@handicap.news> pcw...@cyclone.mitre.org writes:
>Does anyone have any opinions of OCR for pc's eg Kurzwiel,
>Arkenstone,any other.? how easy was it for you to learn, train to
>maqterials read, to use. any comments to select right sized
>computer.
As the technician of the RNIB's technology centre we have quite a
selection of OCR/Scanners. My personal preference is the Kurzweil
Reading Edge, it's proved itself to be very accurate and reliable
(despite the fact that we drag it all around the UK for demo purposes).
We have a Robotron Rainbow which is a similar product (single unit
scanner with DECtalk speech) which uses flash ROM which seems to get
corrupted at regular intervals.
>Also does anyone know of an OCR packages that converts Cyrillic to
>an ASCII file. PC and MAC comments solicited for this question.
I've not yet come across OCR for many text outside of US/European
origin, OCR software is available to cope with most of the European
alphabet variants (umlauts, circumflex, accents, etc). But beyond
this the only other script I've heard OCR will deal with is Kanji.
Considering the complexity of some scripts (Gujerati, Hindi and several
other Asian varieties) it's not surprising that they don't yet appear
to be catered for.
Regards,
Jason.
--
+
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I Regards, This message represents personal views and are not the views I
I Jason Arthurs, necessarily endorsed by the R.N.I.B. I
+
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Subject: WindowsBridge
From: per...@plains.NoDak.edu (Brett Person)
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network
Could someone who is actually using Windows Bridge send me some E-mail.
I'd like to know how well it works.
I've gotten the demo and have given up trying to install/run it.
-bgp
--
Brett Person
North Dakota State University
per...@plains.nodak.edu || per...@plains.bitnet
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End of Issue # 1007 of the Blind News Digest
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