Braille

Some people might remember this article from Drobe, back in the day. Well, work is on going and, for the first time since the project began, it looks like we’re getting close to beginning manufacturing.

Unsurprisingly the enthusiasm for getting it working first and foremost on RISC OS has been tempered by reality (XP is the only statistically significant platform, unfortunately), but not crushed.

If there is interest in the RISC OS community in bundling together a software package which would work well as a basic screen reader (with USB-to-RS232 driver, integrated support for Firefox, directory browsing & reading various document formats) then we should be delighted to do our bit to make that possible. The third and most likely final prototype is expected to be done within the next eight weeks and after that point we shall be looking to maximise the number of screen readers supported.

I need not mention that, assuming all goes to plan, the device will be marked as RISC OS compatible in the documentation and marketing. This could open up something of a new market.

Is the design big enough that it could have an option for an internal beagleboard?

I can’t imagine there being that many potential customers with existing RISC OS machines, and if it needs to be paired with a computer, the devil everyone knows is the usual choice, but if it was a complete ready to go system, systems such as RISC OS would have significant attractions.

It will certainly be big enough for a beagleboard. I did consider that some time ago, but it would not be an option for the first batch of units sold. I am most interested to see if there is any interest within the RISC OS developer community in working on a screenreader.

Re internal beagleboard; just to clarify, the reason this is unlikely to happen is largely down to the extra support. On release of the first batch of units we’ll need to concentrate efforts on supporting the cell display and guiding newbies through RISC OS would be too distracting. A better solution, the one which I envisioned, is making an optional (free) package for Windows containing an emulated version of RO5 with the screen reader preconfigured within this.

The way I was thinking would be that you would be able to ship 2 different products (potentially) in the same case.

A peripheral device (which would be the initial product sold) and a complete Braille computer, pre-configured and ready to use, (plug in SD card with OS distribution, which could be RISC OS).

Am I correct in thinking that it would work in a way similar to a telnet style terminal?

Certainly a possibility for the future. For the first batch, however, the focus will be on educational markets, therefore full commercial screen reader compatibility is not as important as having a package of software which allows users (children, mostly) to practice their Braille reading skills. This could be done through the emulator route.

Older screen readers worked exactly like a telnet terminal.

Nowerdays they tend to use normal windows and keyboard shortcuts to navigate around them. The window contents are put in a text file which is fed to a text-to-speak program (I understand there is one for RISC OS called !Speak, am I right?) which outputs it as sound. When the user reaches a lump of text that he or she wishes to read rather than listen to then they switch to using the Braille cell display and that text file from the window content is fed to the cell display driver instead of the text-to-speak program.

Thats a very rough version of what happens, but its broadly correct.

(I understand there is one for RISC OS called !Speak, am I right?)

It’s been renamed eSpeak and is available from http://espeak.sourceforge.net/

@Martin: Thank you.

We’ll be looking into the practicality of supporting the BCD on RISC OS early in the new year.