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From: Donald.Breda@f460.n101.z1.fidonet.org (Donald Breda)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: KPR VS. Arkenstone
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Date: 23 Jul 90 20:34:51 GMT
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Index Number: 9426

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 CO> I've had a chance over the past two months to work with a 
 CO> Kurzweil Personal Reader at home and an Arkenstone read at work 
 CO> and would like to share my impressions of both of them.  I 
 CO> think I'll list various categories, and give each machine a 
 CO> rating from 1-10 (where 10 is the best).  This is not something 
 CO> carefully thought out, so if you have any questions afterwards, 
 CO> don't hesitate to ask.   
 CO> Over-all recognition capabilities: KPR 8, Arkenstone 7.  The 
 CO> KPR does seem a little better over-all, much better at reading 
 CO> books and small print because of the 400 DPI book-edge scanner. 
 CO>  The arkenstone is better at dot-matrix print if you need to 
 CO>  read that, I never have had the ocasion.
 CO>

Well Chip, what version of the KPR firmware are you using? I was a beta
tester for the KPR and I would never say that it had better recognition
then the Arkenstone. It's inability to read numbers consistantly or
fractions for that matter certainly hurt its usefulness in my case. I
could read a phone bill on the Arkenstone and pay it, I would never do
that with the KPR.
 CO> Ease of use:  KPR 8, Arkenstone 5.  Even with the Easy-scan 
 CO> software I beleive the KPR is much wasier to use.  This is 
 CO> especially true if the blind person contemplating the reading 
 CO> machine doesn't know how to type.  
 CO> Reliability:  KPR 3, Arkenstone 8.  My KPR has had a miriad of 
 CO> hardware and software problems, and I understand from other 
 CO> owners this is the norm, not the exception.  The only problem 
 CO> with the Arkenstone is that documents scanned with the sheet 
 CO> feeder turn out much poorer than when manually fed.  I beleive 
 CO> the feeder is out of adjustment, but can't get Arkenstone to do 
 CO> anything about it.   
 CO> Warantee service:  KPR 8, Arkenstone 5.  When I had my problems 
 CO> with the KPR, they did Fed Exp. me a new one and paid to have 
 CO> my old one returned to them.  I couldn't even get Arkenstone to 
 CO> agree to service the document feeder that seems to be giving 
 CO> problems, even if we paid shipping both ways.
 CO> Well Chip, I believe you should have delt with Calera directly on

 that one, not sure though. Maybe Les or another dealer could chime in
 here. I am disappointed to hear that though.

 CO> Unusual features:

I think that when compareing the KPR and the Arkenstone though Chip that
your comparing apples and oranges. It might be a more valid comparison
to put the Kurzweil PCKPR the pc reader up against the arkenstone.
 The Kurzweil stand alone personal reader I believe addresses a completely
different market then the Arkenstone does.
It is great for someone that doesn't know a thing about computers
and doesn't care too. for the power computer user though, I believe the
arkenstone is the scanner of choice since it just has so much more
capabilities.
     
     

... Abled, Blinktalk and sSilver xpress in Boston 9600 HST

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