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From: tpennick@axion.bt.co.uk (Tim Pennick)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Tactile Diagrams from Print?
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Date: 16 Mar 91 13:34:44 GMT
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Index Number: 14054

This posting is in the vain hope that someone has come up with a
really quick and practical way of converting print diagrams into
tactile ones.  I know this is theoretically possible with the help
of one of those Minolta machines, but the diagrams usually need to
be re-drawn, the problem being that by the time you've magnified
the diagram enough to be able to read the labels, it is so huge as
to be impractical.

I currently have an embosser which has "graphics" potential i.e. it
can print a matrix of dots with uniform spacing between them, but I
have never used the graphics feature, as preparing diagrams for
processing seems prohibitively labour-intensive.

I presume that any automated system would need as its front-end, an
OCR system capable of storing and processing graphics as well as
text.  This image would then need to be transferred to some
software which would convert it into instructions suitable for
driving an embosser with graphics feature.  The real problem I
think, would be to separate text portions from graphics portions in
order to convert the text to braille (which at the magnification
needed to be readable by touch takes up less space than print).

Any thoughts preferably by E-mail as I don't often get time to read
this group.

Regards,

Tim Pennick