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Subject:
From:
Peter Meijer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
VICUG-L: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
Date:
Fri, 5 Feb 1999 09:42:47 +0100
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text/plain
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Hi Kelly,

> Do you know if this calculator is available?  The web page
>
> http://dots.physics.orst.edu/agc.html
>
> says it will be available for download in late 1998 but that time has come
> and gone and I can't find the calculator.  It talks about some of the audio
> graphing stuff but I'd like to know if you know where one might get the
> calculator from the Science Access Project.

You are right, the Windows version of the Science Access Project
graphing calculator was announced for late 1998, but I could not
find it either. Of course there is still the older DOS TRIANGLE
program. I suppose they experienced some delay in their software
development?

However, The vOICe Learning Edition for Windows is available NOW!
At no charge! You can download the software with built-in graphing
calculator for Windows directly from the executable URL

   http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/voice.exe

or in case of connection problems you can get it from my
mirror site URL

   http://www.gironet.nl/home/meijerpb/voice.exe

Beware though, that you need a PC camera to run the software,
or else you will only get the spoken error message "I'm sorry,
the voice cannot find your webcam". More on the reasons for
that below. The required camera is just one of those cheap
cameras as used for videoconferencing, so perhaps you can ask
a sighted friend who has such a device to first demonstrate
the software to you: seeing/hearing is believing. Alternatively,
ask the salesman in the computer shop to show it to you before
you buy a PC camera that is compatible with your PC.

Installation of The vOICe Learning Edition is very easy, and
involves nothing but running the above executable. Once you
have the camera hooked up and run my software, the graphing
calculator dialog pops up when you press function key F8, and
it will by default automatically sound the example function
5*sin(x), sounding a bit like "eioeioeioeio", until you enter
another function such a 3 + 4*x and adapt plotting ranges,
using just a regular screen reader such as Jaws for Windows
to access the standard Windows controls.

Note that the camera now enables you to also access printed graphs!

So you have the choice to either enter a function expression
and listen to the resulting math plot, or you can point the
camera to a graph printed in a book, on regular white paper,
and hear that graph. This will make much more educational
material accessible, and much more cheaply than via Braille
paper.

Documentation about the supported mathematical functions has
yesterday become available on the new web page

   http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winmath.htm

and includes all the regular operators such as addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division, and all the
regular mathematical functions such as square root, power,
logarithm, exponential, sine, arcsine, hyperbolic sine and
so forth. Mathematical constants such as pi and e are
available predefined, and also a large number of physical
constants are available predefined, such as the speed of
light, electron mass, Boltzmann factor, etcetera.

User requests for extensions will be considered for future
releases.

The main overview web pages for The vOICe Learning Edition
software are

   http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winvoice.htm
   http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winvoic2.htm

User feedback will be appreciated.

Best wishes,

Peter Meijer


E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Soundscapes from The vOICe - Seeing with your Ears!
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/


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