Hi Kelly,
> What's the chance of your making the graphing calculator part
> of your software available without a camera.
I try to avoid that, because my research focus is towards
more general vision substitution applications, and I could
not possibly provide sufficient e-mail support to users who
want only the graphing calculator and not the PC camera.
Currently I am working with a small number of blind computer
experts who already have a PC camera. I learn from them and
they learn from me, thus together helping this "seeing with
sound" technology mature. I am fully aware of the fact that
forcing would-be users to get a PC camera in order to just
use the graphing calculator software is not ideal, and
perhaps even unfair, so I apologize to those for whom this
is a bottleneck. However, I want to spend my limited time
resources to create truly new forms of visual access, and
if one really wants only a graphing calculator, one could
also opt for the TRIANGLE software of John Gardner et al.
On the other hand, those who get a camera will get free
e-mail support from me as far as my limited time permits.
> Failing that what camera might I need to get your program
> to work? This is an area of computing I haven't explored
> and I don't want to go out spending a bunch of money on a
> camera without knowing more about what I should be looking
> for.
Some $100 or less should suffice for getting a good PC camera.
Just about any PC camera as used for videoconferencing will do.
These devices are sometimes also called webcams. Actually, any
device that supports Microsoft Video for Windows will do, and
that includes most video capture cards as well.
You only need to be careful that the PC camera according to
the vendor runs with your operating system (say Windows-95
or Windows-98), and that its connector (say USB bus or
parallel port) fits your system. There are many options in
this area. I personally use a conservative choice, namely
the parallel port version of the Creative Labs Webcam-2,
connected, obviously, to the parallel port of my Windows-95
system. BTW, this setup also runs fine under Windows-98.
See the Creative Labs web page
http://www.soundblaster.com/video/webcam-2/
for details, and note that you have to make a choice between
the USB and parallel port version, and that their USB version
only works with Windows-98, as described on their specs page
http://www.soundblaster.com/video/webcam-2/specs.html
A PC camera can be bought for less than $100 nowadays. Other
people are successfully using for instance the Quickcam-2,
but many other PC cameras are known to also work just fine
with my software. I have not received any problem reports on
this anymore after I solved the last problems with the Intel
Create-and-Share camera several months ago. If necessary,
see my web page
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Peter_Meijer/winvoice.htm
for various technical details. Perhaps you can also ask a friend
who has a videoconferencing camera, or else the salesman in the
local computer shop, to demonstrate a PC camera to you. My
software easily fits on a single diskette, so you can take your
personal copy along to check that it works OK with the camera,
and then decide for yourself if you consider it worthwhile.
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/winvoice.htm
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