From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from w088.z208036108.was-dc.dsl.cnc.net ([208.36.108.88] helo=toccata.grg.afb.net) by speech.braille.uwo.ca with esmtp (Exim 3.34 #1 (Debian)) id 16lyOY-0000Y8-00 for ; Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:33:46 -0500 Received: from localhost (janina@localhost) by toccata.grg.afb.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id g2FKXUf03420 for ; Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:33:30 -0500 X-Authentication-Warning: toccata.grg.afb.net: janina owned process doing -bs Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 15:33:30 -0500 (EST) From: Janina Sajka X-X-Sender: janina@toccata.grg.afb.net To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca Subject: Re: FW: USA: Online book-sharing service for the blind borrows a page from Napster In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: speakup-admin@braille.uwo.ca Errors-To: speakup-admin@braille.uwo.ca X-BeenThere: speakup@braille.uwo.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.8 Precedence: bulk Reply-To: speakup@braille.uwo.ca List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Ooops. Sorry folks, somehow between the time I read the message I was replying to, I managed to push a button and reply to the wrong message. If that doesn't make sense, just know that this message had nothing to do with speakup or this list. It was one of those inside AFB discussions that got inserted in the wrong place. Sorry. On Fri, 15 Mar 2002, Janina Sajka wrote: > OK. Next problem! > > Full page braille displays have long been a kind of holy grail that we > dream of and can't attain. As things stand, a single line display is > horrendously expensive. > > We need a breakthrough. We need two breakthroughs, actually: > > 1.) Price. Anything we know today says this would go through the > ceiling--tens of thousands of dollars, at least; > > 2.) Complexity. I don't know that we understand how to build anything > this complicated and keep it controlled. Current single line displays are > already very complicated, mechanically--which is why they're so expensive. > > My conclusion: Were we to make breakthroughs on the above two points we'd > want a full page braille display before this kind of unit. > > > -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Email: janina@afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175 Chair, Accessibility SIG Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) http://www.openebook.org