Eat Your Heart Out, Palm Pilot (fwd)

Sat Mar 11 22:46:37 EST 2000

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Hi all,

Len Kasday here.  Hello.

Lets not give up on handwriting.  Here's a couple of approaches.

The first approach is to use the simplified system of writing used in Palm 
PDA's, called Grafitti.. at least  the type of simplified handwriting used 
in the Palm Pilot.

To make a long story short, I can writing the alphabet on my Palm with my 
eyes shut, either using the stylus or the back of my fingernail.  True, I 
learned to write on it with my eyes open (I'm sighted) but I expect that we 
could figure out a tactile aid for folks who are blind.

The key is that the letters in Grafitti are all written in a  simplified 
system.  Each letter is a single stroke.  For example, the A is written as 
an upper case A without the crosspiece, so it looks like an upside down 
V.  Furthermore, it doesn't have to be an upside down V exactly.  The top 
doesn't have to be pointed.  It can be an upside down U, or a half a circle 
with the tips pointing down, etc.

There may be a similar open source thing for Linux.  Or, maybe we could use 
a Palm or one of the Palm clones.  An advantage is that they are available 
with monochrome screens which are much less battery drain than a color 
screen.  The ones from Handspring (http://www.handspring.com) have 
provision for plugin cards and there's probably some audio options (I can't 
tell because I can't get onto their site now.  Big question is what it 
would take to add speech to the OS.

Now here's a second way... which actually is very similar to grafitti.  It 
combines the dot approach with the handwriting approach.

The idea is that instead of jabbing at dots, all characters are entered by 
sliding the finger over a series of dots without taking the finger off the 
pad.  I think this may be faster that jabbing individual dots, at least 
once you learned the dot patterns, because you're just sliding your finger 
around instead of lifting it up and down.  Furthermore, the paths your 
finger traces could be mnemonically related to written characters which 
would make it easier for people who don't know braille.  (like I said, very 
similar to Graffiti in philosophy).

Here's the pattern I was thinking of.  I've attached a .gif file to 
accommodate any sighted folks who might read this.

There are 6 dots equally spaced around a circle, starting at the top.  In 
other words, they are spaced 60 degrees apart.  There is also a dot in the 
center.

Starting at the top and going clockwise around the circle the dots are 
named as follows.
Top
Upper Right
Lower Right
Bottom
Lower Left
Upper Left

Plus the one in the center

To help guide the fingers there's a raise circle around the outer dots, 
plus an ellipse joining the top 3 dots of the circle and the center, plus 
an ellipse joining the bottom three dots of the circle and the 
center.  Also a vertical line down the center.

Here's how the letters are from A to Z.  They have some resemblance to the 
Graffiti alphabet used in the Palm Pilot.

A  Like a curvey upper case  A without the crossbar. Starting lower left, 
clockwise around circle, ending at lower left,  In other words.
B Like a Beta.  Starting Bottom, up to top, over to upper right, in to 
center, out to lower right, end at bottom at bottom.
C Pretty much a C. Upper right curving counterclockwise around circle to 
lower right.
D. An upper case D. Bottom to top clockwise around circle back to bottom.
E. Like an Epsilon.  Bottom, clockwise around circle to lower left, to 
center, out to upper left, curve around to top.  Optionally, user can start 
at lower right and end at upper right.
F.  Like an upper case F without the crosspiece.  Bottom up to top to upper 
right
G  Top or upper left counterclockwise around circle to lower right and then 
to center
H like a lower case h.  Top to bottom then up to middle to lower right
I  like an upper case I.  Top to bottom.
J. An upper case J.  Top to bottom to lower left
K. Just the right part of the K. Upper right to center to lower right
L.  A backwards J.  Top to bottom to lower right
M. Like a lower case M.  Lower left to upper left to center to upper right 
to lower right.
N. Like upper case N.  Lower left to upper left through center to lower 
right to upper right
O.  A circle. Start at bottom go completely around circle.
P. An upper case P.  Bottom to top to upper right to center
Q. Just like an O but after you reach the bottom go back to lower left
R. Like a P but after reaching center to to lower right
S. An upper case S. Upper right counterclockwise to upper left through 
center to lower right, clockwise to lower left
T. Kind of an upper case T with right part of top bar missing.  Upper left 
to top and down to bottom.
U. An upper case U.  Upper left counterclockwise through bottom to upper right.
V.  Same as U but start at upper right and go clockwise through bottom to 
upper left
W. Lower case W. Upper left counterclockwise to bottom, up to center, back 
to bottom, counterclockwise to lower right
X. An upper case X with the left tips joined.  Upper left through center to 
lower right, to upper right, though center to lower left.
Y. An upper case Y.  Upper left to center, to bottom and back to center, 
then to upper right
Z. Like an upper case Z with curved top and bottom.  An exercise for the 
reader <grin>

And now to figure out the numbers...

Well, I'll stop here for now.  After all, like I said, this may not be 
necessary if we use Grafitti.  Or alternately, this could be used as a 
training aid for Grafitti.  The question is: what's fastest for a person 
who's blind?

Also, we don't have to limit ourselves to a single system.  We could people 
the option of one of the systems I describe here or Braille.  Different 
folks may prefer different methods.

Len

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-------
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Institute on Disabilities/UAP, and
Department of Electrical Engineering
Temple University
423 Ritter Annex, Philadelphia, PA 19122

kasday at acm.org
http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday

(215) 204-2247 (voice)
(800) 750-7428 (TTY)
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