[BRLTTY] Getting my braille driver for the FCHAD working.

[S. Massy]

On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 09:21:18PM +0200, timothyhobbs at seznam.cz wrote:
> OK.  I'm happy to see that the CLI arguments are combined with a config file
> value so I won't have to create my own cofig files for now.
> 
> It seems like you still haven't comprehended my device.  It's really a
> simple device.  I presume that you are reading this message with an 80 cell
> display.  So as you read you run your hand along the characters and feel
> them.  Imagine you only had one cell in your display.  At either the far
> right or the far left, but you had 80 touch sensors.  As your finger moved
> along those touch sensors, the character displayed by that one cell would 
> change.  Now that in and of itself wouldn't make a very good display. After
> all if your finger is over a cell but doesn't move it's hard to feel what 
> that character is.  So I made a very large cell.  It's actually the size of
> your whole hand.  Either your left or right hand rests upon that large cell,
> and your other hand moves along the sensors to select the character you wish
> to read.  I know that you're probably (rightfully) suspicious of such a
> display, but I have a working prototype and I CAN read text on it. When I am
> done with my improved prototype I will be able to actually show whether this
> works or is a dead end.
That is an interesting idea, but one which I suspect would take a *lot*
of acclimatisation time for a seasoned braille reader. Not just because
of the "large cell" aspect, but because of the separation of position
and content with regards to the hands. Perhaps a child just beginning to
read might get accustomed to such a method. As for the orientation, I
really think the simplest method would be to make it configurable from
the device. As Dave said, some displays like the Baum Vario allow you to
flip the display over for people who prefer to have the routing keys
underneath the display cells and takes care of the inversion on the
firmware level. 

Cheers,
S.M.