[gui-talk] The APH Sherlock scanner

[Joel Deutsch]

Hi Cindy,

I just called APH and spoke to someone in Customer Relations who understood 
well enough what I was trying to determine. And My apprehension turns out to 
have been correct. The encoded tags are a proprietary technology, not simply 
bar codes awaiting information input to the user's scanner. So I'm right. 
Buying the scanner and enough tags to label hundreds of music CDS brings the 
total price well above that of one of the several scanners that use bard 
codes and a product description database, only a couple hundred dollars less 
(for me, anyway) than the one that cost over a thousand bucks. More like 
$1200, when it's not on sale at some disability tech vendor. And I forget 
how much the radio frequency tags cost for the one that George likes so 
much, which will be upgraded to have more memory. But the APH device isn't 
price-competitive with that one, either,I don't think.

Oh, well. Back to the drawing board. Or the etch-a-sketch.

Thanks for your response.
Joel
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "slery" <slerythema at insightbb.com>
To: "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: [gui-talk] The APH Sherlock scanner


Joel,

If you don't get an answer, let me know and I'll forward your message to my
friend at APH.  You could also try calling them because I know they are very
good at providing you the answers.  If the receptionist doesn't know the
answer she usually forwards you to the person that designed the devise.

Cindy

-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]On
Behalf Of Joel Deutsch
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 4:41 PM
To: GUI-Talk
Subject: [gui-talk] The APH Sherlock scanner


Hi,

I've been doing some window shopping for a scanner to use with my music CD
library, and I've come across a range of products that are interesting. One
type that's not like the rest is a device that uses radio frequency I.D.
tags instead of bar codes, which is like what Wal Mart has begun using to
track inventory. That may or may not eventually be my choice.

but the others, the bar code scanners, aren't all the same. There are
several that boast of your being able to load or just connect to databases
that will  provide the device with a lot of info to tell you about a
bar-coded product, and one, considerably less expensive, that relies on you
recording your own identifying messages for every bar code scanned.

this one is offered by American Printing House for the Blind, and they call
the thing Sherlock, I suppose because it snorts cocaine and plays
unaccompanied Bach violin sonatas and partitas as it tries to figure out
what your possessions are. And when it can't figure out the bar code, it has
a prerecorded message that calls out "Come here, Watson, I need you!"

The Sherlock comes with like a pack of 25 bar code labels (and maybe some
other labels you stick on clothing or something), and then each additional
25 labels costs $29.95.  Now, if I'd need to affix a new bar code label onto
all my CDs, we're talking a fair -sized outlay for my library of well over
500 CDs, bringing the total cost of the project to more than what the
fanciest database types cost! but I'm wondering if I've misunderstood their
product description, and that if an item already bears a printed bar code,
maybe you could point the Sherlock at it and record your own little message
on the device rather than be stuck with what the bar code would say to
another scanner? If so, this Sherlock would be a half-priced solution or
better, although of course there's the hours of work involved in plucking
out and labeling and scanning all those items, and needing sighted
assistance as you go.

But I don't know. Anyway, does anyone know about this scanner, and whether
if something is already bar coded, you can reuse the bar code by recording
your own message for it?

Thanks. And no, I don't do Braille. Long story. Not in the cards.
ane canned.,far less , incporatate having I can just shoppo9i

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