[nfb-talk] oops only the blind don't know

Fri Aug 11 08:36:24 CDT 2006

Joe:

This, like many of your assertions is not true, and is made for 
political, not legitimate reasons.  One beta test site is Minnesota 
State Services for the "Blind, where six different people, sighted 
and blind have used it -- only one of whom is a NFB member.  I also 
know that Kim Charleson, of the Perkins School, is a beta tester, and 
she is a prominent ACB member, and I would guess there are 
others.  Secondly, people on the closed beta listserv can tell you 
that no punches were pulled.  People were as thorough, and critical 
as any group of beta testers I have seen.

Dave

At 08:01 AM 8/11/2006, you wrote:
>Again thank you for your answer. One issue that I have with the beta testing
>as far as I understand it is that all of them, by press release accounts and
>other sources are NFB members. Thus objectivity comes into play here.
>
>In other words the pool is not objective and there are built in conflicts of
>interest.
>
>This said it would also be a biased pool if only ACB members were beta
>testers.
>
>I do not wish for my words to be misunderstood here. I would think that
>having some but not ALL beta testers of a product be from NFB.
>
>This said and getting back to yur illustration of the wine bottles were they
>a conventional font or a non-conventional font?
>
>And did you "read" them in the round so to speak or did you peel the label
>off to "read" them?
>
>Again I thank you in advance for your reply.
>
>Joe
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Steve Jacobson" <steve.jacobson at visi.com>
>To: "NFB Talk Mailing List" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 11:19 PM
>Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] oops only the blind don't know
>
>
> > Joe,
> >
> > Since this seems like an honest question, I will add that this is not at
> > all a final product yet.  It is a product that is worth
> > buying if one has the money, but the research will continue into ways of
> > improving it.  I have managed for example, to
> > read a number of different wine bottles with the labels still on the
> > bottle.  While I suspect that your use of the term
> > "priveleged" was not complimentary, I do feel lucky to have been able to
> > test this machine, but there were something
> > like four or five hundred testers, one of the biggest test groups ever in
> > such products.  I believe that eventually this
> > device or something like it will do much of what Ray Kurzweil has
> > predicted.
> >
> > On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 22:44:03 -0400, joe harcz wrote:
> >
> >>Thank you sir for ansering a direct question.
> >
> >>I'm eternally grayteful for that.
> >
> >>Very Best,
> >
> >>Joe
> >>----- Original Message -----
> >>From: "Lloyd Rasmussen" <lras at sprynet.com>
> >>To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> >>Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 10:29 PM
> >>Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] oops only the blind don't know
> >
> >
> >>> My wife is one of the beta testers for the reader; I end up using it
> >>> more
> >>> than she does.
> >>>
> >>> Cursive writing is out of the question for all OCR, except when the
> >>> handwriting is done by someone drawing in a specified style with a touch
> >>> pen.  Not something the K-NFB Reader can handle.
> >>>
> >>> Some folks have reported success in reading labels on cans.  Since the
> >>> camera is supposed to be more than a foot away from the print, the fact
> >>> that
> >>> the print surface is not flat is not as important as it would be for a
> >>> conventional scanner.  It can tolerate quite a bit of skew.  It doesn't
> >>> currently do light print on a darker background.
> >>>
> >>> One of my recent successes was identifying a box of sudifed tablets.
> >>>
> >>> Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
> >>> Home:  http://lras.home.sprynet.com
> >>> Work:  http://www.loc.gov/nls
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> -----Original Message-----
> >>>> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> >>>> On
> >>>> Behalf Of joe harcz
> >>>> Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2006 8:44 PM
> >>>> To: NFB Talk Mailing List
> >>>> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] oops only the blind don't know
> >>>>
> >>>> Regardless though can anyone tell me if one can read cursive entries on
> >>>> IRS
> >>>> forms or other such items from NFB, ACB or the CIA for that matter with
> >>>> the
> >>>> KNFB Reader?
> >>>>
> >>>> Can I read a Campbell's Soup label or other similar logos in the round?
> >>>>
> >>>> A simple yes or no will suffice.
> >>>>
> >>>> I am not among the privileged class who has had a hands on
> >>>> demonstration
> >>>> or
> >>>> who has been able to beta test this thing.
> >>>>
> >>>> I sure as heck cannot afford it without testing it for such things as
> >>>> it
> >>>> is
> >>>> quite pricey.
> >>>>
> >>>> And I sure as heck wish to know what it will do prior to making any
> >>>> substantial investment like this would certainly be for anyone.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> _______________________________________________
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> >>> nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
> >>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-talk
> >>>
> >>>
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> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
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David Andrews and white cane Harry.