Earle Harrison, president of Triumph Technologies and distributor for Handy Tech, joins us to talk about the new Active Star Braille display. The unit has a tray for use with laptops, will soon support housing a tablet inside, and even allows midi music composition and playback. Earle demonstrates this feature, and also discusses the Handy Tech Start Stick containing all necessary software and drivers for Handy Tech displays. To learn more about this and other Handy Tech products, call (651) 636-5184 or visit the Triumph Technologies website.
Be sure to check our audio page for more exhibit hall coverage, and check out our new weekly podcast for news and features about technology and beyond. Blind Bargains audio coverage of CSUN 2015 is generously sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind. Enjoying our coverage of CSUN15? You can help us out by taking this very short survey.
Transcript
We strive to provide an accurate transcription, though errors may occur.
Hide transcriptTranscribed by Kayde Rieken
Welcome to BlindBargains.com coverage of CSUN 2015 — the biggest names, provocative interviews, and wall-to-wall exhibit hall coverage — brought to you by the American Foundation for the Blind.
Looking for a quick and easy way to take notes at work, school, or home? AccessNote is the specialized notetaker app, produced by the American Foundation for the Blind for use on the iPhone, iPad, and now Android devices. With AccessNote, users can easily take notes, create documents, and access applications on their mobile device. It is designed to be completely accessible, having all the features of a traditional note-taking device and more. AccessNote is available for free in the Apple App Store and Google Play.
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Now, here's J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J. Meddaugh: We're here at CSUN 2015 and back with Earle Harrison. He is the president of Triumph Technology, of course known a lot for distributing Handy Tech products. That's what we're looking here at CSUN. Earle is here to show us a new Braille display that's — musical?
Earle Harrison: (Laughs) Well, it — that's one of the attributes of the —
JM: Let's talk about it. Welcome to — welcome to Blind Bargains, Earle.
EH: (Laughs) Okay. So we've got the — those of you who may remember a Braille display that has been around for a long time called the Braille Star — we've got another, newer iteration of it called the Active Star. There are a few differences. We — the Braille Star had a — a keyboard that kind of sat on top and plugged into the back and then kind of slid around, and you could use it with a laptop computer. This one has a magnetic keyboard that sits up on — on top of the unit so you can — you know, it won't slide around. It won't even fall off if you turn it upside down. And if I slide away the — the tray where the laptop sits on —
JM: It slides back. Yeah. Sure.
EH: It slides back. It exposes a — a compartment — really, the compartment is intended for future use with some of the micro-computers coming out on the market. We can put it in there, put the — close the compartment, put the keyboard on top, and just pass the keystrokes through to the device inside the display. So you have a fully functioning computer with a Braille display. And of course, it's modular; so when you — you know, you outgrow that computer or smartphone, whatever the case may be, you just put a different one in there, and it works the same way. Currently, it comes with a USB micro connector inside the display; so you pass — you know, the keystrokes —
JM: Sure.
EH: — pass through — through the device that's hooked to the —
JM: For Android, mostly?
EH: Pardon me?
JM: For Android, mostly?
EH: For Android.
JM: Yep.
EH: Or it does come with a lightning adapter, which is still really not quite working with Apple, but they're working on it. (Laughs)
JM: All right.
EH: Okay. The most exciting thing — of course, active tactile controls have been around for a few years. And for those of you who don't know what that is, that is the idea that the Braille display actually senses your fingers on the display. So I'm doing a presentation later today called When Braille Reads You. It's actually looking at the — the different reading behaviors. It could be used for Braille instructional purposes. We can see how many words per minute somebody's using — or somebody's reading — all kinds of things. But one of the funnest applications that just recently came to bear is the ability to compose music and export it to a midi XML file. And right now, I'm scrolling through here, and I come across a song; and I open the — the song up.
JM: Okay.
EH: And I'm just going to go ahead and play the song.
[The Braille display begins playing notes aloud.]
EH: A piece of the song here. I'll stop it. That's just with a command.
[The song stops playing.]
JM: I don't know that song. What is that? (Laughs)
EH: It's a song that I downloaded from the Handy Tech website, so ... (Laughs)
JM: Okay. (Laughs)
EH: And believe me, I — I'm a musician myself, but my music Braille skills are, as we speak, trying — I'm really trying to hone those because I — I never had anything like this when I was actually playing out professionally.
JM: No. But you can put your finger on a note.
EH: As I'm reading across, I actually see the — the active marks.
[The notes play as Earle reads them on the display.]
EH: It's playing the duration. That [Earle sings the notes in rhythm] — that's about a hundred beats per second — or per minute, rather.
JM: Yep.
EH: And — but now, I'm — I've slowed it down just — and it's just going as fast as I drag my fingers across.
[The notes play again as Earle reads them on the display.]
EH: And I — I could drag my finger across really fast.
[The notes play much more quickly.]
EH: But it's still playing the exact value, obviously, whether it's an eighth note, a half note, a quarter note.
JM: Can you change the instrument?
EH: You can. They've got — let me run down the instrument list. Because it is based on a — a — well, it's actually a 16-voice polyphonic FM synthesizer; so because it is polyphonic, we'll be able to do multi-timbral tones down the road here. And, like, you could have piano scores or things like that. Let me look at the — you've got, like — I do a command, and I see there's an organ, a saxophone, a xylophone, piano, steel drum, violin, guitar — oh, please. No. And we're back to organ.
JM: Right.
EH: That's all we have so far.
JM: Okay. Sure.
EH: The organ is the loudest one. The — the saxophone is not bad. It — it — here, I'll show you.
JM: Right. It's an FM-synthesized saxophone.
EH: Right. But —
JM: But hey, you're —
EH: — maybe down the road there'll be something you can shape those — those sounds with.
JM: Yeah, you're not — you're not buying this for the sound quality.
[The song plays again using the saxophone.]
EH: That sounds like marching band, right?
JM: Yeah, kind of.
EH: (Laughs)
JM: But you're not buying this for the sound quality of the instruments; you're buying it more just to hear the notes, anyway.
EH: Exactly. Oh, you know, imagine somebody in music theory class. They're trying to learn their intervals. You sit on the bus there. Instead of listening to some little tones that we have on one of our other devices that also has support for music Braille, we're actually firing a really — real musical instrument. And we can compose on the bus, for example, and — and then send that over as a midi HTML — no, midi XML file.
JM: That's different from regular midi? Midi XML?
EH: Yeah. It's kind of the new standard, as it were. So — so — but you can then share that with your instructor, of course.
JM: Right.
EH: Unfortunately, the same isn't true going the other direction, not yet; but that's something that's, you know, in the roadmap.
JM: Now, where does that — you know, music — people that know music Braille, that have Braille displays, that — you know, this is a niche inside of a niche inside of a niche.
EH: (Laughs) It's true.
JM: I mean, where — where does this idea come from —
JM: Well, let's talk about blind people who read Braille. There's not enough of us.
JM: Well, right. I mean, and then music Braille, of course — it's — you know, it's definitely more complicated than regular Braille. Where'd this idea come from, or how did that become — I mean, obviously this is of — I mean, it's — you know, it's one feature of this thing.
EH: Yeah, it's just one feature. Of — of course, Braille literacy in general is really important, and music Braille literacy is just another aspect of that. Another offshoot of it.
JM: So why not? You already have the — the technology to — to trail the cells.
EH: Exactly.
JM: Why not throw that in?
EH: Exactly. You know, what — what a fun way to learn how to read Braille music.
JM: So the Active Star just becomes a — a little more portable version of the — the old Braille Stars.
EH: Mm-hmm. With a — with a whole lot more functionality. Also, it supports the — it's got a 16-gig SD micro card.
JM: Okay.
EH: That's where the — the firmware lives and such.
JM: Okay.
EH: But it — but it supports the — the mass storage protocol also. So you connect this sucker up to any computer, whether it's a Mac or a Windows computer, and it just shows up in — as an external drive. You can just file — you can fly files back and forth that way. Also, they just — with the new hardware update that they — just came out for the Active Star, they just — they just started pumping the — the audio out of that internal compartment as well. So you — you'll be able to — when you put your little computer in there, it's also got stereo speakers on the front of it.
JM: Okay.
EH: And sound will come out on the front, and you can —
JM: So is there a sound card —
EH: No.
JM: Okay.
Eugene Iwanski: What you can do is take a bluetooth receiver — and you can buy any number of these things for 10, 15, 20 dollars at Amazon or whatever —
JM: Right.
Eugene Iwanski: — run that, put that inside that space that would accept an iPhone, and plug it into inside there, and then plug into the audio jack inside there, and then cover it up again; and you've got your audio and your Braille via bluetooth.
EH: Right.
JM: All right.
Eugene Iwanski: Because when you charge the battery on the Braille display, you're also charging that bluetooth receiver at the same time.
EH: So J.J., this is Eugene, Eugene Iwanski. He just joined us at Triumph Technology.
Eugene Iwanski: Hi, J.J.
JM: Hey, Eugene. Welcome live on the — the podcast here with — with Earle.
EH: (Laughs)
Eugene Iwanski: Thank you. Thank you.
JM: Awesome. This is interesting to me, too - I mean, all — most of the Braille displays these days — everyone's going smaller and tinier and bluetooth; and then this is kind of — I wouldn't say a throwback, but I guess you're saying there still definitely is a need from people for these more — well, it's portable, but a little less portable than —
EH: Yeah. Well, you know, it's great if you want to use it with a laptop computer. It's great if you want to use it as a standalone device, just as a notetaker. But man, when — when you start putting things like entire computers inside the thing, then now — now it's smaller than a laptop computer.
JM: Right. With all the tablets and things that are out there now.
EH: Exactly.
JM: You were showing me before the podcast as well something called the Start Stick.
EH: Oh, yeah. The Start Stick is a — it's just a — it's a USB sick that has the Handy Tech software — they — they call it the Start Stick software. It comes with every Handy Tech Braille display, and it has drivers for all of the Handy Tech displays. Well, it's got the software for all the Handy Tech Braille — Braille displays because the — the actual driver that they use in Windows is the universal driver. It works with all their Handy Tech Braille displays. But it's a great way — you go — you plug it in; you — you start the software; and you go and tell it, Okay. Update everything. Now, I walk around with a — with a USB stick that has the latest drivers for all the Handy Tech products — or the latest software for all the Handy Tech products —
JM: Right.
EH: — including iRead, which is our OCR software and, I'm sure, anything else that comes down the road. It also — it also starts using — you know, the option — if you don't have a screen reader on the computer, you have the option of just using NVDA. It comes up automatically with NVDA.
[The Braille display begins playing a song.]
JM: We even get musical background for the — this interview. This is awesome.
EH: (Laughs) Right.
JM: When is — when is the Active Star going to be released, how much is it going to cost?
EH: Active Star is available now.
JM: And how much?
EH: Um, gee, is that the time? No, I'm just kidding.
JM: (Laughs)
EH: It — it is a little more expensive. It's $6,790. That's the cost of the Active Star.
JM: For how many cells?
EH: 40 cells, so —
JM: 40-cell. And if people want to get more information about Triumph Technology, Handy Tech, what's the best way to do that?
EH: You can always call us at (651) 636-5184 or email us — info@attriumph.com. That's Attriumph.com.
JM: Thank you so much, Earle.
EH: Thank you.
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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.
