COMMENTS ON HOT DOTS AND THE ARKENSTONE READER by David Andrews David Andrews is the Director of the National Braille and Technology Center for the Blind. As a regular part of his daily activities, he will be making analyses of technology for the production of Braille, voice output, and related matters. The aim is to help consumers decide whether the product would be of value to them. Arkenstone Reader II The reading machine market was created by Kurzweil Computer Products in the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s, but it has been made competitive by the arrival of Arkenstone, Inc. in the late 1980s. Arkenstone markets a line of PC-based reading systems to blind people. In January of 1991 it introduced new software for its Arkenstone Reader line. Primarily the software upgrade offers new and improved interfaces, but it has at least one superb feature-- the ability to determine if a page is on the scanner sideways or upside down. Further, even if the page is improperly oriented, the system will still read it. The Arkenstone Reader II features three user interfaces: EasyScan, ArkScan, and Scanall. EasyScan, originally written by Noel Runyan of Personal Data Systems, has been bundled with all Arkenstone Readers for about a year. The latest version has a number of new commands, including ones to control the orientation identification process and the new Quick Speech feature. This generates speech while the machine is still scanning. Though it means that you start reading sooner (as little as fifteen seconds after scanning commences), the speech is a little choppy. Some users report liking the new feature; others do not. Finally, the Quick Speech may not read all columns in a multi-column document although the data are present and can be read with EasyScan's normal browser program. The EasyScan software is an interactive command-driven program. You generally type in one-, two-, or three-letter mnemonic commands, such as "CN" for "Contrast Normal." Once you learn them, they are fast; but with the new software, there are a lot to master. The list of commands in the help facility is four screens long. Other new features include improved document structure analysis, expanded prompting and messages, the ability to save to devices such as VersaBraille as well as to files, support for additional word processor formats, user-definable dictionaries to improve scanning accuracy, and more. The second interface is Arkscan, a modified version of the standard Calera TrueScan software. Calera makes the optical- character-recognition software/hardware that Arkenstone uses. The Arkscan software works well with screen review programs and is easy to use. The menu-driven program allows you to control all features of the system and to set up configuration files that all three interface programs use. If you like to experiment, this is the software for you. There is also a command line program Scanall, which can be used by itself or in conjunction with batch files. This program allows you to perform routine scanning chores easily and quickly from the DOS command line. I am asked, almost daily, which is better, the Arkenstone or the PCKPR from Kurzweil (now Xerox Imaging Systems). The quick answer is that they are pretty close. The PCKPR, will run on an XT-class computer, has a very easy and straightforward user interface, and starts reading quickly. The Arkenstone is slightly less expensive, offers a choice of interfaces, gives the fiddler more to fiddle with, and offers the automatic orientation identification option, which alone may be enough reason for some people to choose the Arkenstone. Its value to a blind person can't be overestimated. Further, although we have not conducted exhaustive, scientific comparisons yet, the Arkenstone Reader seems to be slightly more accurate in day-to-day use, although the differences are minimal. The PCKPR does have a Learn feature, which probably improves its accuracy as it scans a multi-page document. We plan on doing more thorough tests of all scanning systems later this year. Finally, the Calera/Arkenstone system offers an applications program interface that others are starting to exploit. In a future issue we will review Personal Data Systems' money identifier and Braille graphics programs for the Arkenstone called BUCKSCAN and PICTAC, respectively. For further information or an opportunity to see different reading systems, contact the National Braille and Technology Center for the Blind at (301) 659-9314. For information from the two companies, call (800) 444-4443 for Arkenstone, Inc., at 1185- D Bordeaux Drive, Sunnyvale, California 94089; or call (800) 343- 0311 for Xerox Imaging Systems, Kurzweil Reading Machine Division, 185 Albany Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139. Hot Dots Version 3.0 Hot Dots Version 3.0 is a Braille translation/formatting program for IBM and compatible computers. Though the program has been around for a number of years, it has not been a major force in the translation field, which is ironic because its maker, Raised Dot Computing, has the lion's share of the market in the Apple II world with its BEX and TRANSCRIBEX products. Most of the components in Hot Dots have been rewritten with version 3.0, and the program works much more smoothly and accurately than previous versions. Rewritten components include both the back and forward translators and the manual. One of the program's most notable new features is its ability to import files DIRECTLY from some thirty word processors. It accomplishes this feat by incorporating a commercially available conversion utility into its innards. I was only able to test WordPerfect, WordStar, and ASCII files. The program worked well with all except WordStar files. I had a WordStar Version 5.0 file, but Hot Dots only handles files through Version 4.0. It also did not seem to handle WordStar 4 files quite as well as the other tested types, but most well- known word processing programs are supported. Hot Dots can be run from a menu, directly from the DOS command line, or by using batch files. Translation and formatting a file is a multi-step process, so some assistance, a menu or batch file for example, is helpful. The program first imports a file and inserts its formatting commands. These are the dollar sign commands which will be familiar to all old BEX users. This file is then converted into an unformatted Braille file and finally into a formatted Braille one. If you need precise control of translation or formatting, the first file (called the HD$ file) can be edited. Most of today's Braille translators provide some level of automatic formatting assistance. Hot Dots Version 3.0 does this by producing its HD$ files. In general translators tend either to underformat by throwing out too much of the information from the original file or overformat the Braille output. Hot Dots leans towards overformatting, but not badly so, and you can always edit the HD$ file. It also handles hanging indentations well, something that several other programs have problems with. Further, there is a pre-processing batch file to handle files with tables of contents, sometimes a problem. The program can also back-translate Braille files into print files, and the dollar sign commands are designed to facilitate the production of print and Braille files from the same master file. Hot Dots also supports Dipner Dots, a method pioneered by Raised Dot Computing, of producing draft quality Braille on a daisywheel printer. Dipner Dots can also be printed on regular paper by an ink-print printer to facilitate viewing by a sighted person. Hot Dots Version 3.0 also features a new view function which allows anyone, sighted or blind, to direct the ASCII Braille output of a translation to the computer's screen. With a little practice a person could learn to read this output to check formatting without wasting paper. The manual for the program is clear and well written and features a tutorial to take you through all basic procedures and interface instructions for all commonly used printers. Raised Dot Computing is a major player in the Apple world, and Hot Dots Version 3.0 is definitely a competitive product. The company offers some of the best customer support in the business and has an ongoing commitment to Braille. Anyone interested in Braille translation should seriously consider Hot Dots. For further information contact the National Braille and Technology Center for the Blind at (301) 659-9314 or Raised Dot Computing at (608) 257-9595 or write the company at 408 South Baldwin Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53703.