The TactiPad with all its parts can be stored in a case with a handle and a shoulder strap. A special compartment is available for storing the plastic sheets. This compartment is closed by a velcro strap which prevents the sheets from moving during transport. The compartment is below the inner side to which the ruler, set square and protractor are attached using rubber bands. The same rubber bands also keep the compass’ base in place, as well as the frame for the reciever of the TactileView digital pen.
The compass branch, a pen and possibly the digital pen are held in a small compartment.
The branch should be placed with its point and spike flat on the case. There is also a pincushion, in which a number of pins can be stuck. The drawing board itself goes into another compartment, which consists of a frame which covers the grooves with the knobs, but leaves the drawing surface uncovered. When the case is inwardly folded, a velcro band keeps it closed. The drawing surface remains uncovered when the case is folded outwards so that, when the case is carried with the shoulder strap, you can draw while traveling.
The TactiPad has rails on each of the four sides of the frame. In every rail two moveable knobs are mounted. You can attach the different TactiPad drawing tools to the knobs, and slide them along the rails. The measure designation, which is at all sides of the frame makes it possible to position the tools precisely. Grooves next to the drawing surface indicate 5 centimeter distances. The semi-circle hollows along the rails indicate centimeter and 0,5 centimeter distances. The hollows on the inner side and those on the outer side of the rail have the same width but are lined up differently. This allows you to measure 0,5 centimeter distances.
The origin for the measure designation is located in the upper left corner (when having the hinge pointing to the left or back). The edge of the frame is 3,5 centimeters wide. The diameter of the knobs measures 2 centimeters, and they are placed 1 centimeter away from the outer edge of the frame.
Measure designation
For measure designation in centimeters, 9 millimeter wide semi-circular hollows have been made on a short distance from the edge. They create points between them, each with a distance of 1 centimeter to the next. With those points, it becomes easy to read the exact distance per centimeter. Because the hollows are semi-circular, the distance per 5 milimeters can be read in the deepest point of the hollow. The measure designation can be found at all edges of the drawing surface and on the drawing tools. An exception is the round edge of the protractor. Here the points between the hollows don’t indicate 1 centimeter, but indicate the angle in steps of 10 degrees instead.
Knobs and holes
Black ribbed knobs can be moved along the rails by (un)screwing them. The knobs are 2 centimeters wide and 8 milimeters high. They can be removed by totally unscrewing them. To place a knob back in the rail, place it on a random place in the rail, and slide it all the way to the outer corner, dragging the nut along. Here the knob can be screwed back again.
The drawing tools have holes and wide grooves, to fit around the knobs. By fixing the knob and putting the tool over it, the tools can be tightened. With partially unscrewed knobs, the tools can be moved smoothly across the drawing surface.
For drawing straight lines, or certain angles a ruler, a set square and a protractor are required. The tools included with the TactiPad are specially designed, and have 2 centimeter wide holes and grooves to exactly fit over the knobs on the frame. Apart from that, the drawing tools are made with a rubber underside, which prevents them from slipping over the drawing surface.
Until you have the TactiPad laying on your desk, and the drawing tools in your hand, you won’t really know how the TactiPad feels and what it looks like. Of course, holding it in hand is not always possible. That’s what this detailed description of all parts is for.
The TactiPad is a drawing board with which you can make raised line drawings as VIP (Visual Impared Person). Or others can make raised line drawings for you. The drawing happens on a thin plastic sheet placed on a rubber subsoil.
Working with the TactiPad
Upon firmly pressing the sheet with either a pen or any other pointy device, a raised line will develop. This is a very old technique, which makes use of the so-called ‘emboss’ effect, meaning the plastic sheet will be stretched by the tip of the pen. The transformations can not be undone. In other words: don’t bother bringing your eraser.
General characteristics
The TactiPad is made of plastic, so that it won’t feel cold. The corners are rounded. The size as well as the measure designation are based on commonly used values. The use of the colors black and yellow provides us with a good contrast between different parts. The Tactipad is flat, and therefore easy to take with. Two grooves have been made at the backside, to make it possible to hang the TactiPad just like a picture frame.
Drawing surface of the TactiPad
The surface on which can be drawn, has exactly the size of an A4 paper sheet (29,7 x 21,0 centimeters). The surface exists out of a 4 milimeter thick rubber layer. Below this layer is a thin metal plate. Around the drawing surface is a 3,5 centimeters wide fame, in which a groove and a measure designation are placed.
At the frontside of the TactiPad (with the stands pointing to te back), the bottom layer has been shaped inwards, as compared to the frame. By placing your thumb under the edge, and pressing on the drawing surface with your fingers, the frame can be lifted. When closed, the frame exactly surrounds the drawing surface, and is just as high. The plastic sheet which is used to draw on measures 34 * 27 centimeters, and is tightened under the frame since it’s larger than the drawing surface itself. To keep the TactiPad closed, two flat magnets are placed on the corners of the drawing board, pulling the frame and drawing surface together. This way the sheet is held in place.
In the first tutorial, we covered how to produce a tactile graphic based on an image file by applying one or more image filters. However, not all images are suited for this method, and an adequate image might not always be available. In this tutorial, we will show the most effective way to produce a tactile graphic based on an image file when filters will not do the trick.
Reasons why filters might not work
In the manual section Importing images from the internet, we describe how to select an image that is most suitable for conversion with filters. However, suitable image files are simply not always available. For example, the quality of the tactile graphics can differ based on the level of detail – too much detail, and the elements are no longer distinguishable by touch; too little detail, and the subject might not come across clearly. In other cases, elements such as texts, colour gradients or shadows might disturb or complicate the tactile graphic. When an alternative, more suited image is not available, you will have to carry out additional editing to produce a good quality tactile graphic.
Tracing the image
With the Draw path – Curved shape tool that is introduced in TactileView version 2.500, it is easy to trace the required elements in an image. You can accurately match the curves and shapes in the images that you wish to present in the tactile graphic. Another added benefit of this method is that the path is an object (as signified by its blue colour), which means that you have full control over properties such as line style and can scale the elements to any size if required.
To see how we edited an image using the ‘Draw path – Curved shape’ tool, watch the video or scroll down for step by step instructions.
Step by step guide
1. Import the image
Place the image that you wish to use in your TactileView design by selecting ‘Import’ from the drawing tools on the left, then select ‘Import image from file’. Resize the image to suit the selected paper size. In this tutorial, we will use a map of a cruise holiday as an example.
2. Tracing elements in the image
Choose which elements you need to trace in the image to convert it to a tactile graphic. In our example, we will be tracing the contours of the coastline as well as the route of the cruise. The coastline of the islands will be traced as a separate element.
To start tracing the elements in the image, select the ‘Draw path – curved shape’ drawing tool from the drawing tools toolbar and choose ‘Click and draw (Bezier curve)’. Position the cursor at the start of the line, then click and drag to place the first anchor point. The direction in which you drag determines the direction of your curved line. Move to the first point along the line where it changes direction and place the next anchor point by clicking and dragging.
3. Finishing the traced line
Once you have placed all the anchor points along the line in the image, click on the green semicircle that is visible next to the last placed anchor point.
4. Remove the image file
Once you are finished tracing the image, you can remove it again by selecting it and pressing the Delete key.
5. Refining the lines
You can always refine the contours of the line that you created by adjusting the green handles at the anchor points. For the best accuracy, it is best to switch to ‘Design mode: dot view’ in the lower horizontal toolbar to check the exact positioning of the braille dots.
6. Apply braille text labels
Most tactile graphics gain a lot of clarity by using text labels to mark the different elements in the image. In our example, the cities along the route are labeled with numbers in the map, with the city names listed below.
7. Applying line styles and other properties
Once the elements of the image are traced, we have the added benefit that we can apply a range of properties to the different sections of the image. In our example, we can give the route of the cruise a different line style to distinguish it from the lines that mark the coastline. To do this, select the curved line object of the cruise route, then select ‘Line style’ from the properties toolbar and select a line style.
You could also choose to fill the land in the map with a texture to make it easier to feel the difference between land and water.
Some braille embosser models allow you to use different relief heights for the braille dots. In TactileView, this relief height can be applied to the blue objects (squares, blue lines, triangles, etc.) as well as the Detect shape tool, tables and graphs.
Normally, objects will be embossed using the highest dot height, as this usually gives the best tactile quality. In the case of image files, the colours of the image will be converted to different dot heights, where lighter colours result in lower dot height. This is the default setting for relief height and can always be selected as dot height by choosing ‘Standard’ as the value.
In TactileView, the relief height can be selected separately for the different components of objects. Firstly, you can select a dot height for the outline of the object. Secondly, the surface area of the object (i.e. the area within the outline of the object) can be given a separate height. Finally, if the object has a texture fill style, it can have a different relief height as well.
You can directly edit the relief height for the line, surface and texture by selecting ‘Relief height: line’, ‘Relief height: surface’ or ‘Relief height: texture’ from the properties toolbar or the context menu of the object. The dot height for the line can also be found in the ‘Line style’ dialog, whereas the dot height for the surface and texture can be found in the ‘Fill style: texture’ dialog.
The different dot heights are shown in the design using different shades of blue: a lighter shade signifies a lower dot height, whereas a darker shade corresponds with a higher dot height.
For graphs, you can select the relief height for the grid lines to make them less prominent and distinguish them from the axes and graph lines. By default, these grid lines will already have a lower value; you can edit the relief height by selecting ‘Size and position’ from the graph’s properties toolbar or context menu.
‘Relief height: line, surface and texture’ icons:
Figure 1. Different dot heights are shown with different shades of blue in the design.
Figure 2. The grid boxes in a graph have a lower dot height than the axes, as shown with the lighter blue colour.
Use contrast for tactile usability
Although the dot height can be set to 8 different heights, in reality the increments between these steps are very small. This means there will not be a distinguishable tactile difference between a dot height of 3 and 4. It is advisable to use sufficient contrast in relief height between different elements; for example, a value of 8 for the outline of an object and value of 2 for its surface.
Compatibility with other embossers
The relief height properties of objects are only available when you have a printer selected that supports variable dot height via menu File > Print Setup. A message will notify you when a document is opened that contains objects with variable relief height, but the selected embosser does not support this property. The variable relief height will still be visible in the design using lighter and darker shades of blue, but it is important to remember that the tactile output of the embosser or printer will differ: the outline and texture of the object will be embossed, but the relief height of the object’s surface will have no relief height.
In this situation, you can only edit the relief height for existing objects with a relief height not set to ‘default’. Once you set it to ‘default’, the relief height property of the object will no longer be available until you have an embosser selected that does support variable dot height.
When you are unable to connect to the internet with the computer on which you wish to register TactileView, you can register your software licence via your distributor. For regular registration via internet, see Software registration with SPC via internet.
Select ‘Registration via distributor’ from step 1 of the Configuration wizard. Alternatively, choose ‘Computer registration’ from the Settings menu and make sure that ‘Registration via distributor’ is selected in the dialog that opens.
Supply your distributor with the following information:
– Your SPC
– A user or company name
– Version number and Computer identification code (both can be copied from the registration dialog)
– Contact details: full name*, company, address, country* and email address* (information with an asterisk* is required)
Your supplier will contact the TactileView development team and provide you with a Registration code that can be used to register without an internet connection. Enter your SPC, a user or company name, and the received Registration code in the Settings > Computer registration dialog. Once you have filled this all in, select ‘Register now’.
You are now ready to start using the fully registered TactileView software. The registration is valid for all users on this computer if you have administrator rights during registration. Otherwise the registration needs to be repeated with the same SPC for other users.
The TactileView ClickPad is a clipboard, on which a tactile image is placed. Combined with the TactileView digital pen and the TactileView software, the ClickPad functions as a touch screen. On this, a VIP (Visually Impaired Person) can explore an audio-tactile image; a tactile image that contains audible information as well. The digital pen is used as a click and point device similar to a computer mouse, and tells the computer on which position of the image has been clicked. The software then plays any audio information that is present at the clicked position.
This video shows how you can create two- and three-dimensional space on the TactiPad by using rubber bands placed diagonally around the frame of the GraphGrid.
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