Photo: GraphGrid frame with rubber bands per two centimetres and two crossing axes placed on the TactiPad.
Cells as playing field for games
A playing field for games based on cells such as tic tac toe, battleship etc can be created with the grid boxes that mature by the crossing rubber bands. The ‘game board borders’ can be marked with high rubber bands. The default distance of two centimetres for the cell size is enough, but reconfiguring the rubber bands to a cell size of three centimetres offers more space.
Yahtzee
Keep the scores for Yahtzee by marking the cells of the first column as 1 to 6 and further down as three of a kind, four of a kind, full house, small and large Straight, free choice and Yahtzee. In the first column you can use regular characters or some tactile graphics that are meaningful for you so you can identify the categories. For the first game we use the second column for the scores per category. For the next games use the next columns. The scores one to six are all kept in one cell.
Draw a line along the lefthand side of the cell for score one.
Draw a line along the bottom side of the cell as well for score two. For three a line along the right hand side etc.
For score five and six you can create diagonal lines in the cell.
For a missed category provide a line from one side to the other in the middle of the cell.
Gas-Water-Electricity puzzle
Ideally we would like to have gas, water and electricity available in our homes. In this challenge there are these three resources that you have to provide to three houses under the condition that the (pipe) lines may NOT intersect!
Steps
Place the GraphGrid on the drawing board.
Find the cell in the third column and third row and trace the inner contour. This is the gas supply.
Skip three cells down and trace the inner contour of the third cell, which is the water supply.
Skip three more cells down and trace the third cell as the electricity supply.
The three resources are all in the same column.
Skip three columns to the right and create the squares similar as before. The houses are in one column.
Take the GraphGrid away.
Now provide every house with non-intersecting pipelines with all three resources.
Photo: The three resources gas, water and electricity provided to three houses; some pipe lines are provided.
The GraphGrid frame is a frame (36 by 28 cm) with a thickness of four millimetres. It needs to be mounted on the TactiPad drawing board like a picture frame. Eight oval holes in the frame fit around the knobs of the TactiPad to hold it in place. Three corners are rounded. The fourth corner is flattened.
Along the inner edge, small curved hooks are placed at a regular interval of 1 centimetre. Along the outer edge of the frame indents are made with a spacing of 1 centimetre as well. Slightly wider indications mark 5 centimetre intervals. They exactly match with the centimetre scale along the edges of the TactiPad.
Photo: Detail of GraphGrid with indents at every 5 cm, corresponding with the indents per centimetre at the inner side of the GraphGrid.
The purpose of the indents is to hold rubber bands to have the measurements system of the TactiPad tangible on the entire drawing area in rows and/or columns. Because of the A4 dimensions of the drawing surface (29.7 cm by 21.0 cm), the centimetre scale is not symmetrical along the GraphGrid. Therefore the starting point for horizontal and vertical distances is at the upper left corner of the drawing board and GraphGrid frame when in landscape orientation and the flattened corner of the GraphGrid is placed in the upper right corner.
Note: The frame covers the drawing surface along the edges for one centimetre.
The frame of the GraphGrid will sit or can sit already on top of the drawing board for storage. The additional tools for the GraphGrid have their place in the paper pocket.
Preparation
To begin with, make sure the TactiPad has the landscape orientation with the hinge facing backwards. To position the GraphGrid frame, place the knobs at approximately five centimetres away from the corners. To orient the GraphGrid frame correct, place the flat corner in the upper right corner of the TactiPad. Make sure all eight knobs of the TactiPad are kept in a hole. It is possible that a rubber band coincides with the position of one of the knobs. Therefore, the holes in the GraphGrid around the knobs are extra-long so you can slide the knobs aside for the desired placement of the rubber band.
Initial setup for the rubber bands
The initial setup of the GraphGrid frame has rubber bands every two centimetre in horizontal and vertical direction, so forming a grid. Two rubber bands go around the frame to indicate two axes. Of course, other setups are possible.
Low and high rubber bands – Using differences in height
The framework of the GraphGrid has a thickness of four millimetres. Therefore there is a well noticeable difference in height between the bands that run along the top side (outer) part or the bottom side (inner) part of the frame. The lower rubber bands that are attached to the hooks run alongside the inner part of the GraphGrid and can lay flat on the drawing surface. The rubber bands can be placed horizontally and vertically with a minimum distance of 1 centimetre.
Note: The inner and outer bands can also be placed at an angle of any number of degrees. Note: The hooks at the inside edge are at every centimetre. Adding rubber bands to each hook could result in a (too) dense grid.
Placing the grid lines and axes
The minimum cell dimensions are one by one centimetre. To form a larger grid, you can place the rubber bands two or more centimetres apart by skipping one or more hooks in opposing sides of the GraphGrid. Additional rubber bands for replacing broken ones or create more grid lines and axes are supplied with the GraphGrid. These are standard, thin rubber bands with a length of 15 centimetres, 6 inches.
Photo: close-up of 3 hooks
The hooks along the inner side of the frame have a curved shape so the rubber bands cannot come loose if they are positioned properly. Placing a rubber band is easiest if you hold the rubber band with two hands, keeping it perpendicular to the frame so you can slide it through the slot to the end of the hook. First of all, you span the rubber band in two opposing hooks, so that it forms a double line between two sides of the GraphGrid. You then take the upper of these two lines and slide it into the next desired hook in both sides of the frame to form the second grid line.
Photo: Two hands placing a rubber band in the correct position on the GraphGrid.
Note: Since summer 2022, the Digital Pen has not been for sale anymore. This manual is for users who still own this former Thinkable product.
The TactileView digital pen is a special version of a ballpoint pen. The pen writes in ink like a normal pen, but at the same time determines the position of its tip on the drawing surface. In the pen’s tip is a small transmitter, which sends a signal to a receiver. Upon moving or clicking in the drawing surface with the pen, the receiver transmits this position to the TactileView software, just like with a regular computer mouse. Visual impaired people can operate the TactileView software using the TactiPad or TactileView ClickPad.
The pen functions as a drawing tool and transmits to the computer what has been drawn, or as a cursor by transmitting on which location has been clicked. This way, the digital pen enables the user to make a digital version of a tactile diagram or to explore a tactile diagram with speech and sound.
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.
By placing the GraphGrid on the TactiPad, you create a flexible grid that can be used for playing games, keepinig the score or learning to count. This video shows how this works.
By making different cardboard templates you can draw elegant repeating and overlapping patterns. This video shows how the small triangle can be used as a reference to make your own templates.
When the notches around the outside of the CircleFrame are combined with rubber bands, you can a grid of radial lines as guidelines for your drawings, as can be seen in this video.
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