Braille translation program

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Braille translation program is software that is able to translate between Braille (usually Braille ) and other writing systems .

While the translation into Braille has the greater importance, there is also the translation from Braille into black script, as the script of the sighted is called in this context.

history

1955–1957 John Cleave created the possibility of an automatic conversion of texts into braille as part of his dissertation at London's Birkbeck College . The text had to be available on tape because at that time the automatic text recognition was not yet advanced enough.

Mathematicians at IBM took up the results in 1959 and implemented the option of automatic braille translation on an IBM 704 for the American Printing House for the Blind (APH). The program was used exclusively by the APH to produce stamping plates. This first use of computer-aided hallmarking is to be regarded as a pioneering achievement. Magnetic tapes were used to store books.

In 1970 the braille translation program DOTSYS III came on the market, which was portable to various computer systems. The program was public domain and could, therefore, for various future programs form the basis of, among other things, for the program that the Royal National Institute for the Blind (later ITS) advanced in London under the name DOTSYS, the program Braille Master of IBM and the Duxbury Braille Translator . The first users were blind people who were schooled together with sighted people in Atlanta, Georgia.

The first Braille translation program developed for a wider market, the Duxbury Braille Translator was launched in 1976.

An automatic translation into the German blind shorthand had been worked on since the early 1970s. Then in the late 1980s, the program was Hagen Braille software system (HBS) on the market, which in Germany today braille printing is mainly used.

The Windows RTFC program can translate into braille (including partial shorthand) from version 5.1, which appeared in 2001. The back translation, i.e. H. the translation from braille into black letters was added to RTFC 2007, the e-book standard 2008 and DAISY 2009.

Today there are web-based braille transfer options ( RoboBraille ) in addition to local ones .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Booth, Andrew D .: Translating printed text into Braille. The new scientist May 28, 1959, 1207 f.
  2. ^ Sullivan, Joe: Early History of Braille Translators and Embossers 1995
  3. ↑ Kimbrough, BT: Dots and doubts: Technology and turmoil continue to flourish after Braille's first century and a half. Information Technology and Disabilities 10 (2004) 1
  4. ^ Books for the blind, What's available. How to help. Changing Times. The Kiplinger Magazine 15 (1961) 2, 37
  5. ^ Sullivan, Joe: Early History of Braille Translators and Embossers 1995
  6. ↑ Kimbrough, BT: Dots and doubts: Technology and turmoil continue to flourish after Braille's first century and a half. Information Technology and Disabilities 10 (2004) 1
  7. ^ Sullivan, Joe: Early History of Braille Translators and Embossers 1995
  8. ↑ Kimbrough, BT: Dots and doubts: Technology and turmoil continue to flourish after Braille's first century and a half. Information Technology and Disabilities 10 (2004) 1
  9. ^ American Foundation for the Blind (AFB 2011): Assistive Technology Timeline
  10. ^ Slaby, WA: Automatic translation into shorthand for the blind. Münster: Computer center of the University of Münster 1974
  11. ↑ Christensen, Lars Ballieu: RoboBraille - Braille Unlimited. The Educator 21 (2009) 2, 32-37