Blindness not handicap computer, Braille help
Being blind may be a handicap, but for C. E. Hallenbeck, it provides first-hand experience in the computer processing of Braille publications.
Hallenbeck, assistant professor of psychology who has been blind for 25 years, is a consultant with the Atlanta Public School System to produce Braille textbooks for visually handicapped students by computer processing.
He said he hoped that more books would become available for blind people. The computer processing of Braille textbooks began in the Atlanta School System last year. It is also used in residential schools for the blind in Atlanta. Hallenbeck said the cost does not justify use in Atlanta alone. He said although the transcription process will be more efficient, it will also be more costly.
The main problems are the high cost and the fact that keypunchers, like typists, make mistakes, he said. But he added there are many advantages.
He said Braille transcribers must be certified to produce a
Colloquium will discuss laser notion
A method of "seeing through the rocks" to determine their structure by means of a laser beam will be discussed at a colloquium at KU next week.
The method, called optical data processing, is a new and economically profitable one, Daniel F. Merriam, research associate and organizer of the colloquium, said Tuesday. KU, he said, is doing pioneering work in the field under the sponsorship of the American Petroleum Institute.
The same method has many other uses, Merriam said, such as the analysis of bone structure and the isolation of air photo elements like trees, houses and roads.
"It is probably the most exciting thing going on now in scientific research." Merriam said.
At the colloquium, two KU men will present a paper on optical data processing that they have co-authored. They are Floyd W. Preston, professor of chemical and petroleum engineering and assistant department chairman, and John C. Davis, resident associate of the Kansas Geological Survey. Ralph Gerschberg, senior research engineer at the Center for Research, Inc., Engineering Science Division, also from KU, will speak on multispectral image processing.
8 KANSAN Dec. 10
1969
textbook and with skilled manpower becoming scarce, computers, which require no skills other than simple key punching or typing, would be an advantage.
Another improvement would be to shorten the amount of time required to transcribe a volume into braille. For example, it takes six months to transcribe a 100-page volume by a certified transcriber but only two hours with the aid of a computer. One hour would be for key punching and one hour for the actual processing time.
Hallenbeck said this process would make more literature available to blind people. Punched paper tapes could eliminate key punching in the production of Braille by computer, and thus eliminate key punching.
Before coming to the University of Kansas this fall, Hallenbeck was a senior post doctoral fellow in the department of applied mathematics and computer science at Washington University in St. Louis for two years. He was chief psychologist at Highland View Hospital in Cleveland from 1964 to 1967 after being promoted from research psychologist, a position he held from 1960 to 1964.
He earned a B.A. at Union College in 1953, an M.A. in 1957 and a Ph.D. in 1960 at Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
presents
by
THE COUNTRY WIFE
University of Kansas Theatre
December 10,11,12 & 13 8:20 p.m.
William Wycherley
December 14, Matinee at 2:30 p.m.
University Theatre Murphy Hall
For Ticket Reservations Call UN 4-3982