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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 30, 1979)
raille terminal to help THE BATTALION Pm 3 WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 1979 1979 omputers for the blind |ind people could gain access to miter technology and careers 'flugh an idea developed by a KTof Texas A&M University duate students. m students plan to market a sys- lcentered around a braille termi- that will enable the blind to enter computer job market. B concept was developed for a terns engineering course. But irn 'Wjin'ry Glover and David Tucker of Station and Susan Jenkins of .VvSS StOTftblc decided to expand the en- Tling entrepreneurship aspect eir assignment and take it to the aess world. [over, Jenkins and Tucker de led the braille terminal in a |ts presentation involving two taudate student teams. They fcdPScti ... ‘SClCw im were in a class taught by Dr. Charles A. Rodenberger. “In all three cases, the student groups interacted with the com puter,” Rodenberger said. “I think it’s an indication of the future. My crystal ball says this is the way we are going. I don’t see us ever backing off from use of the computer.” The project was praised by evaluators as engineering that bene fits society. The students plan to file for a patent. Called a braille terminal, it would link with virtually all existing com puter systems. It is based on an idea by Glover, who has a master’s degree in digital electronics. He is in Texas A&M’s doctor of engineering pro gram. Jenkins and Tucker are master’s esert plants - w fuel, say &M scientists f^X ■ the search for alternative I sources takes on an increas- .'W »ly fevered pitch, Texas A&M jrsity researchers are turning lo the land for answers, icultural scientists are able to irimarily desert plants — with names like guayule, jojoba and 5rbia — into everyday com ics such as rubber, lubricating Id ethanol, an alcohol fuel, anol is one of the many fuel cts that can be produced from llexas A&M researchers are eal- petroculture.” roculture is like agriculture, t that plants are grown to be ssed into fuels, plastics, build- fmaterials and other replace- lad votedAts for non-renewable resources^ ichers, bcBnts, nature’s most efficient s reducttBcollectors, are the key to a re- because jwble resource economy, says lie gover.fcBragg, who specializes in indus- rease. Bconomics research, passed a $ like coming down the stair- stablishinB 0 th e presents under the lealers n ijstmas tree,” he says, alluding to ;rwork aiBfc'tential resources packed up in i, approvKBs that scientists know very little “d cons put now. govern fits much more exciting than iding pr&Bthing mundane like atomic assed lenBEV. and it has much more poten- appraisal* Bragg says. “So far, we’ve ig- >4 counti fred most of these plants because the billrjfri had our minds on cotton, •erty app lets or wheat. If we couldn’t eat commei fWe ignored it.” f the mosB e petroculture products, de- toward Wed in times of national nents sa;:lurgency and strife, are used tion ari ngly today, but that is changing, ent perSiB 1 "example, some racing cars run duringtiuBhanol, which is distilled alcohol. Calvin, a Nobel Prize-winnning sci entist at the University of California, is promoting it.” Of all the petroculture crops, guayule (wy-OO-lee) probably holds the greatest potential, contends Bragg. Guayule could be used as a substitute for the synthetic rubber made from petrolem. The Native Latex Commercialization Act of 1978 put $30 million in federal funds into research programs to develop guayule. Bragg and other re searchers at Texas A&M have al ready started experimental work in several parts of Texas. Rubber from guayule is not a new idea. In 1910, half the nation’s rub ber production came from the plant. So researchers know it can be used successfully. It’s now a matter of creating mar kets, finding the best variety strains of the plants and making guayule production economically feasible, Bragg says. “We re looking at some very com plex plants, ” he says of petroculture, and that means a lot of research ques tions remain before these resources can be used to replace non renewable ones. But the effort is not only worth it, Bragg believes, but vital. “We’ve become an island economy,” he explains. “We used to be self-sufficient, but now we import 35 percent of our iron ore, all the bauxite for producing aluminum and 50 to 55 percent of our oil. We need to develop petroculture for our na tional defense and for our economic health.” Bragg predicts that by the turn of the century the United States could be well on its way to an industrial ent—arBare lubricated with jojoba )me fror iO-HO-ba) oil. Jojoba is another of society based on renewable plants. Ily to |2'f|esert shrubs that grows in the Biwest and is under a revival, assured due economics and partly i back the fact that it is an excellent itive amifhcement for sperm whale oil. oposalsl Ethanol can be produced from say when ff 11 f° r instance, after the food me has been taken out, adds ertain species of plants belong- jto the euphorbia (you-FOUR- Ifamily produce a latex that is Baron a molecular level to crude FOR A NON-FATTENING LUNCH , Come to the new gourmet salad bar, ( which also features sandwiches, soup ( f and yogurt in the Sbisa Dining Center i Basement. Open 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Monday-Friday '“Nobody has put it through the lab ]l “QUALITY FIRST’ Bragg says, “but Dr. Melvin ALTER ATIONb dl-raisiif AFL-CI on the IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF D TEXAS WHERE MOTHER liUGHT DAUGHTER THE FINE “T OF SEWING — SO HELEN iRIE TAUGHT EDITH MARIE ck leader N secrets of sewing and dph also: r ERATI0NS marcho: and ciii edecessoi iastic ale marc hit; liquor e) but et js of the DON'T GIVE UP — WE LL MAKE IT FIT!" AT WELCH S CLEANERS. WE MOT ONLY SERVE AS AN EXCEL .ENT DRY CLEANERS BUT WE SPECIALIZE IN ALTERING HARD TO FIT EVENING DRESSES TAPERED. SHIRTS. JEAN HEMS WATCH POCKETS. ETC (WE RE JUST A FEW BLOCKS NORTH OF FED MART.) WELCH’S CLEANERS 3819 E. 29th (TOWN & COUNTRY SHOPPING CENTER) se, Rani He rid beha of them uld have degree candidates in business mar keting and handle that aspect of the business opportunity. “The basic set-up consists of a computer interface which interprets output into braille characters, along with a typewriter keyboard for input into the computer,” Glover said. The keyboard would be no differ ent from typewriters with braille keyboards that are on the market. A device atop the terminal will en able the blind person to communi cate directly with the computer. In the index finger slot of the two- slot terinal, prongs that project slightly through two columns of three holes, or similarly arranged heating elements, will reproduce the braille alphabet. “A blind user would type a line of copy into a microprocessor in the terminal, hit a key and play it back through the braille terminal,” Glover described. “If correct, another key would insert the line into memory.” The system has numerous applica tions that can open a variety of pos sibilities to the blind, the Texas A&M students feel. With electronics components be coming less costly, they think most non-sighted persons could have their own micro-computer system with floppy disk memory storage. AGGIE SPECIAL 50% OFF "GET THE MOST - TAKE THE POST" ENJOY THE HOUSTON POST FOR BOTH SUMMER SESSIONS FOR ONLY $7.00 c.vtF- JUNE 5 to AUGUST 17, 1979 (1 Summer session $4) MORNING DELIVERY WITH GUARANTEED SERVICE'. Call us at 846-0396 and 822-4351 J °o. ,f fy At. Af, Batt Classifieds Call 845-2611 Culpepper Plaza