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.
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