Barcode Pen with Fujitsu CT-2020 or Psion Netbook Pro

Just a random train of thought for a project.

I was told in a casual conversation about a product (or at least prototype) for visually impaired chemistry students. The periodic table is laid out with barcodes and braille. The student uses a barcode pen (with integrated computer) to access additional information about each element (boiling point, atomic radius, etc.). The computer "reads aloud" the info. The pen can be locked onto a particular level or item so that property trends can be examined as the student moves around the periodic table.

This is a sort of vague convergence of probeware (i.e., Vernier probes), cheap computing power and logger capabilities (TI calculators, Data Harvest, and again Vernier), and needs and capabilities for the disabled (Kurweill, Blaise, and the more traditional tools like braille).

I have 2 "high-end" (well, really 3, but I hesitate to take one back from my daughter where it is doing yeoman's work as a journal) CE 4.2 net devices (CT2020 and NBP). While I think the ultimately "smart" thing (meaning it wouldn't have to fight OS issues) to do would be to use something running under *-nix or Windows, I'd like to develop something using my cheaper, more durable (I guess), more portable (yeah, the newest generation of subnotebooks are challenging the size and battery life issues), and currently very available CE devices.

So, has anyone any suggestions on:

1) Barcode readers/pens for CE devices

2) Voice/reader software

3) Any pre-existing software to lash this together (hey, I'll be the first to say that I'd also be happy to use/start with somebody else's product).

Part of the issue is that left work with a blind professor 20 years ago (I was a student under him). I saw some nifty devices (refreshable braille displays, voice/readers, modernized Perkins keyboards, etc) that looked promising, but with capabilities that were limited and more importantly, price tags that took my breath away (basically, multiples of the cost of a full PC-AT system). Flash forward to 2009 and I'm hearing things like ... illiteracy for the blind is near 90%, most students are discouraged from taking more than a year of math or science in high school, and the price of enabling technology is still breath-taking.

Thanks for bearing with me through the long story, but it's something that been bothering me for the last few weeks. If I can get some traction, I'd like to add this to my list of projects to do (most aren't computer-related FWIW but once upon a time I was a capable-enough in the "ancient" programming tongues (so say my engineering cohorts that don't touch anything that doesn't have a GUI)).

To follow-up abit, I was thinking of making a computer-based version of this item:

VoiLa Voice Labeller - http://www.maxiaids.com/store/prodView.asp?idproduct=1573&idstore=6&idCategory=&category=&product=VoiLa_Voiced_Label_Reader:_English

If I understand the description of this device, it "just" splits out a recorded description in response to the bar code. I'd like to improve upon the concept abit.

You certainly are an ambitious sort...good luck!

Thanks for the wishes. Perhaps I'm just so clueless that I'm optimistic... There seems to be a C++ text to speech route, but I'm not sure if it's applicable to CE.

Speech synthesis on handhelds has always fascinated me. Flite is a PPC application that works great on my 900C, even though it was written for PPC2003. You can download it here: http://www.viksoe.dk/code/flite.htm

Anyway, it runs perfectly on Cmonex v2 without any hacks...





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HPCFactor is the best! I should send Rich lots of money...
*wakes up*
Man I just had a weird dream

I wonder if there's a text message speech synthesizer, so I can keep my eyes on the road while driving. But then it's prolly not easy... "sry m l8 c u in 10"

Woot! It works on the CT-2020 also without hacks. I have an unexplained urge to send money to ... Henry Kissinger.

Edited by hmascience 2009-09-03 3:41 PM

How well does it work compared to Rainer Keuchel's flite port?

I haven't tried it, but if I decipher the filenames correctly, it looks like builds for ARM/MIPS/SH3 for WinCE 3 and 2.11. Since I'm looking for cheap, it'll tickle me to repurpose something like the NEC Mobilepro 770/780/790, but I'm unsure of the availability of a barcode pen for those devices. At least the CT2020 has a dedicated port.

I'm at the state where I'm not sure of much. Well, make that, don't know much (except to be very stoked about the help available here at HPCFactor!).

I was about to say (before mscdex' post) that Rainer Keuchel has a version of Flite that works all the way back to CE 2.11. (Primitive, but it does work.)

For barcode scanner apps, you might check Microsoft's list of sites with .NET CF programs, as I recall that one or more barcode scanner programs were written in .NET. (The link is in my thread about .NET CF in H/PC Pro.)