By Jo Rector, City Editor
With a reader, matrix and battery contained in a pouch no larger
than a small tape recorder, Smith scanned The Times-Union for
the first time recently with the new reading device. The Optacon's
microphone size reader in his right hand and his left index finger
on the matrix, Smith revealed the operation of the amazing Optacon.
Although Roger Smith, a former Warsaw resident, has been blind
since birth, he just recently has learned to read the English
alphabet. A systems analyst with the Naval Avionics Facility in
Indianapolis, Smith has discovered a new world of printing through
a miniature electronic device called an Optacon.
Through 144 photo cells in the reader, electronic impulses surge
back to the matrix under Smith's index finger, popping up tiny
vibrating pins in the shape of the letters the reader sees.
The tactile sensation is similar to Braille, Smith explained,
but the characters on the printed page spring into his finger
in their alphabetical form, a diversion from the Braille method
which uses various raised dot patterns to code letters and words.
The son of Mrs. Helen Smith, who operates the Unique Bake Shop,
107 South Buffalo St, Warsaw, and the late Russell Smith, the
Indianapolis man must scan pages of computer printouts in his
job with Naval Avionics.
"Being able to read is extremely helpful." Smith said,
patting the Optacon's battery pack "In my job as systems
analyst I must determine the automation needs of the plant, which
manufactures some new Navy electronics equipment and is a maintenance
facility for additional equipment. "I came up with the system
for the automation and have it computer programmed. Now that I
have the Optacon, which the company bought for me, I'm able to
read the results instead of tying up other employees' time having
them read it to me". Smith explains.
Smith acquired the Optacon in January after a 10-day training
session in its use by the manufacturer, Telesensory System, Inc.
Palo Alto, Calf. It was the alphabet's debut for Smith. "Telesensory
sent me a packet of letter shapes to play with so I could become
familiar with them before the training period. But it was still
difficult to associate the letters I had learned with the tactile
matrix in the Optacon. It is still rather slow, and I don't use
the Optacon for handwriting since each person's penmanship differs.
Speed depends on the amount of time spent using the Optacon,"
Smith said.
With one year of experience Telesensory estimates the user should
be able to read 50 to 55 words per minute. The fastest speed so
far, to their knowledge at least, is 85 words per minute. The
Optacon supplants a program Smith produced to print Naval Avionics
computer output in Braille and a recording tape service that required
a one month wait from computer output to the time Smith received
a recording of the contents.
Smith, who teaches a Sunday school class at Windsor Village Baptist
Church, Indianapolis, from a Braille Bible, learned to read the
Braille code when he was six years old and beginning his education
at Indiana School for the Blind. Today Smith reads Braille at
300 to 400 words per minute.
Electronics
Smith, always fascinated by radio and a Citizen Band
operator, attended Manchester College, North Manchester, after
graduating from the school for the blind. He matriculated as an
English major but in his sophomore year, encouraged by summer
and part-time jobs with Radio Stations WRSW AM and FM, Smith enrolled
in a college physics course.
His professor lauded his work and gave him further encouragement
to pursue a physics major. At WRSW Smith engineered basketball
games and summer stock car races from the Kosciusko County fairgrounds
oval while hosting a Saturday evening program of music and entertainment.
At Purdue he met his future bride, Mary, an Attica girl, and after
their February through August romance they were wed. "Those
days at Purdue and Lafayette were the best of our lives. We didn't
have any money, but we didn't have any bills either," Smith
recalls with a smile.
The day after his Purdue commencement, Smith interviewed with
Naval Avionics and has been there the past 17 and one-half years.
Although he has worked with computer programming, attending a
programming school in 1968, Smith confesses, "Working with
people is what I really like to do."
Recently he and other Naval Avionics employees developed a new
program to compute employee retirement benefits in a fraction
of the time previously used in manual computations. From his home
on the northeast side of Indianapolis, it is a short 10-minute
walk with his boxer guide dog, Winnie, to Naval Avionics. The
distance symbolizes Smith's close ties with his work.
Until eight years ago when he underwent surgery to remove his
nucleated eyes, Smith had experienced light perception but could
not depict visual forms. He does not think in visual images because
he has no reference point to them. "It is impossible for
a sighted person to change roles with someone who has been blind
since birth, "Smith contends " We would describe things
in entirely different terms." For an example, Smith said
when he thinks of the concept of a tree he imagines something
that comes up from the ground, is round and at a certain point
sprouts branches and possibly leaves. Never having seen one seems
to make the tree easier to describe.
Smith relates colors in technical terms, "I can tell you
that red has a certain frequency or that blue has another frequency,
but that is not what you see, I have not acquired the experiential
data that you have." Since Smith never had sight, he said,
"I never had an adjustment problem. Blindness has not been
a handicap to me although it has been an inconvenience."
"When my sister and I were youngsters, our parents were very
free with us, In fact, I think the neighbors thought they were
too free. We had fun and played with all the other kids and both
lived through it. We never had any broken bones, anyway, and the
kids were always breaking something." Smith remembers of
his Warsaw neighborhood.
His sister, Roselynn, who was also blind from birth, is married
to Carl McHugh and now lives in Columbus Ohio. "She will
soon purchase one of the $3,500 Optacons. At 4.2 pounds, Smith
calculates that the Optacons costs just over $833 a pound and
is well-worth every penny. His tactile sense developed above average,
Smith has been aided by a guide dog since 1957 but he can walk
to a wall and perceive it before he actually reaches it.
His religious beliefs preclude acceptance of the concept of extrasensory
perception, Instead, Smith explains his extraordinary development
of tactile response as facial vision. "I believe scientists
have studied this ability and have called it facial vision, I
expect it occurs from two senses combined," Smith explained.
"First, there is the perception of an echo in the footstep.
The closer the wall gets, the echo changes and seems to become
higher in pitch.
"Second, I expect there is also some change in the air pressure
between the body and the wall that is also related to the facial
vision." Smith said "I don't run into walls, it seems
to be somewhat of an automatic response to avoid them and other
looming objects."
His guide dog, Winnie, helps, walking with Smith to work and back
each day. "Winnie stays at work with me all day and is pretty
much the office pet. We finally arranged for a table behind my
desk for Winnie to stay under during the day to avoid trampling."
And there are the office cut-ups who greet Winnie each morning
instead of the boxer's master. Smith takes it all in stride.
A piano-tuner part of the time during his college days, Smith's
appreciation for music and his skill led him to the church organ,
where he plays both by ear and by note. He studied harmony in
college and prefers attending a good concert more than any of
his other hobbies. He is also a patient fisherman and enjoys basketball,
lobbing shots at a netted basket hung outside his Indianapolis
garage.
In his spare time he also communicates on his Citizen Band radio,
and admits he aspires to an amateur (ham) radio license, "but
I'm too lazy to learn the code. One of the men at work has a few
of us interested in starting a code class, so that might be my
next project."
In spite of what most sighted persons would consider a nearly
insurmountable handicap, Smith had retained his faith in both
God and mankind.
He views life this way: "The Lord has been awfully good to
me, so I strive to do things that will please Him. I don't ever
want to leave anyone in worse shape than I found him.
In my opinion, we are all here to benefit each other," Smith
concluded.
Warsaw Times-Union Spotlight March 23-30, 1975
Transcribed by Jane Leedy
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