AT&T solutions for the handicapped

[Thad P Floryan]

Though the original message to which my original reply was posted appears in
comp.sys.amiga, I thought other AT&T computer owners would appreciate seeing
it too.

For some reason, the AT&T VoicePower card and utilities were never advertised
as aids for the handicapped; I hope this posting stimulates some discussion
and thought.

Thad

Thad Floryan [ thad at cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]

--------------------------- reposting follows ------------------------------

Keith Hanlan in <526 at bmers58.UUCP> asks:

	A blind colleague is interested in a unix box for the home to be
	used as a stand-alone machine and as a (very) capable terminal.
	Is Amix (SVR4) for the amiga a cost-effective option for someone
	who is not interested in the graphics capabilities (or much of the
	amiga's capababilities for that matter)?

	What would be involved in setting up an Amiga with a line-terminal?

	If you can think of another unix machine that is more readily applied to
	this problem, please suggest it also.

	Thank you,
	Keith Hanlan
	Bell-Northern Research
	Ottawa, Canada

As much as I'd like to recommend the Amiga for your blind colleague, CBM
failed to deliver much of the hardware and software that was originally
announced at the Amiga's introduction (Answering Machine, voice editing, etc.)

The company that DID deliver those items was AT&T with their UNIXPC (aka 3B1
aka PC7300).  This is a UNIX SysV machine, 10MHz 68010, virtual memory and
demand paged, multi-user, hi-res graphics, 3-button mouse, etc. which in many
respects (except for color! :-) is what we expected of the Amiga back in 1985.

As the guy who "sort of" runs the SF Bay Area AT&T Unix Users' Group (meeting
at the AT&T West Coast Training Center in Sunnyvale, CA), I come across many
"good deals".  One existing RIGHT NOW is a source of 18 of the 3B1 systems
for $400 (four hundred) each, with 85MB HD, 2MB RAM, and, of course, UNIX.

In addition, the AT&T VoicePower card with a multitude of software support
packages (e.g. Answering Machine, Voice Editor, Electronic Email (uucp) with
both text and VOICE data files, Voice Text To Speech (similar to the Amiga's
translator/narrator), etc.) is available for another $400.  The VoicePower
card does audio input, audio output, touch tone decoding and touch tone
dialing, etc etc.  If you've ever called a company and received the voice
message "For more info, push 1; to leave a message, push 2; to speak with an
operator, push 3." etc, then you've heard one of the capabilities of the
VoicePower card (which is also, with the 3B1, the "Master Console" option of
AT&T's System 25 PBX systems).

To give you just a FEW ideas how simple it is to record one's own voice into
a file, play it back, edit it, then dial a number and play the message:

	$ cat /dev/voice > msg.file	# record from mike or phone
	$ cat msg.file > /dev/voice	# play back the file
	$ ve msg.file			# windowing graphical voice editor
	$ vplay -l 2 -r 5 -d 555-1212 msg.file

this last example does:

	-l 2	   specifies take "phone" off-hook
	-r 5	   wait a maximum of 5 rings
	-d num	   dial the number <num>
	msg.file   voice/audio file to be played when the caller answers

All the voice and speech capabilities are fully integrated into the system
software once one loads the dynamically loadable device drivers.  All the
audio files can be processed as any other UNIX file.  One can plug up to 7
of these voice cards into the 3B1's expansion slots.  You can also plug in
Ethernet, StarLAN, multi-serial RS-232 cards, DOS-73 (similar to the Amiga's 
BridgeCard), tape backups, more memory, expansion chassis, etc.  The 3B1 also
comes with a builtin 1200 baud modem, Centronics parallel port, and built-in
tilt-'n'-swivel hires (monochrome) monitor.  For a review of a (stripped down)
version of this system, look at the May 1986 BYTE Product Review (about 12
pages); the reviewed system only had 512K RAM and a 10MB HD.  The 3B1 systems
presently available have 85 MB HDs and 2MB RAM (on the motherboard) and are
no slouch in the performance department.

Before anyone flames the length (and nature (AT&T)) of this message, I want to
re-emphasize that Keith was asking for help on behalf of his BLIND colleague
who would be benefitted by the voice capabilities of the described system.

ALL those features described above for the 3B1 were the same that were promised
for the Amiga (and most were never delivered).  Keith's colleague needs help
NOW, and this posting is my response to his plea.

If Keith and others with similar needs contacts me via email, I'd be happy to
help them fulfill their requirements.  Computers are ideal adjuncts for the
physically handicapped.

Thad Floryan [ thad at cup.portal.com (OR) ..!sun!portal!cup.portal.com!thad ]