First Impression of Hal for Pocket PC from Dolphin

On the Dolphin website, Paul Holliman wrote a first impression on the Hal for Pocket PC. He says “The most interesting development which I was able to get my hands on during the visit was Dolphin’s Pocket Hal screen reader.”

In 1996, Dolphin stated that their aim was to be able to incorporate a full working implementation of their screen reader into a commercial PDA. At the time, I was firmly convinced that they were asking the impossible of themselves, due primarily to the limitations imposed both by PDA architecture and general system resources available. My doubts had been further compounded as I had watched mainstream PDA technology advance over the ensuing 10 years, particularly as I noticed the increasing use of touch screens as the method by which sighted users communicate with today’s devices. My fears were soon dispelled, but to understand why, we need to look briefly at some basic PDA concepts.
 
In general, the conventional PDA uses the Windows CE operating system as its heart. Currently, two approaches to making this technology available for low vision users are to be found. The first approach takes the core CE system as its base and develops a dedicated software suite which offers the functionality of a conventional PDA to the user via Braille and/or speech. The second approach is again to take the CE platform and to incorporate a significantly slimmed down version of a popular screen reader into it. The first approach has the advantage of providing a very simple and easy-to-use interface to the applications for the user. The second has the advantage that it allows the user to use off-the-shelf products such as Pocket Word, Pocket Excel and Pocket Outlook, but generally does not work out of the box with the entire CE environment. So what, you may ask, is unique about Pocket Hal?
 
Very simply, Pocket Hal is entirely the same product as its desktop sibling but it can run on most CE compatible PDA’s. Even the notion of map files associated with applications carries over into Pocket Hal, meaning that the entire PDA environment can be made accessible, including applications of the future. Dolphin has developed its own keyboard driver which allows external Bluetooth keyboards and Braille displays to communicate with the PDA, thus alleviating the need to use the touch screen. When I first heard of this breakthrough, my feeling was one of concern. Would it mean that in order to have Braille and speech access, together with keyboard control of my PDA, I would need to be accompanied on my journeys by a lorry carrying the necessary external peripherals? I had already become disillusioned by the need to carry a certain popular dedicated PDA around in a rucksack! The simple answer was no! If, like me, you often wish to use Braille, all that is required is simply to use a handheld device such as an EasyLink display from Optelec while you drive your PDA which is safely tucked away in your pocket! Alternatively, if you wish to use a conventional keyboard you can simply use a pocket-sized folding Bluetooth QWERTY keyboard, the choice is yours! The implications of this advancement in mobile access technology are enormous for Dolphin’s target audience. There is a rapidly growing trend for mobile phone technology to merge with that of the PDA, producing what is being called the Smart Phone. As this technology becomes the norm, Dolphin will be well placed to offer full access to it for its customers using Pocket Hal.
 
No article about the work of Dolphin would be complete without making mention of the work that the company has been doing in the field of electronic books. The Digital Audio Information System (Daisy) format for books needs no introduction to readers of this publication. Dolphin’s EaseReader player for Daisy books, together with its EasePublisher for easy preparation of books in Daisy format are in widespread use in many countries. Indeed, these products are now being deployed in mainstream education as it becomes evident that multimedia books can help the sighted person to study and read in addition to helping low vision users. With an estimated 20% of eleven-year-olds in the UK now falling below the expected reading level for their age, Dolphin’s book solutions are beginning to make small inroads into reversing this worrying trend.
 
Source: Dolphin