"Marty's" Q&A

Since finding out Marty has arrived at our house, I've gotten some comments and questions about the SMART Brailler. I've asked my darling husband, Mike, to help address these questions via video demo. The 2 most popular question have been around Marty's ability to support contracted Braille and math.

Jody, mother of Kyle, age 7, asks, "Can Marty do both uncontracted and contracted Braille? And if so, is the feature easy to use?"

Jody, yes! Marty can do both uncontracted and contracted Braille. And to switch between the two is merely the click of a button! Button number 3 to be exact... This button can be used to toggle between uncontracted and contract Braille.

Michele, mother of Brian, age 15, wrote "My son is having trouble with Braille math. I am wondering if the SMART Brailler would be a useful tool, so I can help confirm that he is producing the correct Braille characters for Math equations."

Michele, unfortunately, no. Mike tried to produce simple math equations (as an example, 1 + 2 = 3) and the SMART Brailler was unable to recognize the input as a math equation.

So as you can see, while Marty is amazing and CAN do a lot of fun things, Math is not his strong suite!

Please feel free to submit your questions below! We plan to address everything and anything we can!

Please click on the photo above to learn more about Marty and the Backpacking SMART Brailler event!

Jon Paul in action!

 

"Marty" the SMART Brailler has been with us for a few days now. Until now, Jon Paul has only had the 'luxury' of a classic Perkins Brailler... the same tool his father grew up with... (infact, the one in the video belongs to his dad!) So, I asked Jon Paul what he thought... of course, being a technology driven guy, he said he liked the SMART Brailler (who doesn't love technology!)

 

 

Below, Jon Paul demonstrates some of the alphabet on the SMART Brailler. I think he was a bit embarrassed about his mistake on the letter "e"... (he turned the brailler off as a result and the restart takes a bit of time!)

 No matter... we're happy to see what the upcoming days hold. We've got plenty planned for Marty! Stay tuned!

Please click on the photo above to learn more about Marty and the Backpacking SMART Brailler event!

"Marty" the SMART Brailler has arrived!

"Marty", the traveling SMART Brailler arrived at our house this afternoon.We were all very anxious to take the SMART Brailler out of the box and get going!

I must say, I thought it would be "easy". I thought, since we're familiar with the standard Perkins Brailler we'd have no trouble... Just plug it in and GO!...

Not so fast...

JP enjoys his first look at "Marty" the SMART Brailler. He was excited by the sounds as he brailled different letters.

The SMART Brailler is a little different. It's built on the footprint of the Next Generation Perkins Brailler which is nice, because it's much lighter than the standard Perkins Brailler. However, it does make it a bit different when you're trying to use it versus the standard Perkins. Not impossible, just different.

Upon start up, users have the option to take an audio tour of the features of the SMART Brailler. I found the audio tour helpful with the exception that you could not rewind or advance the audio tour to revisit feature information. That was a bit frustrating. There was also no reference manual for guidance. Fortunately, there was a print out of the audio tour in the backpack from Wonderbaby. I am sure it will prove to be useful!

We are excited about the concept and JP certainly enjoyed the auditory output.We are looking forward to spending some time exploring the features and sharing our adventures with you. Check back for more updates!

Click on the photo for the great news!

Thank you!

Waiting for "Marty" the SMART Brailler

We just received confirmation that "Marty" the Perkins SMART Brailler, is on his way! We're very excited for Marty's arrival and we're sure you are too! I've attached a short video that was put out by Perkins School for the Blind about a year ago. The video gives a nice sampling of what the SMART brailler can do for both children and adults. 

Watching the video is so appetizing... we simply can not wait to get our hand on this Brailler and get started!

Magis

Those who know me well know that I am into Ignatian spirituality. Finding God in all things. St. Ignatius was a pretty cool guy. You can read detailed information about his life by clicking on the photo above, if you're so inclined. St. Ignatius founded the Catholic religious order know as the Society of Jesus or the Jesuits. It is the largest all male Catholic society in the world and you can identify a Jesuit by his post-nominal letters, "S.J." Some of my very favorite priest friends, including Fr. Jim Martin who wrote "My Life with the Saints" and Fr. Brain Frain are both Jesuits. Even Pope Francis belongs to the Society of Jesus.

As I was paging through some old papers and documents the other day, I found this a small script attributed to Pedro Arrupe, S.J. Fr. Pedro was the 28th Superior General of the Society of Jesus. (The Jesuits have leader, the Superior General, who is the head of the society, kind of like the Pope is the leader of the RC church.) So here's the script I found and it really touched me...

Fall in Love

Nothing is more practical than
finding God, than
Falling in Love
in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
It will decide
what will you get out of bed in the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in Love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.
Fr. Arrupe S.J. (1907-1991)

A good sign!

If you haven't heard, we've been lucky enough to be selected as family #4 (of 6) in the national "Backpacking SMART Brailler Event!" (For more information on the event, please see my previous post. "Guess Who's Coming")

 

Look what came in the mail from Wonderbaby today!

A really sturdy Perkins backpack (made to tote any kind of Perkins Brailler, not just the SMART Brailler) chock full of super stuff including a cool Braille book and toys and gadgets for JP and  lots and lots of helpful literature for me! A sure sign that "Marty" is on his way!

See you soon Marty!