This is good news thanks Karen - will keep a lookout. 

I agree there are lots of tie-ins with SBRI and TSB interest in AT and AAC - the two competitions re Navigation of Text and Simple Gestures are having lots of interest. 

Also if we are successful as JISC Techdis in obtaining a high quality voice for AAC users and other disabled users in England then also there needs to be some thought as to how  your clients can also access such a voice  (Free of charge I wonder?)

All the best 


Regards
Sal 
Sal Cooke
Director  JISC TechDis
c/o The Higher Education Academy Building
Innovation Way
York Science Park
YORK
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-----Original Message-----
From: A discussion list for Assistive Technology professionals. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Keren Down
Sent: 23 August 2011 12:04
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: EC file format standards?

I'm not sure how much the Assistech community is aware of the Assisted living standards task force that is looking at the interoperability challenges for telecare and telehealth? Perhaps you are linked in? It considers the standards that are relevant at four levels- 
i) technical - usually associated with hardware/software components, systems and
platforms that enable machine-to-machine communication to take place;
ii) syntactical - usually associated with data formats;
iii) semantic - usually associated with the meaning of content ;
iv) organisational - the ability of organisations work together using shared semantic understanding. 

I don't know how much it will cross over with EC / AAC but my gut feeling is that, at the very least, you lot probably need to be aware of what is going on.

Apparently the document will be posted to the TSB website by the 12th of September and I'll try and remember to post a link.

Keren

Ms Keren Down MBE
Director
Foundation for Assistive Technology - FAST

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-----Original Message-----
From: A discussion list for Assistive Technology professionals. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Judge Simon (BARNSLEY HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST)
Sent: 27 April 2011 13:28
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: EC file format standards?

Thanks Neel, Shirley,

The alliance looks interesting - and seems to be trying to standardise the signals themselves (?)... It is the (AT specific?? - or maybe not) configs (i.e. storing the IR codes, devices, locations) and import/export of these that needs sorting!

I suppose we could use a third party device such as redrat and write our own import/export scripts - but the issues is still essentially the same that is:

A) knowing the format this is stored in on various devices
B) being able to import/export it anyway...

This is down to EC  (and AAC that do EC!) companies to get sorted isn't it?  I think the URC consortium have provided the tools to allow this (???), but why are manufacturers not doing it?  How do we make them?

Cheers

Simon

-----Original Message-----
From: A discussion list for Assistive Technology professionals. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Neel Shearer
Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 11:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: EC file format standards?

Hi Simon,

I am reminded of Redrat (http://www.redrat.co.uk <http://www.redrat.co.uk/>) when I hear of IR woes. Haven't used it for a long time, but back when I did, it was phenomenal, and I am sure it encoded learnt IR codes into some form (xml/plain text? memory fails here) that could be transferred to a new PC/device etc. as well as providing LIRC (http://www.lirc.org/) support. Friendly guy - might be well worth a chat for a technology brief...

Neel
________________________
Neel Shearer
Toby Churchill Ltd
http://www.toby-churchill.com

On 27/04/2011 08:41, Judge Simon (BARNSLEY HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST) wrote:
> Hello all.
> OK, I have spent too long recently moving infra red from one thing to
> another.  This strikes me as an insane thing to be doing!  Why is there not a standard for EC / IR signals and file formats, or, maybe more correctly, why do companies not follow one that exists (http://myurc.org/ ?).
> I want to be able to take a file from a (say) Activ 500 and import it
> into (say) a Possum Vivo without having to physically zap it.  The equivalent would be having to re-type a word document every time you opened it in another programme (e.g. textpad, or open office).
> So:
> 1. Is this just me?
> 2. What standard should we be pushing for?
> 3. How do we push the companies
> 4. Who should be pushing the companies?  BATA? REBSIG? RESMAG? BSRM? IPEM? NHS Supplies?
> Anyway, morning rant over!
> Cheers,
>
> Simon
>
> Senior Clinical Scientist
> Assistive Technology Team
>
> [log in to unmask]
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> www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/at <http://www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/at>
>
> Dept of Medical Physics
> Block 14
> Barnsley District General Hospital Foundation Trust Gawber Road
> Barnsley
> S75 2EP
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