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Canute 360 Frequently Asked Questions
Canute 360 is available to consumers for £2,495. You can find a full list of confirmed Canute 360 distributors at on the Bristol Braille website. If you are an experienced distributor of Braille products and wish to become a distributor, please contact Bristol Braille Technology on [email protected]
Canute has to be connected to mains power at all times. It is a desktop device and doesn't have a battery.
Canute 360 can only open .BRF and .PEF Braille files. Print source files can be converted to a format compatible with Canute 360 using software. Both free and paid for Braille translation packages are available.
Yes!
Can it only read diagrams produced in Braille, or can it display diagrams that are produced in say, Adobe Illustrator for embossing on a PIAF/swell machine?
Canute runs on BRF files*, so it cannot display diagrams that are stored in Illustrator format. There are some programs to convert these files to BRF, but it is better done manually using a text editor. Simply create a new file and 'draw' into it as plain text in the BRF (US Braille ASCII) format, then save as a file with the extension ".brf"
For example see two manually created tactile graphical files in a ZIP file here; one is the Union Jack, the other is a map of all the counties of Britain. These are both quite complex examples but you can do much simpler things like geometric shapes very easily. See also Pascal's Triangle, in the same ZIP file, which is both geometry and mathematics.
When you are making tactile graphics like this for the Canute we suggest not doing conventional "dotty graphics" as the Canute has a wide line spacing (a bit like interline Braille). Instead it is better to use Braille letters to convey meaning in physical space, so for example below I am creating a room which tells we where walls are with all six dots ("=" in BRF code), windows with "w", a table with "t", doors with "d".
====www====
= ttt =
d =
= =
====d======
This demonstrates that the table is in front of the window on the North side of the room, that there are two doors, one on the West, one on the South. You can then include a key, either on the left side (as with the Counties and Union Jack examples) or on the page above the drawing if you want to use the full width. We always suggest having at least one page of title and/or explanatory text in plain Braille before moving on to any complex tactile graphics.
Canute 360 is supported by the BRLTTY screen-reader.
It is also supported by Duxbury DBT, meaning anyone using Duxbury DBT can plug a Canute 360 in and it will reflect the Braille output window.
Further screen reader support is in the works, however we are not currently able to give a timetable for development of this support.
Yes. See the documentation. Please email us at [email protected] if you are interested in developing for Canute.
We are not currently seeking beta testers for Canute 360. If you want to try Canute 360 we regularly demonstrate at major events around the UK and around the world. If you are located outside the UK, please contact your local distributor for information on testing and demonstrations. You can find a full list of Canute 360 distributors at https://tinyurl.com/canute-distributors.
You can sign up for our mailing list at www.bristolbraille.org. You can also follow us on twitter, our handle is @bristol_braille