Palm WriterTM Scanning Methods Guide 1
Guide Version 1.0
This guide will assist you in developing and improving your Palm Writer scanning and interpretation skills. While Morgan Dynamic Research is not a blind instruction school, we have developed some basic protocols designed to help an individual in their learning process.
In order to successfully use your Palm Writer, you will need to become proficient in two major skill sets: Interpretation and Scanning.
Interpretation
For Interpretation, the simplest understanding of the feedback from the writer is that when the writer is all the way forward, or toward the range finding unit, that the target you are aimed at is within 1 inch or actually touching the front of the Palm Writer. To simulate this state as you learned in the calibration steps, place the palm of your free hand lightly over the front of the Palm Writer. This is minimum distance. To simulate maximum distance, completely cover the bottom opening of the range finding unit holes. You will hear a repetitive chip sound that means that the Palm Writer is not able to detect the return of its ranging pulses. This can mean that you are pointed at one of three classes of target areas. Void, Complex, or Absorptive.
By Void is meant long distance, or a circumstance in which the sound pulses have nothing to reflect off of. Void is usually identified by a consistent and continuous stream of chips with the writer locked at maximum distance. This indicates a complete lack of signal.
By Complex, we mean that is area consists of either a complex series of surfaces or of sharply angled flat faces that deflect the ranging pulses away from returning to the Palm Writer. This type of area will range in result from void, to a frequent and sporadic stream of chips intermixed with some scatter, or jitter of the writer. This indicates that the Palm Writer is picking up some signal, but of poor quality. This means that something is there, but the object or objects are difficult to get a steady reading from. Clutter or complex clusters of surfaces will give such a reading. The best means to interpret such Complex areas is through experience coupled with good scanning technique.
Smooth surfaces, such as walls, may give a poor signal reading when you point acutely down their length. You can usually determine how close or far you are from perpendicular to wall by the rate of chips and signal quality.
By Absorptive, we mean that an area is failing to reflect ranging pulses back to the Palm Writer due to its composition absorbing the sound pulses. Materials such as high pile carpet, plush fabric, and dense hair will generally yield varying degrees of chipping and scatter indicative of poor signal quality. When a Palm Writer detects a person, it is usually reflecting it’s ranging pluses off of their skin rather than their clothing. Most clothing is absorptive, and therefore hard to get signal from.
The distinction between complex and absorptive is twofold. First, a complex surface can be scanned from different angles and will generally change the scatter characteristics, or signature, presented. Second, the amplitude of the scatter, or the degree of back and forth movement of the writer, tends to be greater than with absorptive targets.
This applies particularly to surfaces with many holes in them as the signal will sometimes alternate between the closer and farther target. Remember that Palm Writer responds more to closer target areas then father ones. This means that when you are faced with high amplitude scatter, that you should trust the closest reading as the actual reading. Under rare circumstances, the Palm Writer can be tricked by oddly shaped rooms into reading false close readings, but again, this is very rare. Generally, if Palm Writer indicates, with any degree of signal quality that something is close, it almost certainly is.
With absorptive targets, the scatter tends to be lower in amplitude and generally changes little, or not at all as you inspect the area with inverse scanning arcs. More on inverse scanning arcs in the next segment. Also, absorptive targets usually respond very well to simply getting closer.
Signature Based Learning
Some users find that the best way to interpret Palm Writer feedback is to simply apply a raw sense of intuition to the feedback. These users will tend to view the feedback in a less formal sense, but rather as a series of signal characteristics that each thing, or type of thing, may result in when scanned. They remember the nature and feel of the scatter and chirps as a whole. Their knowledge tends to become a pure collection of object and area signatures and this permits a very raw and intimate sense of world interpretation. This may be the type of learning that all Palm Writer users will progress toward with time and experience.
Scanning
Our motto for scanning with Palm Writer is “Find a Signal, Explore a signal”. We will now describe how to efficiently detect signals from your environment and how best to explore them.
The Palm Writer scanning system that we have developed is called the Three Arc Scanning System. It consists of three radial arcs that emanate outward in front of you then allow you user to scan a Palm Writer in about one hundred and twenty degree arcs. The three arcs are Low, Parallel, and High. Each arc will have a left, middle, and right zone.
The Low arc is likely a familiar arc for cane users as is covers the range of about zero to eighty degrees, or from point straight down to almost level. This lets a user sweep radially left to right and search for trip, shin, and knee impact hazards. Common targets within this arc are low tables and chairs, pets, trash cans, fire hydrants, and toilets.
The Parallel arc is the most common Palm Writer scanning arc, in which a user scans horizontally parallel to the floor within about a twenty degree band up and down. This arc is best for locating people and other large objects as well as mapping the shape of you immediate surroundings. Common targets within this arc are people, walls, doorways, high tables and chairs, standing appliances, and cars.
The High arc covers the area from about one hundred to one hundred eighty degrees or from just above level to straight up. This arc is typically used to scan for low hanging objects such as branches by scanning in a rainbow style arc at about forty five degrees above parallel to the ground. Pointing straight up is useful for checking ceiling height and looking for ceiling features such as fans and lights.
It should be noted that right handed users of Palm Writer can scan up to ninety degrees to their left. This allows right handed users to better track their left margin and wall position while walking straight down a hallway or street. The reverse is true for left handed users. They can better track their right margin and wall position. If you don’t mind sticking your arm all the way out to your left or right you can actually scan one hundred eighty degrees or more. Checking behind you is possible by pointing the Palm Writer over your shoulder. This may only work for the more flexible.
Application of the Three Arcs
The Three Arc System can be applied in a variety of ways depending on the situation and user preference. We will now outline a series of scanning methods and the situations in which they can excel.
The Full Scan Method
This is the most rigid and formal scanning method that is designed for maximum scanning and detection area. In this method, a user would first scan the low field by repeatedly sweeping back and forth left and right while working the scanning arcs upward.
Typically, a user would scan in bands between ten and about twenty degrees apart. This means that a user would scan between their feet and parallel in an upward progression of arcs that swept fully left and right. The number of scanning arcs would be between four and eight arcs total within the low scanning arc region.
This procedure would continue for the range of the parallel scanning arc region and possibly include the high scanning arc region as well. This method will allow a user to fully examine the layout of the region in front of them. This can be useful when a user is in unknown environments that they expect may have many obstacles from unexpected directions. This is the slowest and highest resolution scanning method.
Inverse Scanning Arcs
Once a user has detected a signal of an object for inspection, the process of examination and classification may begin. However, sometimes the signal quality is too poor to draw many conclusions about what they are scanning. In such scenarios, a user should employ targeted inverse scanning arcs in an effort to clean up the signal quality.
What is meant by inverse scanning arc is that instead of an outward radial arc, as in regular scanning, that draws a circle around the user, the user will examine an area by scanning in a circle around it instead.
Imagine a telephone pole in front of you. Once you detected that something was there, you would find it’s left and right edges and then search for its top and bottom edges. You would find the left and right edges but not be able to find the top. This would let you determine that it was likely some kind of pole. Now imagine that some wooden beams were stacked in front of the pole on one side. You would find the signal, but the signal quality might be poor. There would probably be a lot of scatter and perhaps some chirping from all the randomly orientated flat faces. You might only get a sporadic jerky twitch from the writer to indicate that something is there not far in front of you.
In this scenario, you would want to scan for the left and right edges to see how wide this zone of poor signal is. This alone might tell you something about it. However, the next step is very important. You would next want to scan the poor signal area from as many angles as possible. To accomplish this, we recommend the inverse scanning arc, which is to scan the area in an inward look form, to draw a small part of a circle in the air from scanning with the center of the scanning circle being the target area. By doing this, you greatly increase the likelihood of look around or through complex surfaces. In our example, you might detect the exposed pole around the side of the stack of beams, thereby getting a much cleaner signal to work with.
Inverse Scanning Arcs are also particularly useful for orientating yourself to a flat surface such as a wall. Remember to pay attention to the frequency of the chirps. If during an inverse scanning arc the frequency of chirps decreases, and or the signal quality increases, then you are likely coming closer to a perpendicular, or straight on, scanning angle to the target surface. Even when scanning people, inverse scanning arcs can help you improve signal quality. It is the very best practice to scan things of interest from all angles to learn as much as possible.
Short Form Scanning Arcs
Sometimes, a user will want to increase their forward movement speed and may employ a variety of short form scanning arcs. These arcs will trade completeness and resolution of scanning area for movement speed and scanning efficiency. A simple method is the moving two arc system. Before movement, a user sweeps the low arc once or twice to ensure foot movement room then scans the parallel arc to check for people and large objects such as walls, cabinets, and doorways. If there is no expectation of hanging obstacles, then the high arc may be omitted. The user can then walk forward scanning alternately between parallel and low. If a signal is found and identified as a waypoint, a user can then focus scan on that object to reference its position while checking the other two arcs at interval to move around efficiently. This scanning method is best applied in doors and in other known environments.
If overhead obstacles are expected, then the user would occasionally add an overhead scanning arc of the high region. This can also be called a rainbow arc. This is best for searching for low hanging tree branches and chandlers.
Some letter or number shapes can be used to describe various short form scanning arcs that can be more efficient for special purposes.
The O scanning method means that you scan in a circular fashion with the top of the circle at the top of the parallel scanning arc and the bottom of the circle at the bottom of the low scanning arc. The circle can become wider or thinner depending on how large an area you may wish to scan. This is a very efficient scanning arc and is easy on the arms. This method is excellent for moving in crowds and tight areas such as hallways.
The sideways figure eight scanning method can increase the effective scanning range to the sides as compared to the O scanning method. This is a more complex scanning method that has benefits when following a narrow course with lots of potential side obstacles.
Ultimately, it is up to each user to develop a set of scanning and interpretation practices that they find the most comfortable, efficient, and effective. With Palm Writer, experimentation and an adventurous mindset are the keys to mastering of its full potential. We wish you safe and entertaining adventures scanning with Palm Writer.
Please share your experiences on social media, by email, our website, or with a friendly phone call. You can reach us at contact at Morgan Dynamic Research dot com, with no spaces, or our website w w w dot morgan dynamic research dot com, also with no spaces, or by phone, at 6 0 3 dash 2 7 6 dash 1 6 4 8.
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