Building upon our research in electronic books, ITL has developed the NIST Rotating-Wheel Based Braille display, which allows blind and visually challenged users to access the text displayed on electronic devices. The refreshable Braille system receives digital input from a device such as an electronic book reader, a personal digital assistant, or a desktop computer, and converts it to a continuously updated Braille output, allowing user access to sources such as electronic books, documents, e-mail, and Web pages.
Existing Braille systems are highly regarded for the precision reading experience they provide in comparison to speech-based systems, but the price/performance curve has been prohibitive for many. The goal of this design is to provide users with a level of functionality approaching that of a conventional full-line Braille display, but with reduced cost and improved reliability. With an estimated 750,000 blind Americans (and millions more worldwide) and with cost a major impediment to the use of Braille, the availability of a Braille option at much lower cost could significantly increase the use of Braille for information access.
A key issue for the NIST Braille display is user control and usability. Using the display will require a certain amount of learning beyond what is needed to use a line-based display. The question is whether the display can be made sufficiently usable to provide a worthwhile reading experience, and whether it provides cost and reliability benefits over traditional technology. A key point of user control is the rotation rate of the wheel; this controls the rate of presentation of Braille text and must be easily adjustable by the user. Our device must provide for functions such as line forward, line back, paragraph forward, paragraph back, pause, bookmark, annotation, etc. The user must have a good way to judge the current reading position within the text. Push button, voice commands, or a combination of the two are examples of ways in which control can be implemented in a production device. The NIST project encourages the use of control protocols that are compatible with developing information accessibility standards such as Digital Talking Book and Alternate Interface Interaction Protocol (AIIP).
The Braille project within ITL's Advanced Display Technology Systems laboratory has filed a provisional patent application (Oliver Slattery and John Roberts) on the rotating-wheel Braille display. A functioning, proof-of-concept prototype has been built and can be interfaced with a prototype electronic book reader or other data source. The prototype is based on the disc configuration and is intended to show that the various design concepts are workable. It produces Braille text, but is not yet (as of October 1999) to the point where it would be usable by a blind person for actual reading.
As part of National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October, NIST hosted a talk entitled "Think Ability" by Dinah F.B. Cohen, Director of Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program TRICARE Management Activity, Department of Defense. In introductory remarks, NIST Deputy Director Karen Brown emphasized NIST's commitment to providing accessibility to information technology for the physically challenged. Following the talk, Cohen toured the Advanced Display Technology Systems laboratory for a demonstration of the prototype Braille reader and expressed interest in ITL's promising new technology.
For more information, see http://www.itl.nist.gov/div895/isis/projects/Braille/.
The NIST Rotating-Wheel Braille project is seeking feedback on the reader concept, including suggestions for improvement, such as needed user controls. We would like to hear from accessibility organizations and obtain leads on manufacturers who might be interested in the design, opportunities for collaboration, or research opportunities. The ITL contact is John Roberts, (301) 975-5683, john.roberts@nist.gov.
Secretary of Commerce Approves FIPS 46-3, Data Encryption Standard (DES)
On October 25, 1999, Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley approved FIPS 46-3, which is effective March 25, 2000, and supersedes FIPS 46-2 in its entirety. FIPS 46-3 provides for the use of Triple DES as specified in American National Standard (ANSI) X9.52. Triple DES was developed by the private sector with NIST assistance and is used by many government and private sector organizations, particularly in the financial services industry. NIST expects that Triple DES will provide federal agencies with strong protective measures against associated risks until the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is available, probably in 2001.
First issued in 1977, FIPS 46, DES, specified the Data Encryption Algorithm for the cryptographic protection of computer data; since that time, the DES has been reaffirmed every five years. When the DES was reaffirmed in 1993, NIST stated that it would "consider alternatives which offer a higher level of security" at the next review in 1998. There was concern that the DES 56-bit key was not long enough to prevent an attack by trying all of the possible keys. NIST believed that the key was sufficiently long for the expected life of the standard and that the security could be increased, when needed, by using the DES for three sequential encryption operations with different keys. This approach is called Triple DES. In 1997, NIST advised federal organizations that they could use Triple DES if they needed security beyond that provided by the DES.
FIPS 46-3 is available on the ITL Web site http://csrc.nist.gov/fips. Copies of the ANSI X9.52 (Triple DES) standard are available from the American Bankers Assoc./DC, X9 Customer Service Dept., P.O. Box 79064, Baltimore, MD 21279-0064, telephone 1-800-338-0626. For more information on FIPS 46-3, contact Elaine Barker, (301) 975-2911, elaine.barker@nist.gov.
ITL publishes the results of studies, investigations, and research. The reports listed below may be ordered from the following sources as indicated for each:
Superintendent of DocumentsThe Seventh Text Retrieval Conference (TREC-7)
By E.M. Voorhees and D.K. Harman, Editors
NIST Special Publication 500-242This report presents the proceedings of TREC-7 held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on November 9-11, 1998. Co-sponsored by NIST's Information Technology Laboratory and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the conference was the seventh in an ongoing series of workshops to evaluate new technologies in text retrieval.
Empirical Modeling of Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer Data
By K.J. Coakley, A.V. Clark, and C.S. Hehman
NISTIR 5087This paper characterizes the observed phase and amplitude of acoustic birefringence data collected with an Electromagnetic Acoustic Transducer (EMAT).
An Authentication Framework for Web Access to Remote Hosts
By Ryan P. McCormack, John E. Koontz, and Judith E. Devaney
NISTIR 6278This document describes an authentication framework that provides a secure means for clients to access remote computing resources via the Web.
Shape Parameter for a Non-Axisymmetric Isothermal Dendrite
By G.B. McFadden, S.R. Coriell, and R.F. Sekerka
NISTIR 6347This report describes research in determining the shape parameter for certain non-axisymmetric dendrites.
Assessing Algorithms as Computational Models for Human Face Recognition
By P.J. Phillips, A.J. O'Toole, Y. Cheng, B. Ross, and H.A. Wild
NISTIR 6348This paper describes the assessment of the qualitative accord between several automatic face recognition algorithms and human perceivers. By comparing model- and human-generated measures of the similarity between pairs of faces, researchers are able to evaluate the suitability of the algorithms as models of human face recognition.
Visualization of Bose-Einstein Condensates
By P.M. Ketcham
NISTIR 6355This paper describes a visualization project to create a graphical representation of data from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) simulation. The visualization of vortices within the BEC is of primary interest to the researchers.
OOMMF User's Guide, Version 1.0
By M.J. Donahue and D.G. Porter
NISTIR 6376This manual describes Object Oriented Micromagnetic Framework (OOMMF), a public domain micromagnetics program developed at NIST.
Thin Interface Asymptotics for an Energy/Entropy Approach to Phase-Field Models with Unequal Conductivities
By G.B. McFadden, A.A. Wheeler, and D.M. Anderson
NISTIR 6377This report describes the application of asymptotic methodology to generalized phase-field models with unequal conductivities.
Randomness Testing of the AES Candidate Algorithms
By Juan Soto, Jr.
NISTIR 6390This report lists several characteristics which an encryption algorithm exhibiting random behavior should possess, describes how the output for each candidate algorithm was evaluated for randomness, discusses what has been learned utilizing the NIST statistical tests, and finally provides an interpretation of the results.
Efficiency Testing of ANSI C Implementations of Round1 Candidate Algorithms for the Advanced Encryption Standard
By Lawrence E Bassham III
NISTIR 6391This paper describes the testing methodology used in ANSI C efficiency testing, along with observations regarding the resulting measurements.
Pervasive Computing 2000
Pervasive Computing describes the strongly emerging trend toward numerous, casually accessible, often invisible computing devices, mobile or embedded in the environment, or connected to an increasingly ubiquitous network infrastructure. For computer users, the underlying premise is compelling: simplicity of use, ubiquitous access, minimal technical expertise, reliability and more intuitive interaction methods. Conference attendees will represent companies actively engaged in research, planning and development of Pervasive Computing products, services and/or applications. Others will represent academic, not-for-profit or government research interests, and the general community. Registration fee is $200.00.
Sponsors: NIST and the Internet SocietyThis workshop will examine public key-based management techniques as specified in ANSI X9.42 (Agreement of Symmetric Keys Using Discrete Logarithm Cryptography), ANSI X9.44 (Key Establishment Using Factoring-Based Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Services Industry), and ANSI X9.63 (Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Services Industry: Key Agreement and Key Transport Using Elliptic Curve Cryptography). The purpose of the workshop is to review the many options and techniques contained in these standards and to discuss other related issues. The workshop is open to the public and is free of charge.
Dates: February 10-11, 200013th Annual Federal Information Systems Security Educators' Association (FISSEA) Conference
Founded in 1987, FISSEA is an organization run by and for federal information systems security professionals. FISSEA assists federal agencies in meeting their computer security training responsibilities. The annual FISSEA conference addresses the major challenges confronting information security trainers and educators; this year’s theme is “Effective IT Security Training Strategies.”
Date: March 14-16, 2000National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) Training Courses – Check out the NIAP Web site at http://niap.nist.gov, click on Events, click on Training Classes.