software design

Screenshot (encoding)

Screenshot (decoding)

When applying existing hardware, related software will need to be adapted to the specific demands of the respective individual. As non-digital data storage media are relatively hard to control and drive, it may be necessary to equip the software with special error-reduction programmes. It is possibly advisable to adapt software entirely to the individual user. To facilitate easy handling, the user should be able to access the respective functions.

This method is derived from the very origins of PC and home computing. Back then, computer magazines included coded bitmaps from which the user could feed in source codes for software. Reasons for this were essentially the lack of compatible storage media and the need to reduce errors arising whilst typing data codes manually. The user thus fed the source code bitmap into the PC by means of a hand-held scanner to then reconvert the data to ASCII.

The TOR 1.01 software at hand will encode and decode as required. As long as the code map is scanned legibly, the programme will automatically decode it. If this fails, it is possible to determine and manipulate the data manually.

At the moment, the scanners available on the market still cause the greatest problems. It is especially difficult to regulate the light sensitivity of hand-held scanners. Such scanners of this variety on offer are generally designed to feed in texts from an even surface. Minor technical amendments should also solve this problem in due course. In this case, demands are put on the hardware industry to create standard solutions to the problem.

back