Novel mechanism makes refreshable braille displays practical

Reading Time: 2 minutesTactile displays — particularly for use as refreshable braille displays — have always been a challenge to design and fabricate, as they require so many moving parts. Every dot needs its own actuated mechanism and there needs to be dozens or hundreds of dots squeezed into a small space. Conventional micro actuators become very expensive […]

This small device enables users to feel braille through haptics

Reading Time: 2 minutesFor the visually impaired community, most of their interactions on mobile phones are confined to text-to-speech (TTS) interfaces that read portions of the screen aloud. Dynamic braille displays also exist as a tactile means of communication, but their prices can get close to $15,000, putting them out of reach for most people. This is why Instructables […]

A smart guitar for blind, deaf, and mute people

Reading Time: 2 minutesChordAssist aims to bring the joy of learning the guitar to those who otherwise may have problems with accessing guitar tutorials. Offering advice in Braille, in speech, and on-screen, ChordAssist has been built specifically for deaf, blind, and mute people. Creator Joe Birch, who also built the BrailleBox device, used Raspberry Pi, Google Assistant, and […]

BrailleBox: Android Things Braille news display

Reading Time: 2 minutesJoe Birch has built a simple device that converts online news stories to Braille, inspired by his family’s predisposition to loss of eyesight. He has based his BrailleBox on Android Things, News API, and a Raspberry Pi 3. The background Braille is a symbol system for people with visual impairment which represents letters and numbers […]