[BlindRUG] R and multi-line braille displays

[Henrik Bengtsson]

I'm just thinking out loud: Maybe these companies would be able to sponsor
a savvy R developer (e.g. with a device) to develop a braille-aware
graphics device in R, which maybe then can inspire other languages too. On
https://www.dotincorp.com/en/product/dotpadx they write "Interested in a
project? Let's create various projects together. Contact us." Image
something like:

braille(cols=30, rows=10, dots=8, heightLevels=4)
plot(1:10, cex=2, col="red")
point(10:1, col="blue")
main(title="two data series")
dev.off()

The R graphics device will then generate output optimized to the available
resolution and features, e.g. dot sizes rendered as different heights and
text will rendered in Braille, not as pixelated fonts.

FYI, the R Consortium has a twice-year grant mechanism where they sponsor
technical infrastructure related R projects (
https://r-consortium.org/all-projects/).

/Henrik

On Wed, Sep 17, 2025, 01:37 Robin Williams via BlindRUG <blindrug at nfbnet.org>
wrote:

> Hi Marcus,
>
>
>
> I don’t have direct experience of this, although I am also very
> interested. I did however try out the Graphiti Plus display at the Sight
> Village exhibition in London last year, and was impressed. I prepared some
> images in R, saved them to my phone, and was able to connect my phone to
> the display and look at the output. The Graphiti has different options for
> filtering the output which were fun to experiment with – for example, I
> remember one filter being particularly good at showing a histogram. The
> advantage as I see it of the Graphiti over the Monarch is that it has the
> option to display dots at different heights, although on the flip side I
> believe the Monarch has a higher resolution. I haven’t seen the Dot Pad,
> although I’d like to. I did see that Freedom Scientific have now released
> multiline Braille support for the Monarch and Dot Pad, but not yet for the
> graphiti, which is something else to consider.
>
>
>
> I’ve been putting off applying for funding to get one of these devices, as
> it seems like quite a fast moving space and I don’t want to end up with
> something that becomes massively outdated in the first year. The question
> for me, though, is how long to wait?
>
>
>
> In case you aren’t aware, there is an NFB email list, Tactile-Talk, which
> has other interested people. It’s been very low traffic, but I’ve found
> what there has been to be interesting. You might get some useful feedback
> there as well.
>
>
>
> Please keep us updated if you take this further.
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
> Robin
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* BlindRUG <blindrug-bounces at nfbnet.org> *On Behalf Of *Marcus Low
> via BlindRUG
> *Sent:* 17 September 2025 08:44
> *To:* blindrug at nfbnet.org
> *Cc:* Marcus Low <low.marcus at gmail.com>
> *Subject:* [BlindRUG] R and multi-line braille displays
>
>
>
> Hi All
>
>
>
> Does anyone have experience using R with some of the new multiline braille
> displays like the Dot Pad X? It would be fantastic if one of these devices
> could be used to routinely display graphical output from R. It is quite
> expensive though, so one would want to be sure it works before trying to
> get hold of a device. I'd be very keen to hear about people's experiences.
> The page for the Dot Pad X is here
> https://www.dotincorp.com/en/product/dotpadx
>
>
>
> Thanks
>
> Marcus
>
>
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>
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