[nabs-l] FW: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo

Sun Jan 1 00:55:33 UTC 2012

its costly due to the technology, Josh.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Joshua Lester
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2011 7:44 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] FW: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display --  
IndieGoGo

How many cells are on this new Braille display?
Also, why do the current ones cost so much?
That's like the IBill!
The IBill is small, but it costs $100.
It's the size of a Giga-pet, like I got as a child.
I only paid $5, for the giga-pet, but they expect me to pay $100 for
something, the same size!
Wow!
They should price things by size.
Blessings, Joshua

On 12/31/11, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> wonder when it will be ready for sale. I'd like braille displays to be 
> more
> affordable. Even $500 would be better than the thousands they are now.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Humberto Avila
> Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 10:00 PM
> To: shaneread at fastmail.fm ; jessbrl at fastmail.fm ; deniserob at gmail.com ;
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org ; GUI-talk at nfbnet.org ; villagers at gmail.com
> Subject: [nabs-l] FW: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindtlk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of David Andrews
> Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2011 12:03 PM
> To: david.andrews at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Blindtlk] Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo
>
> Subject: Open Source Braille Display -- IndieGoGo
>
> http://www.indiegogo.com/Open-Source-Braille-Display
>
> The Story
>
> This project started earlier this year when I
> read a local author's book of life as a Blind
> person. After contacting him, I decided I could best help by
> designing a simple device to make low-cost
> Braille display from a computer possible.
>
> So Will It Change the World?
>
> I hope so - or I wouldn't be working on it!
>
> Braille is to the Blind as the written word is to
> us sighted folk - and so Braille literacy is
> vitally important. Yet according to Wikipedia, while in 1960
> half of blind American schoolchildren could read
> Braille, in 2007, that number had dropped to one
> in ten. To improve literacy, we need to make available
> more ways to access and learn Braille - and an
> important one is a tool to allow the Blind to
> read the vast amounts of information on the Internet.
>
> For many years, Braille readers have done just
> that. A Braille reader takes computer text and
> turns it into tactile impressions of Braille characters for
> the blind to 'read'. However, these devices are
> expensive - thousands of dollars - and so few can
> afford them. The goal of this project is to make an Open
> Source/Open Hardware Braille reader: simpler,
> easy to build, well documented, and inexpensive,
> so people anywhere can make it themselves (or get it made
> locally).
>
> But there's a second goal: to get people doing
> more. This design is meant to be simple and cheap
> to build. My hope is other, smarter people will step in
> and build better, faster, and more powerful
> devices. But nobody is doing it now, and so
> someone has to start the ball rolling.
>
> With your help, this will be that ball...
>
> What You Can Do
>
> The goal is to get from the current first
> prototype to a finished design for a 40-character
> Braille display, complete with software, and all the details
> people need to build it, placed online. To that
> end, here's some of the things needed:
> list of 4 items
> . Small CNC machine (build or buy), to do faster
> turnaround of prototype parts.
> . Purchase a selection of stepper motors and
> driver boards, to test different
> price/performance ratios for the Braille display design.
> . Get a low-cost netbook to prototype the exact
> software to run a device (netbook rather than a
> full computer so as to test the device in the most likely
> 'real world' situation).
> . Materials! Prototypes use up a lot of material,
> as a part can get tweaked many times, each time requiring a new piece cut
> out.
> list end
>
> Make no mistake - the project IS going ahead,
> whether a little or a lot of money comes in - the
> difference is just the speed things happen! So when this
> project is out there making the difference I hope
> it will, ask yourself how good it will feel to
> say 'I helped with that' - and please contribute!
>
> Any level is appreciated, and there's some 'thank
> yous' listed on the right side of this page to show appreciate for your 
> aid.
>
> Progress will be discussed on my blog,
> http://UtopiaMechanicus.com,
> and designs will be made available there as they
> are finished. All code and design will also be
> made available for download, allowing people to make or
> modify these products.
>
> What (Else) You Can Do
>
> Tell the world - the more people that know of
> this project, the greater impact we can make.
> Blog about it, tweet away, link to it, talk about it at work.
> And please share this information with everyone and anyone.
>
> Thank You.
>
>
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