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

[David Andrews]

It will most likely never be ready for sale.  It is just a proposal 
at this point, and others have tried to use the technology they 
propose, without success.

Dave

At 06:35 PM 12/31/2011, you 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.