[Ncabs] Student Seminar Potential Guest

[Cala Estes]

I remember someone speaking briefly about this during breakout session
last year. I would be interested to hear what he has to say, but we
also have to consider our audience. If he could talk about the braille
display, and how it would relate to students in the classroom, I
believe that would better relate to the seminar at large. How would it
benifit students? What would be the difference between this braille
display and the current models as far as how assignments are
completed? That sort of thing.
If we could have him speak, it would be wonderful!

Cala

On 12/29/10, Salisbury, Justin Mark <SALISBURYJ08 at students.ecu.edu> wrote:
> Dear NCABS members,
>
>    Please read this little article that I found on the main NFB website.  I
> think that this gentleman could be an excellent guest at our student
> seminar, especially since he works in Raleigh at that red school.  Everyone,
> please provide your thoughts about how he might best be able to contribute.
>
> Report from the Research and Development Committee:
>
> One of the longstanding interests of the NFB research and development
> committee has been the development of a refreshable Braille display that is
> considerably less costly than the Braille displays on the market today. The
> piezoelectric technology used to move the dots on today's Braille displays
> has been around since the mid 1970s with very little cost reduction or
> technological improvement. Just before the research and development
> committee meeting held on Wednesday, July 7, Curtis Chong, the committee’s
> chair, talked with Peichun Yang “Paul” Chang, PhD, a blind researcher at
> North Carolina State University, who is working on a project to use
> electroactive polymer technology to drive a multi-line refreshable Braille
> display.
>
> Dr. Chang's story is interesting. In 1992 he came to the United States from
> China to study at North Carolina State University's materials science and
> engineering department. After five years of study he obtained his PhD in
> 1997. For seven months he performed post doctoral work in the campus
> microelectronics laboratory. In 1998 he lost his sight as the result of an
> accident. After he got out of the hospital, he spent a year receiving
> training in the alternative techniques of blindness--learning Braille,
> nonvisual access to the computer, and independent travel. During this period
> it became apparent to him that a refreshable Braille display could be a very
> useful tool for someone who is blind. He communicated with many people
> around the world in an effort to come up with a lower-cost Braille display.
> He even met with Deane Blazie, a pioneer in technology for the blind. In
> 2003 he attended an international conference on electroactive polymer
> actuators and devices in San Diego. At this conference Dr. Chang
> demonstrated the concept of a model Braille cell using a hydraulic latching
> mechanism in the EAP-In-Action (electroactive polymer in action) section of
> the conference. After a few years of trying to secure grant funding, in 2007
> he and others at North Carolina State University secured a three-year
> field-initiated projects grant from NIDRR. Two years into the grant they had
> an experimental breakthrough that was published in a paper presented at the
> twelfth International Conference on Electroactive Polymer Actuators and
> Devices in San Diego. Dr. Chang told Curtis that in five years he expects to
> have a working prototype.
>
> In layman's terms this is what Curtis understood from talking with Dr.
> Chang: if electroactive polymer technology can be used to drive refreshable
> Braille displays, the cost per cell should be reduced by a factor of ten.
> The piezoelectric reeds driving today's refreshable Braille displays have to
> be cut using a diamond saw. The plastic used in electroactive polymer
> technology can be cut using something as simple as a razor blade. The
> intriguing thing is that Dr. Chang is himself a user of refreshable Braille
> technology. He uses it every day and clearly understands the importance of
> readable Braille dots and fast response times with refreshable Braille.
> Here’s hoping that this is the breakthrough we have been hoping for.
>
>
> Thank you!
>
> Justin
>
> Justin M. Salisbury
> Undergraduate Student
> The University Honors Program
> East Carolina University
> salisburyj08 at students.ecu.edu
>
> "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought
> without accepting it."    -Aristotle
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