[nfbcs] The first elevated-Pin Braille Smartphone Gets A Prototype

[majolls at cox.net]

Talking about an alternate possibility, it will be interesting to see if Tactus Technologies is true to their word and comes out with a touch screen that has Braille.  Tactus's technology is slightly different than the technology described below in that the surface of the tablet / phone has a layer of "liquid" or "plasma" that can be deformed at the surface so that it creates "bumps".  Then by deforming a small enough surface area, you could create a braille dot ... if that's possible.  This technology might be better than the idea in India .... that is if I'm reading it correctly ... because it doesn't use discrete "pins".  Correct me if I'm wrong ... the "pin packet" is piezo electric technology, and we already know that's expensive.  That's why the Tactus solution is so compelling ... they don't use discrete pins and they claim they can deliver a lower cost solution as a result of that.

But who knows, maybe the folks in India have really come up with something revolutionary that will break the price barrier that Braille technology has imposed up until now.  It will be interesting to see if this is all "smoke and mirrors" or if there's anything really there.

Personally, I say work on the Argus vision system and fix everyone's eyesight so they don't need Braille any longer.  Then we'd only have to worry about what color car we wanted.   Now wouldn't that be a problem to have, huh?



---- David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com> wrote: 
> 
> >
> >The First Elevated-Pin Braille Smartphone Gets A Prototype
> >
> >Incoming text gets translated into braille through little pins, 
> >constantly moving up and down to convey what's happening in the phone.
> >
> >By Colin Lecher
> >Popular Science, April 22, 2013.
> >
> >With smartphone interaction mostly relying on sight, since there's 
> >no tactile difference to what's on the screen, some blind people 
> >have turned to apps to make up the difference. These apps can do 
> >some pretty impressive things, like determine the denomination of 
> >currency or read text out loud, rendering braille unnecessary for some tasks.
> >
> >But those were workarounds, to make up for the inability to create 
> >an actual braille interface. For about three years, a team of 
> >inventors in India have been working on a smartphone that can turn 
> >apps and text into braille. Now they've got a prototype.
> >
> >The phone, from the Centre for Innovation Incubation and 
> >Entrepreneurship in Ahmedabad, translates text into braille by 
> >elevating pins: after the text or email or webpage comes in, the 
> >pins form a braille version that the user can touch to read. It's 
> >not clear what operating system the phone will run on--Android? Something else?
> >but according to the Times Of India, it'll feature "all other 
> >elements" that your more traditional smartphone would have.
> >
> >The creators, led by inventor Sumit Dagar, are shooting for a 
> >release by the end of 2013. Starting price? Just less than 10,000 
> >rupees, or about $185.
> >
> >[Times Of India]
> >
> >from:http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2013-04/inventors-make-braille-sm
> >artphone-blind
> 
> 
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