[Njtechdiv] Fw: Fwd: Tactile Technology Converts Graphics into Braille and Makes Apps

[Jane Degenshein]

Sent in from Liz Morgan

From: Liz Morgan
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2018 1:09 PM
To: jdegen16 at comcast.net
Subject: Fwd: Tactile Technology Converts Graphics into Braille and Makes 
Apps

Hey Janey,
Thought this was something interesting


Sent from my iPod

Begin forwarded message:


  From: "Huwie, Sandra" <HuwieS at email.chop.edu>
  Date: November 28, 2018 at 9:30:02 AM EST
  Subject: Tactile Technology Converts Graphics into Braille and Makes Apps


  This   Navigable by Touch
  November 27, 2018 12:48 pm

  Touchscreens and digital graphics are everywhere, but for people who are 
visually impaired, they can be a major hurdle to using modern technology. 
But this is set to change, thanks to tactile technology that automatically 
converts complex digital graphics into braille and stick-on smartphone 
buttons that make apps navigable by touch.

  There are 30 million blind or partially sighted people in Europe and only 
one in four of these individuals are working. Even those in employment still 
have to rely on support or assistive technology to carry out their daily 
tasks.

  ‘Blind people are almost kept apart from society because they can’t 
interact or lead a normal life like everybody else,’ said Klaus-Peter Hars, 
managing director of Inventivio, a German IT company developing assistive 
technology solutions. ‘That is a loss for the individual, but also for 
society, so much knowledge, experience and capabilities are just not put to 
work.’

  Hars and his team have developed a device called Tactonom, an A4-sized 
touch pad that turns digital graphics into a tactile display and enables 
blind people to access complex digital information like tables, graphics, 
maps, diagrams and apps.

  ‘The problem with the internet revolution is that information has become 
more and more graphic,’ said Hars. ‘That’s a killer for blind people because 
they need different technology to help them access that.’

  In about three to five seconds, Tactonom uses complex software to 
translate digital information into braille text, which is a touch-based 
language that uses a series of raised dots to represent words or images. The 
pad has 10,591 tactile points and uses a camera to track the blind person’s 
fingers so it can arrange graphical information around in them in a coherent 
manner. There is also a voice assistant to read aloud particularly complex 
parts which cannot be displayed by braille because of size limits of the 
pad.



  Read remainder of article at



  https://coolblindtech.com/this-tactile-technology-converts-graphics-into-braille-and-makes-apps-navigable-by-touch
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