[nfbcs] Fw: Thai researchers develop affordable Braille display
Tracy Carcione
carcione at access.net
Sun Dec 30 14:46:06 UTC 2012
Thai researchers develop affordable braille display
Asia-Pacific, Dec 27, 2012
THAILAND: Thai researchers say they have developed a new and cheaper way for
people who are blind to read text from a computer.
A team at the Synchrotron Light Research Centre in Nakhon Ratchasima said
they have developed a Braille display with polymer cylinders that react to
light
rays to help people with vision disabilities read text.
While computer-connected Braille displays are not new, Synchrotron’s
innovation is the first of its kind in the world, and is much cheaper than
other types
of Braille displays, researcher Rungrueng Phatthanakun said.
Synchrotron is the name of an accelerator, a machine that speeds up
electrons in the machine’s magnetic field to produce light.
The light produces an x-ray which then causes tiny cylinders made out of a
polymer substance on the reading display to move up and down beneath the
reader’s
fingers as “raised dots” of Braille alphabets.
Mr Rungrueng said his team had made a Braille display suitable for reading
Thai script.
However, users at Nakhon Ratchasima’s school for the blind found the display
gives only a 67% accuracy in reading Thai words. English-reading accuracy
was
measured at 83%.
While some foreign Braille displays cost more than 300,000 baht a unit, the
researchers expect to sell their new displays for about 50,000 apiece, Mr
Rungrueng
said.
His team is seeking a patent for the innovation, and improving the device to
help users read electronic texts more accurately. The team also plans to
develop
Braille displays compatible with tablet computers and smart phones.
Source: Bangkok Post
===
If we assume this Braille display would cost about on-sixth the price of the
displays we know, it would put it at about $500, still pretty step for a lot
of people. But it is interesting.
David
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