[accessibleimage] Small Braille display

This is perhaps a bit off list, but thought a lot would find
it interesting. A Russian researcher has come up with a more
"handy" Braille display (links below). He purposes two
versions. From the illustrations in the articles they look
like wide bands of rings on the fingers for a whole keyboard
display and for the Braille output just one band worn over
the tip of the finger.
Sounds pretty useful, imagine it connected to wireless
networking- a street system that sent out information as you
walked along, in a lecture hall the text in overheads could
be sent out wirelessly so to be picked up. Perhaps the
sighted would also start learning Braille, one could send
information back and forth in a meeting without disturbing
others with a phone and perhaps lead to better understanding
of the tactile sense as an information receiver.
Regards,
Lisa

The Opening Lines of Innovation Success Stories, Gateway to
Russia
http://www.gateway2russia.com/st/art_244729.php
Adaptive keyboard
http://www.rakov.de/frameE.htm
article
http://mitglied.lycos.de/rakov/Artikel/IntManus/AdaptKeyboard.html

The Opening Lines of Innovation Success Stories 
Gateway to Russia
Dmitri Rakov, a senior research associate at the Russian
Academy of Sciences Engineering Institute, invented a new
computer communication system designed for the blind and
partially sighted and was awarded Intel?s innovation prize
for the Best IT and Telecommunications Project.
The blind and partially sighted people rarely capture
innovators? interest (despite the fact that there are about
a million such people in Russia alone). The last significant
invention in this area was made in the first half of the
19th century. In 1826, a French man named Louis Braille
invented an alphabet made of raised dots. Yet books written
in Braille are enormous volumes nearly impossible to lift.
The invention of the computer hasn?t improved the lives of
the blind much. So-called Braille displays ? long panels
with embossed Braille letters that can be connected to a
laptop ? are available but they weigh at least 1.2 kg. Input
keyboards are large, heavy and expensive. Dmitri Rakov
proposed a fundamentally new design in the form of a glove
crammed with electronics. He placed six tactile sensors
(micro-solenoids) corresponding to a specific letter or
numeric character. A user has merely to press the sensor
with the thumb. Learning to type using the glove isn?t much
more difficult than on a traditional keyboard. 
But the main merit of the Rakov glove is that it enables a
user not only to type but also to read. Activated by
external signals, the tactile sensors press a specific area
of the fingers, and the user can read words by spelling them
out.

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